Skift Take
Egencia is leveraging the tech-savvy of its parent Expedia Inc. to compete at a high level in the corporate travel space. It has a real competitive advantage against other travel management companies, which have begun to pivot from providing travel services to developing travel technology solutions to solve the problems that travel buyers and agents can't.
When Expedia CEO Dara Khosroshahi said last month that a new wave of corporate travel consolidation is likely underway, he noted that the increased need for advanced technology would likely drive the first wave of activity.
Rob Greyber, president of Expedia Inc.’s corporate travel arm Egencia, agrees that travel management companies focused on pivoting more closely to technology companies are likely to shore up their deficiencies by acquiring technology partners and others.
He also thinks that better technology can give travel management companies better insight into how travelers really use their products, and how they can develop more useful solutions for customers.
Skift spoke to Greyber at last month’s GBTA Convention in Denver about the battle between travel management companies to improve user experience, HomeAway’s potential in corporate travel, and why business travelers will soon be more empowered to book online than ever before.
Skift: Increased customization, alongside better data analysis, is becoming more common in the corporate travel space. How do you look at the ability of better technology to meet the needs of business travelers?
Greyber: People think that in order to meet customer needs, you need to do customization. Facebook meets your needs in an extraordinary way, and they customize nothing. I think that there's a misunderstanding and [I would say corporate travel at large] is not investing enough to keep face.
It's because of the amount that you're investing, but it's also the way in which you do it. What we do is we work in 30-day cycles that are grouped in 120-day sections, then from there we have a list of priorities that guide us every morning. It's as simple as that.
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