Andrew Sheivachman

One of the biggest challenges for companies is simply getting their travelers to book how they're supposed to. The problem seems to be getting worse. Useful personalization and a more consumer-friendly experience will go a long way towards changing that.

Planners are figuring out ways to lessen the impact of commission cuts, while many hoteliers in competitive markets have explored other ways to incentivize planners to book at their property. Creativity is necessary for planners to avoid a major financial hit with the industry now stacked against them.

The third party commission cuts by a growing number of hotel companies are emerging as planners’ biggest challenge in 2018. That’s followed by the current sellers’ market but, somehow, the cuts feel personal.

Corporate travel has embraced new distribution capability in fits and starts, mostly because the global distribution systems have been slow to integrate the technology. Australian companies, however, have seen the wisdom of taking a forward-looking approach.

Qantas, Serko, and Corporate Travel Management are leading the charge towards new distribution capability adoption in Australia, promising better access to rich content. They will have to overcome plenty of confusion in the market, however, before the new distribution channels are fully accepted.

Where Cvent leads, the rest of the event technology sector follows. That said, no one has yet to win out when it comes to emerging technologies like augmented reality and better solutions for sourcing small events.

Cvent wants to make it easier for customers to use a variety of its tools, in order to leverage the wide spectrum of data it collects on attendee behavior. Owing to the complexity of its platform, this remains a work in progress.

Corporate confidence is high, so more meetings are taking place offsite. This is putting pressure on planners to source and plan events more efficiently, so many are turning to mobile tools to help.

After a few years of renewed focus on improving the business travel experience for employees, the corporate travel sector could soon flip back into cost-saving mode when faced with global pricing increases and a more uncertain overall business outlook.

Organizations planning small events are finally embracing technology to solve their most annoying problems. It's been a slow process, and better mobile and sourcing tools have made a big impact.