Marriott’s Latest Tech Play Aims to Streamline Business Travel

Skift Take

Marriott has debuted a suite of travel tools to let road warriors book, manage, and expense business travel without having to visit third-party services.

Sean O’Neill

Marriott International expanded further into the business travel management space Tuesday, aiming to drive more direct bookings from road warriors and taking share from middlemen distributors.

The world’s largest hotelier debuted an online travel booking portal for small-to medium-sized enterprises in much of the world, powered by the business travel startup Spotnana.

Marriott’s new platform claims to simplify the often fragmented process of managing business travel by offering a broad suite of tools. Road warriors can book hotels, flights, and car rentals without leaving the platform. The platform is part of a strategy to try to route around established middlemen like SAP Concur and American Express Global Business Travel.

We plan to learn more details about the program soon after the company can respond to questions. Here’s what we know now:

Key features of Marriott’s business travel tool

• Discounted rates at Marriott properties worldwide

• Integrated booking for flights, rail, and car rentals

• Customizable travel policies and real-time analytics

• Expense management solutions

• Access to Marriott Bonvoy loyalty program benefits

Smoothing out business traveler pain points

Marriott’s new offering comes as businesses grapple with inefficiencies in existing travel management solutions.

It’s not alone. In the past year, Hilton has been rolling out a platform worldwide that aims to simplify how companies book travel at its hotels, called Hilton for Business. It has also recently expanded its events booking capabilities.

In April, Wyndham Hotels & Resorts updated its platform, which enables companies to directly book meetings, events, and other business travel at its North American hotels. It began to offer reward points in its loyalty program to companies whose travelers book stays through its WyndhamBusiness.com.

Accommodations Sector Stock Index Performance Year-to-Date

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