Egencia has launched a new hotel policy configuration feature that uses an AI-powered algorithm to automatically adjust hotel price caps according to the local market median.
It automates a time-consuming manual process which is usually only done for the biggest or most frequently visited destinations. According to Egencia, this means corporates potentially lose out on savings in smaller towns or cities.
The tool automatically aggregates real-time hotel prices in a specific location to identify a market median and uses it to configure the appropriate price-per-night cap for any traveller booking a room in that town or city.
It constantly adjusts for market fluctuations while driving down spend.
A new feature also enables travel managers to personalise hotel rate caps for the different travel policy groups that exist within an organisation.
They can customise the strictness of rate caps by specifying that only hotels with a minimum star rating are used in the median calculation, as well as mix and match between dynamic and static hotel rate caps for specific travel groups, cities, or countries.
John Sturino, Vice President of Product Egencia, said: “We are passionate about how artificial intelligence and machine learning can transform business travel and are making significant investments in this area. The dynamic hotel rate cap feature leverages these technologies to help companies and travellers manage uncertainty and respond to fluctuations in a volatile market.”
