Booking.com – a subsidiary of Priceline – is currently trying to take the business travel sector by storm. The odds are not too bad for the hotel giant. No business traveller who does not know the website of Booking.com and its functionalities. But so far almost no business traveller was yet allowed to use it for booking a business trip.

This might change soon for some corporations. The great user experience will be enhanced with corporate discounts, a loyalty program and a reporting. The Travel Management will be able to set maximum allowances and the locations of its own branches or locations of partners/suppliers. Bookings can be done by the Travel Management team, the travel agency or the traveller directly.

It is not confirmed whether it will possible to store company rates and if last room availability will be covered. However, Booking.com will have an easy time looking at the tools (native GDS – hmmm) that travel agencies are working on today.

This is a further strike towards the hotel business of the TMCs as Booking.com is presenting an excellent web and mobile offer and has unique functionalities. There is hardly any Travel Manager that was not confronted by a traveller with a print out of a Booking.com offer.

Currently the offer is being evaluated by a few selected companies. A further roll-out is expected shortly. In the next few months we will see how Booking.com will be competing with hotel programs of HRG, CWT, AMEX GBT and BCD or direct online hotel booking competitors such as HRS and Hotel.de.

Let us know if you already have experience with the new offer from Booking.com. Or let us know how you react to the entry of Booking.com in to business travel.

Adrian Matt for TravelBrain