Travelers are increasingly relying on mobile devices and apps to plan and travel around the world. As faster and smarter phones are being rolled out, the booking tools are going mobile too but on a slower pace. The number of mobile bookings in the travel space has accelerated from $20 million in 2008 to over $200 million in 2010. (eyefortravel, May 2011)

Businesses travelers are demanding the same level of convenience and functionality from their mobile devices as on their desktops. A recent survey by Sabre in August2011 reported that two-thirds of travelers want to search and book hotels on a mobile device.

Hotels are increasingly going mobile
According to TripAdvisor’s latest ‘Accommodation Owners Survey’, 84% of respondents feel it is important to offer a program that allows travelers to book their inventory using mobile devices. There are many technology providers today who offer mobile booking capability as part of their package or as an upgrade.

Mobile hotel booking tools are becoming commonplace across websites and social media channels like Facebook. This quick and easy accessibility is leading more and more users towards self-booking of hotels and flights. Larger hotels have already started seeing the behavioral changes due to mobile accessibility. The bookings through mobile channels are growing fast, however lead times to arrival is getting shorter.

With both the ‘consumers’ and the supply-side of the market increasingly adopting mobile booking technology, there are some potentially significant implications for TMCs, presenting both risks and opportunities.

Travelers demand better mobile technology experience
Rather than relying upon their TMCs’ systems to check options and availability of flights and hotels, travelers are simply pushing buttons on their smart phones to achieve this. This is a trend that is not going to go away.Traditional paper tickets and formal travel documents have already largely given way to digital boarding passes and mobile itineraries, and mobile booking technology is just an extension to this trend.

This demand for convenience and accessibility has the potential to seriously impact upon the traditional relationship between the business traveler, the corporate Travel Manager and their TMC partner.

TMCs need to look at embracing this mobile technology and harnessing it to strengthen their relationships with the their corporate clients otherwise they risk being increasingly marginalized.

Policy compliant booking processes are key irrespective of screen-size
Corporate travel managers demands for efficient booking technology to support them will not change – irrespective of screen size. They are still focused on their key objectives of improving travel policy compliance and improved security for travelers during business trips.

TMCs need to demand that their technology partners can deliver the sort of mobile booking technology solutions that their customers are demanding of them. A number of travel technology vendors today already provide a useful and unbiased display of travel options on a single screen, by gathering their data from the various GDS and non-GDS channels. Search results can be ordered by preferred hotels or chain, star category, and budgets.

By accumulating this data from multiple sites, the user benefits from a wider range of options to suit their budget and requirement. With some technology solutions, search results can already be tailored to reflect a customer’s travel policy and budget. This makes hotel reservation process much easier and faster with least manual intervention. This highly efficient and compliant solution now also needs to be available via mobile technology.

Some of the newer technology tools on the market also offer the ability to track business travelers in case of emergencies, natural disasters like earthquakes or ash clouds – offering a much needed control in times of crisis. These same features are slowly but surely moving onto mobile to benefit business travelers.

Mobile technology isn’t a panacea – it is no replacement for personal service
But what happens when the traveler is unfamiliar with the destination, or when a trip involves complex itinerary? In such cases, mobile or online booking services become less helpful, and the traveler can benefit from the use of a good travel agent and the ‘human touch’ comes into the picture. Travel agents are able to provide valuable information by tapping a wide range of resources not readily available online. The knowledge and experience seasoned travel agents command appeals to travelers who value service over price.

There’s no doubt that with the evolution of travel technology, self-bookings via mobile are going to grow further. However, business travel with all it’s complexities will always value the ‘human touch’ of travel agents as they do today. Smart TMCs would benefit by adopting the changing technology to improve their offerings, customer support and strengthen loyalty in these challenging times.