40% of managed travelers don't always comply with their company's bookings channel policy. Travel reservations made outside the traditional corporate channels have long been a challenge for managed travel programs – and it is only getting worse. Get the facts on open booking and learn how to capture the data of unmanaged travel for more visibility and insight into travel and expense spend.

1. 01 | Open booking is a new problem related to millennials. False.
a. Regardless of generation, open booking (or booking direct with the supplier) has been
happening for years. Modern technology has just made it easier.
a. 40% of managed travelers don’t always comply with their company’s bookings channel policy.
(Source: PhocusWright’s US Business Traveler ~ Managed, Unmanaged, and Rogue 2012 report).
02 | Blind spend only happens with hotel and car rentals. False.
a. Blind spend is the travel spend that is booked outside of traditional corporate channels and is
not visible to the corporation until after the trip is completed.
a. According to IDC, 40-50 % of hotel bookings and 28% of air bookings that are considered blind
spend, or “leak,” out of TMCs and are booked directly with a given supplier. (Source: Concur
Fusion 2014 ~ Transparency and Mobility Now Drive the Perfect Trip).
03 | Business travelers booking outside the traditional channels will violate travel policy
more often. False.
a. In May 2014, The BEAT featured an article by Jay Boehmer; FINRA is Ready for Open Booking.
Is the Industry? The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Inc. (FINRA) embarked on an open
booking trial. After one year of piloting the concept with 20 travelers at FINRA—a private
company that serves as an independent regulator of financial securities firms—Carol McDowell
has concluded a few things. Travelers, when allowed to roam outside of gated corporate
booking tools, haven’t abused the system, she said. Also, they didn’t spend more than the rest
of the organization’s travelers, on average and when controlled for access to supplier discounts.
04 | Booking out-of-channel without insight means companies risk facing corporate
legalities, financial and compliance issues. True.
a. “When travelers book out-of-channel, the rising concern is that the lack of visibility and control
over the travel spend could disrupt financial operations, accounting, corporate law and
budgeting.” (Source: International Data Corporation [IDC] Blog Post ~ Impact of Open Booking
Challenges on Corporate Compliance).
Debunk the 7 Myths of Open Booking:
Get the Facts

2. 05 | Travel managers won’t have insight into where the travelers are if they book direct.
It depends.
a. This is true only if the companies do not have a solution to track out-of-channel bookings,
therefore risking their duty of care obligations.
06 | Allowing business travelers to book directly on supplier sites means a loss of
corporate discounts. True.
a. If the company has a technology solution like Concur TripLink to capture direct bookings and
the suppliers are linked to the solution, the company will be able to leverage the existing
discounts. Otherwise, travelers will lose the pre-negotiated rates.
07 | Technology solutions in the market only create more open booking problems rather
than working with corporate managed programs. False.
a. New innovative technologies now provide a way to complement and work with corporate
managed programs. These new industry solutions provide the ability to:
a. Track duty of care
b. Keep supplier discounts
c. Gain more detailed data insight into spend, therefore more control over bookings done outside
of the system
d. Connect with more suppliers and niche solution vendors through a partner ecosystem
b. Solutions like Concur TripLink addresses such challenges:
a. “TripLink enables the capture of unmanaged travel, generally done by a traveler going directly
to an airline or hotel website to book, to reflect the organization’s travel policy and negotiated
rates, as well as enabling organizations to fulfill their duty of care obligations.” (Source: IDC
Concur Fusion 2014: Transparency and Mobility Now Drive the Perfect Trip)
About Concur
Concur is a leading provider of integrated travel and expense management solutions. Concur’s adaptable
web-based and mobile solutions help companies and their employees control costs and save time.
©2014 Concur, all rights reserved. Concur is a registered trademark of Concur Technologies, Inc. All other company and product names are
the property of their respective manufacturers. WP DEBUNK OPEN BOOKING NA 2014/07