Every year, more and more business travelers are "Going Rouge". All this means is that they prefer booking travel themselves rather than using a company travel agent or booking system.
Here's some data to support this claim (Source):
While 60 percent of companies have a travel policy in place, more than half of business travelers are still allowed to book travel using any method they choose, and nearly half (46 percent) have done so for hotel bookings.
So the question is...
Why are business travelers choosing to book on their own?
We live in a connected world where the best deals are a simple search and click away. People like to shop around for travel before booking and don't want to be limited to a single inventory source.
According to Expedia, consumers visit 38 sites on average before booking (Source).
OTAs (Online Travel Agencies) like Priceline, Expedia and Hotels.com make it super simple to book travel, manage changes and save receipts. They also have a well-defined UI/UX that is the the result of 1000s of tests and trails. Plus, people like the added control.
This is a big one that isn't always always talked about but is a huge driver in a traveler's decision to book on their own.
It's a great deal because the business traveler can earn reward points and cash back using their company's money. For frequent travelers, this can result in thousands of dollar in rewards over the course of a year - especially if they layer their rewards.
With Lucid Travel, you can access these affiliate cash back rewards in a couple of clicks. Lucid connects you to OTAs, Hotel Brands and Airline websites (like normal) but gives 2-5% cash back every time you book. You can even still apply your corporate discounts and personal rewards on these sites.
We're primarily working with sports teams and universities but business travelers have asked if they could use our technology for their travel.
The answer.... ABSOLUTELY - You can create your free account in less than a minute and start getting cash back on every booking. Best part is, all your receipts (despite booking on different sites) will populate in your booking history which streamlines the reimbursement process (no more searching through emails to find receipts to add in your expense report).
Here's an example account - lucidtravel.us/lucid-hockey
Email me at ben@lucidtravel.us if you'd like to be in our Business Beta Program. For participating, we'll give you 100% of our profits for the first 2 months (which means 4-10% cash back).
Get access to exclusive deals, our monthly $100 gift card giveaway, and our monthly Travel Guide.
Every month, we give out a $100 Lucid Travel Gift Card. To be eligible, you either need to have a Lucid account or have a booking with us in the past month.
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