American Express Global Business Travel has launched Hotel Lobby, an AI-powered tool designed to automate hotel sourcing and support faster corporate travel negotiations.
The tool builds on Amex GBT’s existing sourcing process, which delivers average savings of 28.8% off the Best Available Rate and a 96% property response rate across over 80,000 hotels sourced annually. Hotel Lobby automates data preparation, rate calculations and RFP validation to shorten review cycles.
“Hotel Lobby gives you the rigor of a full sourcing cycle and the speed to spend more time negotiating,” said Sara Andell, Director of Consulting Strategy at Amex GBT.
Hotel pricing, demand and traveler behavior shift throughout the year, yet many corporate travel programs still rely on a single annual sourcing cycle. Amex GBT notes this can lead to gaps in hotel coverage and missed savings opportunities between negotiations.
Hotel Lobby draws on negotiated rate benchmarks from thousands of hotels worldwide, supplier performance data from more than $5 billion in managed hotel spend, and compliance trends across Amex GBT’s client portfolio. By reducing the time needed to prepare and review proposals, the technology aims to support more frequent program reviews.
The tool is now available to Amex GBT Consulting clients and enterprise travel programs globally. The company plans to expand the offering to additional Amex GBT solutions over time.
In a separate development, Amex GBT and Delta Air Lines are expanding their partnership by piloting new features that let eligible corporate travelers enroll in Delta’s SkyMiles program and Fast Track to Medallion Status offer directly through their corporate booking platforms.
Travelers using Egencia who are not already SkyMiles members can join with one click. Those using Complete by SAP Concur and Amex GBT can also enroll in Delta’s Fast Track to Medallion Status offer, which provides accelerated access to benefits including additional mileage earning, waived baggage fees and eligibility for complimentary upgrades.
The new features are in different stages of testing with participating corporate customers.