Online booking tool (OBT)
An online booking tool (OBT) is a specialized software platform companies use to manage business travel booking. OBTs align with the company’s travel policies, ensuring all bookings adhere to set budgets and travel guidelines.
An OBT streamlines arranging flights, hotels, car rentals, and other travel services for employees. It also helps
- manage itineraries,
- access real-time travel updates and alerts,
- track travel expenses,
- generate reports, and
- manage traveler profiles.
One of an OBT’s key benefits is that it allows both employees and travel managers to make bookings and manage them in one centralized system. Also, an OBT employs so-called profile management based on the travel policy. Storing individual profiles for each corporate traveler, this tool dictates which products they can book, from which sources, at which fare levels, etc.
OBTs can integrate with other corporate systems like expense management software, HR systems, and enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems to ensure a smooth data exchange.
