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Strategy
Redefining Value Through Partnership, Personalization, and Performance
In this joint GBTA-Accor snapshot, we outline the four key expectations redefining corporate travel ahead.
November 12, 2026
While rate negotiations have traditionally centered on securing the best possible discount, the corporate travel conversation is becoming increasingly multi-dimensional. Today, corporate buyers are looking beyond the transaction to ask hotel partners: 'How will you personalize value, simplify complexity, verify performance, and respond to our markets?
To better understand this shift, in line with Accor’s leadership and forward-looking vision for corporate business travel, we have partnered with the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) to explore the four core expectations redefining corporate travel.
As part of Accor’s From Change to Opportunity (FCTO) – a dedicated insights and intelligence platform exploring the trends and transformations shaping the future of hospitality – this market snapshot reveals that lodging value now extends far beyond the negotiated rate, requiring programs to pivot toward a more holistic form of value based on Partnership, Personalization, and Performance.
Our forward-looking vision for business travel is built on a simple promise: always stay close to our clients. Partnering with GBTA on this research is a great example of active market listening in action. By translating these direct buyer insights into our daily sales operations, we can consistently anticipate what our partners will need next, whether that is smarter automated tools to simplify RFPs or tailored local corporate programs. We are proud to turn these evolving buyer expectations into real-world commercial opportunities for our clients.
Key Takeaways
The Paradigm Shift: A new joint market snapshot by the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) and Accor reveals that value in corporate travel has evolved far beyond the negotiated room rate. Leading travel programs are moving away from transactional, price-only discussions to secure a more holistic form of value, one built on deep business relationships, tailored traveler personalization, visible performance, operational simplicity, and localized agility.
Personalized Value is the New Policy: The 2026 Accor B2B Client Survey highlights that 71% of corporate travel buyers would actively promote hotel loyalty programs to their travelers if they had clearer, data-backed visibility into the corporate savings generated by those programs.
The Era of Continuous Verification: The Accor B2B Client Survey also indicates a critical demand for operational transparency, with 30% of buyers naming rate availability and content access as their #1 hotel program priority for 2026, and ranking rate availability/auditability as their #2 partner selection criteria overall.
Smarter Sourcing & Pragmatic AI: The Accor Buyer Priority Survey shows a shift toward continuous procurement, with 42% of programs changing their sourcing approach and 5 out of 12 buyers utilizing AI, predominantly focusing on data processing efficiency (40%) while maintaining trusted human partnerships.
Global Scale, Local Agility: The joint GBTA-Accor research underscores the need for regional responsiveness, revealing that 44% of buyers anticipate needing accommodation in entirely new markets, requiring programs to balance a global foundation with market-sensitive local pricing.
Trend 1: The Convergence of Experience, Personalization, and Loyalty
Traveler experience is no longer a soft metric; it is a critical driver of program compliance, employee retention, and corporate productivity. Business travelers expect their individual needs – such as wellness, workspaces, or loyalty perks – to be recognized, while procurement departments need these personal preferences to align seamlessly with company policy.
Travelers want relevant loyalty benefits, seamless servicing, and "freebies" (like high-speed Wi-Fi or included breakfast) that make business trips productive. Buyers want these perks integrated into the corporate policy to drive compliance.
71%
of corporate buyers
would promote loyalty programs given clearer visibility into corporate savings.
Advancing the corporate hotel marketplace to intelligently converge company objectives with personal preferences, take into account individual needs (e.g., breakfast or no breakfast) and potential loyalty “freebies” to curate optimized content that is unbeatable by anything available publicly.
The Accor Opportunity
Through ALL Accor, Accor bridges the gap between traveler satisfaction and corporate savings. By recognizing travelers' preferences thanks to our loyalty program across our wide brand portfolio – from luxury brands like Fairmont and Sofitel to midscale and economy like Novotel and ibis – we deliver personalized experiences. Simultaneously, tailored B2B solutions like ALL Meeting Planner and our integrated reward frameworks provide transparent tracking, proving to travel managers that rewarding the traveler directly enhances the company’s bottom line.
Trend 2: Transparency Must Extend from Negotiation to Verification
Securing a great rate on paper means nothing if that rate is unavailable or invisible in the booking tool. Today’s travel buyer demands active, software-integrated verification over passive annual reporting. Buyers are moving away from quarterly retrospective reports. Instead, they are actively monitoring programs using a six-stage verification framework: program dashboards, rate-loading verification, performance auditing, content audits, booking outcome mapping, and self-service analytics.
30%
of corporate buyers
ate availability and content access as their #1 priority for 2026.
27%
report increased pressure
on rate availability/content access over the past 12 months
#2
rank of rate
availability and auditability among overall partner selection criteria.
Buyers define value as rate certainty, availability, compliance, traveler experience, and measurable impact.
The Accor Opportunity
At Accor, we believe that true transparency is created through close collaboration, not just technology. By actively collaborating with our clients and partnering with leading audit technologies, we help buyers verify rate loading and content accuracy within their booking environments. This collaborative approach allows us to identify and address distribution gaps proactively, helping to significantly mitigate booking "leakage" to public channels and securing the program trust they deserve.
Trend 3: Smarter, Continuous Sourcing Supported by AI
The traditional, labor-intensive annual RFP cycle is being challenged by dynamic pricing and lacking ability to reliably budget. Sourcing is becoming continuous, automated, and data-driven. Sourcing is shifting toward a model of Automating routine RFP tasks, Augmenting benchmarking and scenario analysis, and Optimizing through continuous, targeted market interventions. However, while technology removes administrative friction, trusted human relationships continue to drive partnership and strategic alignment.
42%
of corporate buyers
some or significant change in their sourcing approach.
5
out of 12
are already using AI for sourcing or RFP support
40%
name data processing efficiency
as the AI use case receiving the most attention.
Managed lodging will need to become more continuous, data-driven, and behavior-focused.
The Accor Opportunity
We are streamlining the sourcing experience by implementing smarter, data-driven RFP processes. By automating administrative rate-loading tasks, we free up our teams to focus on strategic exceptions, customized market packages, and building the personal partnerships that technology can never replace.
Trend 4: Global Scale Meets Regional Agility
While multinational companies strive for global policy consistency, they cannot afford to lose local competitiveness. Pricing, local demand corridors, and hotel footprints differ wildly by region.
Successful programs balance a Global Foundation (consistent service standards, transparent governance, comparable metrics) with Local Adaptation (market-sensitive pricing, regional inventory, and realistic local benchmarks).
44%
of corporate buyers
anticipate needing accommodation in entirely new markets.
The Accor Opportunity
With an unrivaled global footprint spanning over 5,800 properties in more than 110 countries, Accor is uniquely positioned to offer globally consistent, regionally tailored lodging solutions. Our decentralized regional hubs allow us to tailor local inventory and commercial structures to specific market realities, whether navigating rapid growth in emerging corporate corridors in APAC and Latin America, or managing dense luxury requirements in global business capitals.
Partnering for What’s Next
The evolution of corporate travel is no longer a future projection – it is our shared reality. This collaborative research with the GBTA highlights that the true value of a travel program lies in its agility and its care for the human traveler.
More than just a hospitality provider, we are driven by our commitment to relationship building, best-in-class service, sales expertise and innovation, collaborating with our corporate travel and business partners to turn these industry changes into opportunities – creating seamless, highly valued experiences for travelers while securing maximum value for businesses.
Sourcing is no longer a seasonal, transactional exercise. It has become an ongoing, collaborative dialogue. This research with GBTA confirms what our commercial teams hear from clients every day: travel managers want partners who can co-create flexible, reliable, and highly personalized experiences. Our sales teams don't just sell hotel rooms; we act as consultative partners, actively listening to our clients' unique challenges to design agile solutions that deliver simplicity, trust, and holistic value at every step of the journey.
* Sources: Accor B2B Client Survey 2026; Accor Buyer Priority survey, 2026 (low base).
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