The single platform pitch sounds simple. That’s the problem. 

Paul Kelly, Technology and Automation Lead, Identity Travel

At Identity Travel, we deploy technology that processes over 396 million bookings a year. It runs across more than 400 airlines and a million hotel properties worldwide. The investment behind it ranks among the largest in European software. It includes agentic AI, Microsoft Teams integration, automated expense capture, real-time traveller visibility and carbon tracking built into every booking.

We just don’t believe the same system works for every business. And after years of seeing how travel programmes actually operate in practice, I’m more convinced of that than ever.

The travel technology market is noisier than it’s ever been. Every major provider is promising one platform that does everything. I understand the appeal. But I believe most businesses are asking the wrong question.

It shouldn’t be “which platform has the best AI story?” It should be “which technology actually fits how our business travels?”

Why one platform doesn’t fit every business

Every business I’ve spoken to wants the same things from their travel technology. Booking that’s quick and easy. Clear visibility of what’s being spent. People booking within policy without having to be chased. Data that connects properly to finance, HR and the systems the business already uses. And real support when something goes wrong.

None of that requires one fixed platform. It requires the right platform for how that business actually travels.

A 60-person firm with a simple approval process has very different needs from a 600-person business with teams across multiple locations, different budgets and a finance team that needs detailed reporting. What works well for one creates real problems for the other. I’ve seen this play out repeatedly — and it’s rarely obvious until the system is live and the gaps start showing.

When a travel management company puts every client on the same platform, that’s a commercial decision, not a technology one. Your business ends up adapting to their system rather than the other way round.

How we choose technology for each client

At Identity Travel we don’t put every client on the same booking system. We look at how each business actually travels: who books, how approvals work, what finance needs to see, what reporting is required. Then we deploy the right tools for that.

You get technology built around how your business operates, not how our preferred platform was architected.

In practice that means your people get:

• AI that helps them book smarter and stay within policy without extra effort
• Access to fares and options tailored to your negotiated agreements
• Booking and approvals inside Microsoft Teams so nothing disrupts how they already work
• Expenses captured automatically and fed straight into your finance systems
• Carbon tracking built into every booking
• Real-time visibility of where your travellers are and what’s being spent

This is all running now. Not coming soon.

The gap between AI announcements and the reality

There’s a lot of excitement in the market about AI right now, and rightly so. But there’s also a gap between what providers are announcing and what’s actually working inside a client’s travel programme today.

Many of the bigger platforms are built on systems that have been bought, merged and patched together over years. Getting AI to work properly across all of that takes time, whatever the launch announcement says.

I’ve spent enough time around technology to know that the best solution on paper isn’t always the best solution in practice.

The businesses I speak to aren’t waiting for a transformation. They need something that works reliably now, gets better over time, and doesn’t ask the whole business to change how it operates just to make the technology function.

Four questions to ask before choosing a travel technology platform

The demo will always look good. That’s not the test.

These four questions are:

• Will your people actually use it?
• Does it connect to how your finance team reports?
• Can whoever manages travel keep control of spend and policy?
• When something goes wrong at 10pm on a Tuesday, does somebody pick up the phone?

Those questions matter more than the feature list. How technology gets set up for your business matters as much as which technology you choose. That starts with selecting the right tools for you, not the right tools for the provider’s architecture.