Reflecting on last week’s #GBTAConvention and the many thoughtful conversations about the priorities shaping business travel today. Thank you to everyone who spent time with the AREKA team, and to GBTA | Global Business Travel Association for another great Convention. If you left Chicago with new ideas, new questions, or are still sorting through what’s meaningful versus what may be more hype than reality, we’re always happy to be a sounding board. Reach out to continue the conversation: https://lnkd.in/gzHd8Bwt or LinkedIn direct message #GBTA2026 #BusinessTravel
AREKA
Services et conseil aux entreprises
Global leader in helping organizations manage their Travel & Expense program.
À propos
We are the largest, global independent consulting firm helping clients optimize global travel strategy and procurement programs. Our expertise spans program strategy, air & ground, hotel, meetings & events, TMC, OBT & expense, data & reporting, payment, sustainability, and outsourcing, supporting clients from strategy and sourcing through implementation and ongoing optimization.
- Site web
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http://www.areka-consulting.com
Lien externe pour AREKA
- Secteur
- Services et conseil aux entreprises
- Taille de l’entreprise
- 11-50 employés
- Siège social
- Paris
- Type
- Partenariat
- Fondée en
- 2010
- Domaines
- Business travel consulting, Sourcing business travel categories (air, hotel, ..), Business travel management, Business travel procurement, Meetings & Events, OBT & Expense et Business Travel Strategy
Lieux
Employés chez AREKA
Nouvelles
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If you’re at #GBTAConvention, don’t miss Wednesday’s session on the Top 5 Challenges to Successful T&E Tech Implementations. The conversation starts at 9:15 a.m. in Room S405.
Successful technology implementations require more than the right solution. They require alignment, adoption, and thoughtful execution. That's exactly what Charles Bacharach will be discussing during 'Top 5 Challenges to Successful T&E Technology Implementations' at this year's GBTA | Global Business Travel Association Convention, alongside Matthew Dignan (Takeda) and Rick Austin (Marelli). If you're attending, we hope you'll join the session and stop by Booth 4814 to continue the conversation with the AREKA team. See Charlie's post for session details: https://lnkd.in/gMdisScU
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One of the best parts of industry events is the chance to reconnect, make new connections, and continue conversations in person. If you’re at #GBTAConvention this week, stop by Booth 4814 and say hello. #GBTA2026
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Are you measuring trips... or transactions? Business value is created one trip at a time, yet most travel data is still analyzed at the transaction level. In a recent post, Catalin Ciobanu, VP Data & AI at AREKA, explores the gap between transaction-based reporting and trip-level analytics, and explains why closing that gap leads to better business decisions. Read the full post below.
Your Trip is Over. The Data Mess Is Just Beginning. A trip is the unit of travel. Everywhere in the world, value for companies accumulates one trip at a time. Whether the ROI is large or small, positive or negative, one thing is clear: to understand the value of travel, we must look at individual trips. It sounds obvious, yet in practice it is hardly ever done! Most business travel KPIs are based on transaction-level data – giant spreadsheets containing original bookings, exchanges, refunds, one-way tickets, and other fragments connected to the trips. This greatly hinders our ability to analyze trips, which begs the question: How far is the transaction-level view from the trip-level view of travel? To quantify how close these two views are from each other, we used a recent dataset (2024-2025) to compute: → The ratio between the number of unique trips and the number of transactions (rows) → The ratio between the total cost of a trip and the cost of the corresponding air ticket. This is relevant for trip approval – often done based on airfare alone. The answer to the first question is staggering: For every 100 air transaction rows, there are only about 60 unique trips. For some corporations, it’s as low as 50 – meaning nearly half the “data” isn’t trips at all, but fragments waiting to be stitched together. Hotel bookings show the same pattern. The first chart below traces the drop from raw rows to unique trips. To answer the second question, we selected a sample of trips with air transportation and a hotel stay of minimum 1 night. On average, the total cost of the trip is almost double (×1.8) the price of the air ticket. The second chart below breaks that factor down by trip type. While the distribution of trip costs is wide, doubling the airfare cost is a quick rule of thumb for trip approval under limited pre-trip information. Every travel ROI model, compliance report, and sustainability calculation built on raw transaction data inherits both gaps we have quantified here: fragmentation that obscures the trip, and a TMC-only view that misses part of trip cost. Both gaps close the moment the unit of analysis shifts from transaction to trip; measured whole, a trip becomes something you can effectively manage, not just record. This is a natural evolution: transaction-level first, trip-level next. What other use cases for trip reconstruction do you see? Co-authored with David Mora Meza and Viet-Thai Nguyen. #CorporateTravel #TravelManagement #TravelAnalytics #TravelData
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AREKA a republié ceci
Successful technology implementations require more than the right solution. They require alignment, adoption, and thoughtful execution. That's exactly what Charles Bacharach will be discussing during 'Top 5 Challenges to Successful T&E Technology Implementations' at this year's GBTA | Global Business Travel Association Convention, alongside Matthew Dignan (Takeda) and Rick Austin (Marelli). If you're attending, we hope you'll join the session and stop by Booth 4814 to continue the conversation with the AREKA team. See Charlie's post for session details: https://lnkd.in/gMdisScU
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AREKA a republié ceci
Think you know AREKA? Think again. While many people know AREKA for one or two areas of expertise, our capabilities span the entire business travel, expense and payments ecosystem. As an independent consulting firm, we help clients optimize their travel procurement and management programs ranging from strategy and sourcing to technology, payments, data, sustainability, and outsourcing. Behind that expertise is a truly global team: ✔ 50+ advisors across 3 continents, 9 countries, and representing 11 nationalities ✔ 10+ average years of industry experience ✔ 100+ organizations served since 2011 with nearly 50% of our clients being Fortune 500 companies Every organization has different priorities, challenges, and goals. That's why we bring together the right expertise to help clients be more effective, more efficient, and ready for what's next. If you're attending GBTA | Global Business Travel Association Convention 2026, we'd love to connect. Stop by Booth 4814 to meet our team, learn more about our capabilities, and talk about what's top of mind for your travel program. See you in Chicago! #GBTAConvention #BusinessTravel #TravelManagement #TravelProcurement #TravelStrategy #TravelTechnology #CorporateTravel https://lnkd.in/ekz9wmm
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AREKA a republié ceci
Excited to be back at GBTA Convention! If you're thinking about how to optimize your travel program or simply want to exchange ideas about what's working (and what's not), I'd love to chat. Stop by Areka Booth 4814 or send me a message to connect. #GBTAConvention #BusinessTravel #TravelStrategy
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AREKA a republié ceci
What does the proposed Long Lake acquisition of Amex GBT mean for the future of business travel? In her recent interview with fvw | TravelTalk, Martina Eggler shares her perspective on why this announcement represents more than a change in ownership, it signals a shift in how Travel Management Companies will compete. Success won't be defined by size alone. It will increasingly depend on how effectively AI is integrated into operations while continuing to deliver clear value to customers. Martina also notes that AI should be viewed as an enabler, not the differentiator. As AI capabilities become more common across the industry, what will continue to matter is a TMC's ability to articulate and deliver a compelling value proposition. For travel buyers, this also raises important questions around AI adoption, data governance, transparency, and how service models may evolve. As Martina puts it: "It's not about keeping up. It's about demonstrating a clear value proposition." A thoughtful perspective on an important industry development. Read the full article here with English translation: https://lnkd.in/gfq9cMkv #BusinessTravel #TravelManagement #AI #CorporateTravel #TravelTechnology
Rückzug von der Börse tut Amex GBT gut Die Übernahme von Amex GBT durch den KI-Investor Long Lake ist mehr als ein Eigentümerwechsel. Sie könnte den Beginn einer neuen Phase im Geschäftsreisemarkt markieren – mit Folgen für Reisebüros und Travel Manager. | Amex GBT Meetings & Events | Long Lake | Martina Eggler | AREKA |
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Successful technology implementations require more than the right solution. They require alignment, adoption, and thoughtful execution. That's exactly what Charles Bacharach will be discussing during 'Top 5 Challenges to Successful T&E Technology Implementations' at this year's GBTA | Global Business Travel Association Convention, alongside Matthew Dignan (Takeda) and Rick Austin (Marelli). If you're attending, we hope you'll join the session and stop by Booth 4814 to continue the conversation with the AREKA team. See Charlie's post for session details: https://lnkd.in/gMdisScU
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Think you know AREKA? Think again. While many people know AREKA for one or two areas of expertise, our capabilities span the entire business travel, expense and payments ecosystem. As an independent consulting firm, we help clients optimize their travel procurement and management programs ranging from strategy and sourcing to technology, payments, data, sustainability, and outsourcing. Behind that expertise is a truly global team: ✔ 50+ advisors across 3 continents, 9 countries, and representing 11 nationalities ✔ 10+ average years of industry experience ✔ 100+ organizations served since 2011 with nearly 50% of our clients being Fortune 500 companies Every organization has different priorities, challenges, and goals. That's why we bring together the right expertise to help clients be more effective, more efficient, and ready for what's next. If you're attending GBTA | Global Business Travel Association Convention 2026, we'd love to connect. Stop by Booth 4814 to meet our team, learn more about our capabilities, and talk about what's top of mind for your travel program. See you in Chicago! #GBTAConvention #BusinessTravel #TravelManagement #TravelProcurement #TravelStrategy #TravelTechnology #CorporateTravel https://lnkd.in/ekz9wmm
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