Calling All Passengers

HealthTrust Travel platform reveals unique flexibility & convenience for members & their employees

Powered by Onriva, HealthTrust Travel is a new way of booking travel for members. It not only offers all the price and administration benefits companies can find with standard travel management programs, but it also provides unique integration with personal travel, transparency into all booking options and rewards.

“It’s a unique travel program,” says Rob Dickey, Director of Contracts, Indirect, at HealthTrust. “The platform has a similar look and feel to other online travel-booking sites like Priceline or Travelocity, but it has all the functionality of a traditional travel management program that includes loading negotiated rates, 24/7 customer service (phone, chat and email), duty of care and customized reporting capabilities.”

Access to all the options

“Onriva is different than the competition because it has a patent on a technology that pulls from every possible source for travel into one aggregated source,” Dickey explains.

This means that the platform has hotel, airline and car rental options from several places: the GDS (the “global distribution system” that travel agents use), the NDC (New Distribution Capability) for airline reservations, custom negotiated rates, online content providers like Travelocity, as well as from wholesalers.

“One of the advantages of being able to pull from every source is you’re always seeing the lowest available price,” Dickey notes. “And you can see the lowest available price specific to your travel policies, like if you excluded non-refundable hotel reservations or Basic Economy tickets.”

In addition, while users of other systems may only see search results that fit the company’s travel policies, with HealthTrust Travel, users have full visibility into the entire universe of bookings available. If a certain listing doesn’t fit within a client’s parameters, the tool flags it and explains why it’s outside of scope, which lets the traveler know the company is aware of the lower-cost option and explains why the company does not want them to book that particular selection. Providing this information helps the traveler to book within the parameters of the travel policy and prevents users from searching elsewhere for lower-cost options.

Results also get “smarter” with time. “It’s powered by artificial intelligence,” says Dickey. “The AI technology will scrub all the content that comes in and match it based on your preferences, profile and booking history. And if your company has travel policies, it will scrub that information to match your specific parameters and needs.”
Here’s an additional benefit for member organizations: no booking fees.

Making it personal

For individuals, perhaps the most attractive feature of the platform is that users can manage their personal travel bookings, in addition to business travel.

“With ‘the great resignation,’ HR departments are looking for more benefits they can offer to both new and existing employees, and the ability to offer them personal travel through a corporate travel management program is a valuable selling point,” Dickey says. “Travel management companies rarely allow for personal bookings.”

Users can also sign up for a premium account for a $58 annual fee, which allows them to earn rewards from business travel bookings that can be used toward personal or business travel. For example, for every hotel night booked for business, the user can earn $7 toward future travel arrangements on the platform.

For employers, an added personal touch is that it offers comprehensive reporting and duty of care for peace of mind. Employers must demonstrate they have prepared their employees for the risks associated with travel as well as how to respond to these risks. Employers must also consistently monitor destinations for changing conditions so they can quickly support and communicate with their employees. “Duty of care is really important, especially these days, when you could be dealing with COVID or civil unrest in a city where your employees are traveling,” Dickey explains. “You should always know where your travelers are and have a way to contact them in case of an emergency at all times.”

HealthTrust Travel can integrate with expense management systems such as Concur—and Dickey considers it an easy choice. “It’s a very comprehensive tool that has the look and feel of something simple,” he says.

Get on board with HealthTrust Travel. Contact your HealthTrust Account Director for more information.