Search “hotel safety tips” and women across the web have plenty to share: packing a rubber doorstop to wedge under the door at night; choosing a room between the third and sixth floors; selecting hotels with lifts that need key card access to reach the guest floors; asking reception to hand over the key quietly, without calling out the room number for everyone to hear.

It’s an unfortunate reality. Either consciously or subconsciously, women move through life on high alert, aware of their surroundings and safety – especially when travelling on their own or in unfamiliar destinations.

As Judy Jacobs, Senior Account Manager at FCM South Africa, explains, safety on a business trip, especially for women, isn’t a nice-to-have that sits somewhere below room rate and location; it’s at the very top of the list, and an important part of any hotel programme.

“Both hotel location and room location come up often,” says Jacobs. “The preference is for a mid-level floor, near a lift but not right beside it, and avoiding a stairwell or the end of a long corridor. Once inside the room, the requests are practical: a safe large enough for a laptop, blackout curtains that close fully, and no interleading door, which many women find unsettling.”

What women want

According to the team at FCM, these hotel features are important:

• Reputable chains in safe locations
• Well-lit paths from the car park to the entrance, with no dark stretches within the property
• A genuine 24-hour staffed front desk rather than a night porter (where possible)
• Female staff on duty
• Key card room access
• A room between the 3^rd and 6^th floors (high enough to prevent break-ins from the ground – but within reach of a standard fire truck in case of emergency)
• A working peephole and a secondary lock, swing bar or security chain on the door
• An in-room safe big enough to hold a laptop
• Blackout curtains or blinds that close completely
• No interleading door, or one that locks securely from both sides

Building it into travel policy

Of course, a hotel should meet other standards too, including emergency procedures clearly displayed in rooms, working smoke detectors and fire safety equipment, CCTV in public areas and entrances, and security guards on the premises. The trick is building it into your travel policy.

“Many of our customers, for example, those in the mining sector, have stringent travel, safety, and duty-of-care standards. These non-negotiable requirements directly influence which hotel and accommodation suppliers are considered suitable for their travellers,” says Saskia Fourie, Account Manager at FCM South Africa. “Wherever possible, we also encourage the use of our preferred hotel partners. While these partnerships offer commercial benefits, the bigger advantage is that the properties have already undergone a degree of vetting and due diligence. We have established relationships with these suppliers, understand their standards, and have clear escalation channels should issues arise. This level of familiarity and accountability enables us to better support our customers, ensure compliance with their travel and safety policies, and provide travellers with a safe and consistent experience.”

Regional knowledge is also important. For example, key card-only lift and floor access is standard in large city hotels but not always feasible elsewhere. The same goes for monitored rather than merely recorded CCTV. A good travel management company will know which standards a hotel in a given location can realistically deliver – and how to spot the red flags.

For Jacobs, these might be dismissive responses to security questions, “that’s never happened here” deflection, inconsistent messaging from staff, or common areas that feel poorly lit, unmaintained or deserted at night.

“Thankfully, there are plenty of green flags too. For example, visible but not intrusive security; staff who share direct ‘in-case-of-emergency’ telephone numbers; staff who are quick to respond to a guest’s requests or concerns; and other business travellers staying in the hotel, which demonstrates corporate confidence,” says Jacobs.

Asking the right questions

When negotiating a hotel agreement, you need to ask the right questions: What is the hotel’s protocol if a guest reports feeling unsafe or harassed, and how quickly does it respond? How does the property keep the guest’s information secure (including floor and room number)? What background checks are run on staff, particularly night and maintenance teams who can access rooms? And can room assignments avoid predictable patterns, such as always placing solo travellers in the same wing?

The strongest programmes then go a step further and put agreements in writing. These might include the right to change rooms at no charge if a traveller feels unsafe, and a set window in which any incident is reported to the company or its TMC. As Jacobs puts it, “It’s easy to assume a hotel or chain’s standards cover this, but having it contractually documented gives us recourse and shows the hotel we’re serious.”

Finally, listen to your travellers.

As Nomapelo Kova, Senior Account Manager at FCM South Africa, points out, the people using your hotel programme are the ones best placed to tell you whether it is working. “The most valuable feedback often comes directly from travellers themselves,” she says. “They experience a hotel’s safety and security first-hand, so listening to them, and acting on what they say, is how a hotel programme stays up to date, reliable and safe.”

FCM Travel today announced the creation of a new Chief Customer Officer role, appointing Jo Lloyd to the position, as it continues to strengthen how it delivers seamless, consistent service to global enterprise clients across regions.

The newly created role reflects an evolution of Jo’s current remit as Global Head of Account Management and FCM Consulting, and FCM’s continued focus on ensuring customer needs and perspectives remain central to how the business grows.

The newly created role reflects an evolution of Jo’s current remit as Global Head of Account Reporting directly to Melissa Elf, Global Managing Director of FCM, Jo will shape and lead FCM’s global customer strategy, championing the customer perspective in strategic decision-making. 

“Our customers are evolving – they expect us to show up on a truly global level, bring the right product mix and sharper solutions to the table, and help them get real traction on the change they’re trying to drive in their businesses. This appointment builds on the strength we already have, while helping all of us solve harder problems and deliver value, together.” 

– Melissa Elf, Global Managing Director, FCM Travel

In the role, Jo will own the end-to-end customer lifecycle – spanning health, retention, growth and value realisation – and will continue to lead Account Management and FCM Consulting under one unified vision. She will take a broader programme management view of customer needs, helping them to get ahead of the technology, service and content complexities reshaping travel – from AI to increasingly intricate supplier and content ecosystems – and turning customer insight into proactive action. 

Jo brings extensive experience in customer management, consulting and strategic account leadership to the role. Having spent her entire career in corporate travel, she developed her expertise over more than 15 years within a travel management company environment, becoming an innovator in preferred supplier managed programmes, before taking on consulting roles. Jo joined FCM Travel in 2021 and has since helped build FCM Consulting into a market differentiator and shaped how the company delivers customer value. 

“Customers want more than a supplier – they want a partner who understands their business, wherever they operate. That’s exactly what this role is about – connecting the dots across FCM globally so our customers get consistency, ownership and real value. 

Corporate travel is changing fast, and many of our customers are facing genuinely difficult choices about how they move forward. I’m excited to build on the strong foundations we already have across FCM Consulting and Account Management, helping our customers navigate those decisions with confidence and embrace the future of corporate travel.”

– Jo Lloyd, Chief Customer Officer, FCM Travel 

“Congratulations to Jo on the new role. Her belief in keeping the customer at the centre of every decision resonates strongly with us in South Africa, where our clients are navigating the same shifts around AI, supplier complexity and duty of care. This role gives them the reassurance of a truly global standard, delivered with the local knowledge and personal service our teams are known for.”

–  Mummy Mafojane, General Manager, FCM Travel South Africa

About FCM Travel

FCM is one of the world’s largest travel management companies and a trusted partner for thousands of national and multi-national organisations, including many household brands, Fortune, and FTSE 100 companies. With a 24/7 reach in 95 countries, FCM’s agile and flexible technology anticipates and solves client needs supported by expert teams who provide in-depth local knowledge and duty of care as part of the ultimate personalised business travel experience. 

As the flagship corporate travel arm of Flight Centre Travel Group, FCM is able to deliver some of the most competitive rates, unique added-value benefits, and exclusive solutions for its clients to support their business travel requirements. A recognised leader in the travel tech space, the company has debuted several proprietary client solutions over the last 12 months including a new omnichannel platform featuring a “first of its kind” customised end-to-end user experience and FCM Booking, an innovative option to traditional OBTs.  

Alongside its travel management services, the company provides specialist services through FCM Consulting and FCM Meetings & Events to service broader needs of clients. Discover the alternative at www.fcmtravel.com 

Conversational booking is made possible by FCM’s existing intelligence layer, Sam. By synthesising intelligence at every traveller interaction, Sam builds a richer profile in real time. Every recommendation will come with its reasoning attached, showing why it fits policy, matches a traveller’s usual routing, reflects their loyalty programme, or follows how their team travels. That visibility will help travellers book with confidence, without second-guessing. 

“Conversational booking only works if travellers trust what they’re being shown, and that trust comes from context, not just convenience. That’s the experience we’re building toward – every recommendation explains itself, so travellers can act on it with confidence, and travel managers see adoption follow as a result.”

– Jessica Dunderdale, Global Head of Product, FCM Travel

That same booking experience also travels with the user. Available first in Microsoft Teams and Slack, Model Context Protocol (MCP) technology will extend booking capabilities to the AI tools travellers use every day, including ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini, without opening a separate app. For travel buyers, that means higher in-programme booking rates and better data capture, without asking travellers to change behaviour. 

The intelligence that shapes conversational booking also feeds FCM’s reporting and proactive analytics, surfacing spend, compliance, and disruption risk as it emerges rather than after the fact. This sharpens the role of the travel manager – allowing them to translate what the technology surfaces into decisions that fit their business. 

Booking is one moment in a much longer trip. Thanks to embedded native intelligence, FCM’s technology and service teams stay connected with travellers from the first planning conversation through duty of care and in-trip support – not just the moment they hit confirm.

“We didn’t build FCM’s tech ecosystem to replace our consultants’ judgment. We built it to take the routine work off their plate, so they can focus on the moments that actually need a person. Travellers get speed from tech and expertise from our consultants – they shouldn’t have to choose between the two.”

– John Morhous, Chief Experience Officer, FCM Travel

Head to https://www.fcmtravel.com/en-za/f to learn more about FCM and Sam and watch the launch video here to see FCM’s conversational booking feature in action.

“FCM continues to set the pace globally, and it’s exciting to be part of that momentum. Conversational booking will change how our customers plan and book, and we’re looking forward to bringing it to South Africa in the coming months. The next year will be an exciting one.”

– Mummy Mafojane, General Manager, FCM Travel South Africa

** Ends **

About FCM Travel

FCM is one of the world’s largest travel management companies and a trusted partner for thousands of national and multi-national organisations, including many household brands, Fortune, and FTSE 100 companies. With a 24/7 reach in 95 countries, FCM’s agile and flexible technology anticipates and solves client needs supported by expert teams who provide in-depth local knowledge and duty of care as part of the ultimate personalised business travel experience. 

As the flagship corporate travel arm of Flight Centre Travel Group, FCM is able to deliver some of the most competitive rates, unique added-value benefits, and exclusive solutions for its clients to support their business travel requirements.

Alongside its travel management services, the company provides specialist services through FCM Consulting and FCM Meetings & Events to service broader needs of clients. Discover the alternative at www.fcmtravel.com/en-za/f

As Mummy Mafojane, GM of FCM South Africa explains, when it comes to domestic hotel rooms, South Africans are accustomed to a certain size and standard. In contrast, European city hotels are notoriously compact, often squeezed into historic buildings with decidedly small rooms and limited amenities. And in secondary, satellite cities in developing regions, water, power and connectivity can be hit and miss.

For the travel manager approving the trip, the rating suggests a known quantity: a decent bed, working Wi-Fi, breakfast and a front desk that answers. For the traveller who checks in, the reality behind those stars depends entirely on who awarded them, and in some markets the answer is nobody at all.

“Our latest FCM Insights Report shows that businesses are becoming more cost-conscious and more deliberate about where their accommodation spend goes, with more corporate volume moving into the 3- and 4-star tier,” says Mafojane. “Across Africa, corporate demand is holding firm, and our top African destinations are Mozambique, Zambia, Ghana, Botswana and Zimbabwe, all corridors where South African business is growing. The only catch is that a 4-star rating can mean something different in each of them, and that’s where a managed hotel programme earns its keep.”

Who stands behind the stars? Hotel classification in FCM’s top destinations

“When a company tells us a traveller had a bad stay somewhere on the continent, the booking almost always said four-star. Nobody lied about the rating. There was just no authority behind it,” says Mafojane.

How the international list stacks up

FCM’s top international destinations for South African corporates are Germany, the United Kingdom, the United States, the United Arab Emirates and China (2026 FCM booking data), and even in these mature markets the stars don’t necessarily align, as the table shows.

Which brings us to what the rating actually buys. In South Africa, a 4-star property typically comes with extra space, room service, TV, secure parking and a proper breakfast. By 5-star, you’re looking at round-the-clock staffing, valet parking, 24-hour room service, luggage assistance, a business centre, and exceptional on-site facilities like fine dining and a spa.

A room in a 4-star hotel in central Paris or London is much smaller, and the traveller is paying considerably more for it. Corporate travellers paid an average of US$349 a night in London and US$531 in New York in the last quarter of 2025, against US$233 in Cape Town and US$196 in Johannesburg (FCM Consulting Insights Report 2026). A Johannesburg traveller landing in New York pays more than double the rate for a fraction of the space; the rating stays the same while the experience shifts.

What to look for beyond the star

In markets without enforced grading, the questions that actually predict a good stay have little to do with thread counts. Does the property have genuine backup power and water, meaning generator and borehole capacity that covers guest rooms rather than only the lobby? Are transfers and parking secure? Is the Wi-Fi reliable enough to run a video call, since connectivity in a business hotel is a working tool rather than an amenity? Will the card machine work, and can the rate be billed back rather than settled in cash? What are the real cancellation terms? And does the property appear in your travel management company’s duty of care picture at all?

“A star rating tells us what a hotel thinks about itself,” says Mafojane. “We look at backup infrastructure, secure transfers, payment, cancellation terms and whether we can reach a decision-maker at the property directly. Those are the things that decide whether a trip works.”

Hotel development in Africa has long followed colonial and linguistic lines, with French brands clustering in West Africa and Portuguese investment shaping Angola and Mozambique. Yet Mafojane says many of the most consistent properties on the continent are local chains.

“They build for the realities of their own markets, so a generator, a borehole and a driver who actually arrives are standard rather than selling points. In several of our top destinations they are simply the best-performing option, and traveller feedback confirms it trip after trip.”

The conclusion for travel managers is clear. Where the star rating cannot carry the weight placed on it, the managed programme does that work instead: verified properties, negotiated rates with consistent inclusions, traveller feedback that flags a slipping property early, and duty of care visibility across every booking. FCM now goes a step further, advising buyers to write travel policy around hotel brand types rather than star ratings, because brands describe the actual product more reliably (FCM Consulting Insights Report 2026).

“Companies that spend time interrogating and building their hotel programme will sleep better – and pay less – than those defaulting to star ratings in their travel policy,” says Mafojane.

*** ends ***

About FCM Travel:

FCM Travel, the flagship corporate travel brand at Flight Centre Travel Group (FCTG), is the business travel partner of choice for large national, multinational and global corporations. We are an award-winning global corporate travel management company ranking as one of the top five by size around the world. We operate a global network which spans more than 100 countries, employing over 6000 people.

FCM are transforming the business of travel through our empowered and accountable people who deliver 24/7 service and are available either online or offline. Leveraging FCM’s negotiating strength and supplier relationships in conjunction with our tailored business travel programs, our expertise delivers more for our clients where it matters most to them.

Visit us at www.fcmtravel.co.za

What then are the barriers to adoption? Some are practical. AI tools come with costs that need to be justified, and it takes a dedicated team to keep pace with how quickly the technology is advancing. Training matters too: an AI assistant is only useful if travellers and bookers actually use it, and adoption inside a business takes deliberate effort.

But speak to the people who sign off on these decisions and a deeper hesitation emerges, one that has less to do with time, budgets and expertise and more to do with confidence: how safe is our data, and what stops the AI from making things up? Anyone who has interacted with generative AI (like ChatGPT, Gemini or Claude) has likely watched it invent a fact, a statistic or a source with complete confidence, and a healthy wariness now follows the technology into the workplace.

Generative AI is non-deterministic by nature: ask the same question a hundred times and you can get a hundred variations of the answer. In personal, consumer settings, that’s a quirk. In corporate travel, where policy compliance, expense eligibility and duty of care are on the line, it’s a serious problem. A confident but wrong answer about visa requirements or an out-of-policy hotel recommendation creates work and risk rather than removing it.

“The hesitation we hear from South African companies is almost never about whether AI is quick enough or clever enough,” says Mummy Mafojane, General Manager of FCM South Africa. “It’s about trust and accountability. If an AI assistant gives one of your travellers the wrong answer – that’s your traveller stranded and your problem to fix.”

So, what should trustworthy AI in managed travel actually look like? The emerging consensus points to a handful of markers, and none of them are glamorous.

The first is controlled information. A general-purpose chatbot draws on the open internet, which is precisely why it can be confidently wrong. AI built for managed travel should work differently, drawing its answers from defined, verified sources: the company’s own travel policy, its booking data and its traveller profiles. The answer to “can I fly business class on this route?” should come from the organisation’s policy document, never from a general source, because the question isn’t really whether a traveller can. It’s whether they may.

“Of course, there are different intelligence layers,” says Mafojane, referring to Sam, the AI solution (or intelligent travel companion) built into the FCM Platform, which went live for customers in more than 90 countries in June. “If your traveller wants to know the current temperature in Munich, plus a packing list, Sam draws on general sources. If a travel arranger wants the most up-to-date visa requirements, Sam will draw on specialist sources, and if it’s a question of policy, Sam will draw on pre-approved and pre-loaded documents. The guardrails are in place, and Sam is built with accuracy, security and privacy at its core.”

The second is governance. Travel managers should be able to configure how an AI assistant responds to specific types of queries, so that spend thresholds, approval workflows and supplier preferences are enforced automatically in every interaction. A traveller who isn’t entitled to a premium fare should never be shown one.

“This is where the conversation has matured,” says Mafojane. “Two years ago, companies asked what AI could do. Now they ask how it’s controlled. Can I decide which sources it uses? Will it apply my policy consistently across the board? Those are governance questions, and any provider serious about corporate travel should welcome them.”

The third marker is data privacy, and for Mafojane it’s never been more important.

“Where is company data stored? Is it ever used to train public AI models? Who can see it? In a trustworthy setup, the answers are specific: data is held in a private, secure environment, never fed into public models, with access – and information – restricted to the right people.”

The final marker is the one most often overlooked: knowing when the technology should step aside. Disruption, complex itineraries and emergencies still call for human judgement, and well-designed AI recognises the limits of what it can resolve accurately.

As Mafojane explains, the test is what happens at the point of escalation. If a traveller has to re-explain their situation from scratch to the consultant who picks up, the system has failed them at the moment it mattered most.

“Humans and AI have to work hand in hand. The technology handles the hundredth policy question so our consultants can spend their time on the situations that need experience and care. As an example, when Sam escalates a request to one of our travel experts, the consultant already has the full context in conversation. The traveller never starts over. That’s what builds trust, one interaction at a time.”

For travel managers weighing up AI this year, the practical advice is to interrogate rather than admire. Ask any provider where its AI gets its answers and how accuracy is assured. Ask how your travel policy is enforced within each conversation. Ask where your data lives and whether it ever touches a public model. And ask what happens, in detail, when the AI reaches its limit and a human needs to take over.

Providers with precise answers to those questions are ready for the realities of corporate travel. And that, rather than any dazzling demo, is what earns AI a place in a travel programme: information you can rely on, controls you can prove and people exactly where you need them.

The reason, according to Mummy Mafojane, General Manager of FCM Southern Africa, is a more seasoned South African business traveller relying on muscle memory from the COVID pandemic.

“COVID put every South African business traveller through an intensive education in travel risk: reading advisories, understanding what their insurance actually covers, knowing who to call when an itinerary falls apart. That knowledge doesn’t disappear between crises. When an Ebola alert comes through, our clients don’t reach for the cancel button. They ask the right questions. That’s a completely different starting point,” she explains.

Africa already had prior experience with Ebola. The West African crisis of 2014 to 2016 and the DRC outbreak of 2018 to 2020 stress-tested the continent’s travel managers before COVID arrived. What the COVID pandemic added was scale and personal exposure: for the first time, every traveller in every market had to personally navigate entry requirements, refund claims, insurance conditions, and advisories that changed within hours. South African business travellers learned all of it, under pressure.

Those skills didn’t expire when borders reopened.

From blanket bans to surgical adjustments

The defining feature of pre-2020 outbreak response was its bluntness. Whole regions were placed on red lists. An Ebola case in Liberia would trigger cancellations across sub-Saharan Africa, regardless of geography. The tools available to travel managers were not built for precision, and so they defaulted to the only instrument they had: stop everything.

What has emerged since is a fundamentally different operating model. “The shift we’ve seen is from blanket responses to surgical ones. When an Ebola alert is issued today, the question is no longer ‘do we stop all travel to the continent?’ It’s ‘which of our travellers are within a meaningful distance of the affected zone, and what do we do specifically for them?’ That’s a completely different way of working,” says Mafojane.

Dynamic tracking sits at the centre of it. Travel management platforms now maintain a live picture of where every managed traveller is at any given moment, cross-referenced against a continuously updated map of global advisories, health alerts, and security incidents. When a region is reclassified, the system already knows whether anyone is there. The travel manager doesn’t need to send a company-wide email asking people to check in. Affected individuals are identified automatically, and their options are already being assessed.

If a zone in northern Italy is flagged as a new hotspot, the platform knows within minutes which business travellers are in it. Not the country. The zone.

The South African traveller who genuinely upskilled

The infrastructure story is only half of it. The other half is the traveller. “What we’re seeing is a traveller who has genuinely upskilled. COVID was an intensive, involuntary masterclass in travel risk management. Our clients came out of it knowing their rights, understanding the difference between a travel advisory level and an outright ban, and trusting that with the right support structure in place, they can navigate most situations,” says Mafojane.

This attitude to risk shows up in a specific and telling way: South African corporate travellers are now asking the right questions before they travel, not after something has gone wrong. What is the current advisory level for my destination? Does my insurance cover outbreak-related disruption specifically? What are my entitlements if my airline makes a significant schedule change? What is the emergency line?

These are no longer questions that surface in a crisis. They are pre-travel standard practice for the traveller and for the travel manager alike.

The safety net that’s already deployed

Much of what has changed in corporate travel risk management is invisible to travellers precisely because it’s working.

Medical assistance partnerships now provide 24-hour support for travellers facing health emergencies abroad, including repatriation coordination that would previously have required days of negotiation. Travel insurance has been substantially revised since 2020, with outbreak and conflict scenarios now explicitly addressed rather than buried in exclusion clauses. Duty-of-care obligations – once a vague principle in corporate policy documents – have become operational realities with defined response protocols and technology to back them.

“What gives travellers confidence is knowing that the safety net is already deployed, they don’t have to activate it themselves. The tracking is live. The alerts are automated. The emergency line is staffed. Before they’ve even landed, the system is already watching the environment around them,” says Mafojane.

The result is a market that responds to Ebola news the way a seasoned pilot responds to turbulence: with attention, adjustment, and without panic. The blanket corporate travel ban is becoming an artefact of an era before the industry knew better.

JOHANNESBURG – You’re at the airport. Business class ticket in hand, you head toward the lounge only to be turned away at the door. Or your meeting moves and you try to change your flight, and discover the original ticket is non-refundable. Or you arrive at check-in with two bags, as you’ve grown accustomed to in business class, and learn you’re only entitled to one.

It’s the reality of “unbundling”: the practice of separating a standard airline ticket into its individual components. As an example, business class used to mean something fairly consistent. A lie-flat seat on long haul. Lounge access. Two bags. The ability to change your flight if the world intervened. You paid a significant premium for it, but you knew what you were getting. Those days are over.

According to Amadeus, the shift began in 2019, when Emirates introduced its special business class ticket – a stripped-down product that retained all the onboard comforts you expect (lie-flat seat, an elevated restaurant-style dining experience and top-tier entertainment system  ) but removed ancillaries like lounge access, seat selection and chauffeur services. It was a proof of concept: passengers would accept a reduced overall experience, at a reduced cost, if the seat itself remained premium.

Other airlines soon followed, with the likes of Qatar and KLM also introducing business class “lite” options. Come 2026? Tiered business class structures are fairly standard across the industry. The seat is the same. The cabin is the same. The ticket is not.

The three things most likely to disappear

Guaranteed lounge access is usually the first casualty. United’s unbundled “Base Polaris” fare includes access to a United Club lounge – not a Polaris Lounge, with its premium dining and spa facilities. Emirates’ base fare excludes complimentary airport lounge access. But as Mummy Mafojane, GM at FCM South Africa explains, for many travellers, particularly those on long-haul journeys with onward connections, the lounge is not an optional extra – it is a significant part of what they paid for.

“It’s very different for leisure travellers and business travellers,” says Mafojane. “Leisure travellers are often happy to pick and choose their perks. But business travellers rely on lounge access to work, decompress and even shower. No access can be an unwelcome surprise.”

Flexibility is the second to go. Base-tier business class tickets are frequently non-refundable and non-changeable – conditions that would once have been unthinkable at this price point.

“This is a particularly important consideration for travel bookers and travel programme managers,” says Mafojane. “2026 has already delivered a masterclass in travel disruption – at this point, locking yourself into a rigid, non-refundable ticket isn’t a saving; it’s a liability.”

Baggage is next. Finnair’s “light” business class fare excludes checked baggage unless the passenger holds elite Oneworld or Finnair Plus status. ZIPAIR, the Japanese low-cost long-haul carrier, goes furthest of all: its lie-flat business class seat includes nothing beyond the seat itself – no baggage, no meal, no seat selection. Everything is purchased separately.

The problem isn’t the product, it’s the presentation

ZIPAIR is actually a useful reference point. A lie-flat seat with each additional service priced individually and transparently, is a coherent offering. Travellers know what they’re getting. The more significant problem arises when legacy carriers sell something structurally similar, stripped of lounge access, flexibility and baggage, while marketing it under the same business class branding that has historically implied a comprehensive end-to-end experience.

For corporate travel programmes, the consequences extend well beyond a disgruntled traveller. A non-changeable ticket reissued during disruption, a bag fee at the counter, or a stranded employee with no flexibility and no recourse represents a programme failure, not just a personal inconvenience. Base fares also typically earn fewer frequent flyer miles and accrue less toward elite status – meaning the apparent saving at the point of booking may cost considerably more when the full picture is considered.

The corporate travel blind spot

For business travellers booked through a corporate travel management system, the risk is compounded. Many company travel policies were written when business class was a single, standardised product. They haven’t yet been updated to account for fare tiers within business class, meaning an employee may be booked on a base fare and arrive expecting the full experience. Travel managers, Mafojane explains, are increasingly having to specify not just the cabin class, but the fare tier, in their booking policies.

How to check before you commit

The fare tier name is your first signal. Base, Basic, Saver, or Light anywhere in the fare description is a warning to look further. Don’t rely on the airline’s general business class page, always check the specific fare conditions attached to the ticket you’re about to buy.

Confirm lounge access explicitly. Confirm baggage allowance in the booking summary, not the marketing overview. Check whether the ticket is changeable and refundable; if it is neither, you are holding something that functions more like an economy saver fare than a traditional business class ticket, regardless of what seat you’re sitting in.

“Obviously, travellers love a lie-flat seat, and all the space and comfort business class delivers,” says Mafojane. “But flexibility trumps all when it comes to a well-functioning travel programme.”

In other words, check the Ts&Cs carefully – and compare a premium economy fare with a ‘lite’ business class fare and decide which makes more sense on the day. If you hold elite frequent flyer status, check whether it restores any stripped benefits and be very mindful of which tiers you book.

What this actually means

None of this makes the tiered model inherently dishonest. For a leisure traveller with fixed plans, carry-on luggage only, and no interest in airport lounges, a base business class fare may represent genuine value – a lie-flat seat at a significantly lower price. The issue is assumption: the assumption that business class still has a fixed, reliable definition.

It doesn’t. And in a managed travel programme, that ambiguity has a cost. A traveller turned away from a lounge, stuck on a non-recoverable ticket, or charged for a bag at the airport is an irritation at best and a significant unplanned expense at worst. Knowing which tier a ticket sits in, and what that means in practice, is now a fundamental part of the booking process, not an afterthought. And the onus sits squarely with the booker or travel manager.

**ends**

For more information about FCM Travel call Sonnette Fourie on 081 072 2869 or email sonnette@bigambitions.co.za.

About FCM Travel:

FCM Travel, the flagship corporate travel brand at Flight Centre Travel Group (FCTG), is the business travel partner of choice for large national, multinational and global corporations. We are an award-winning global corporate travel management company ranking as one of the top five by size around the world. We operate a global network which spans more than 100 countries, employing over 6000 people.

FCM are transforming the business of travel through our empowered and accountable people who deliver 24/7 service and are available either online or offline. Leveraging FCM’s negotiating strength and supplier relationships in conjunction with our tailored business travel programs, our expertise delivers more for our clients where it matters most to them.

Visit us at www.fcmtravel.co.za

Issued by: Big Ambitions

Contact: Sonnette Fourie

Tel: +27 81 072 2869

Email: sonnette@bigambitions.co.za

According to Mummy Mafojane, General Manager of FCM South Africa, the experience economy has officially arrived in corporate travel, carried in on the back of the ‘unique stay’ hotel, a category traditionally belonging to the leisure traveller. Think converted train stations, buses and police stations. Restored heritage estates and reimagined industrial warehouses. Places that prove travel is supposed to make us feel more alive, whether you’re there for a conference or a honeymoon.

“As business travel evolves, companies are starting to ask a different question,” explains Mafojane. “Not just how do we get our people there and back efficiently, but what do we want the experience to actually feel like?”

Environment as a business input

Research by Yonsei University’s Department of Interior Architecture and Built Environment confirms that an individual’s surroundings significantly influence their capacity to think creatively and generate new ideas. Put simply: where you put people shapes how they produce.

It is a finding that sits somewhat uncomfortably alongside the phenomenon of ‘creeping neutrality’. A study analysing over 7,000 objects from the UK’s Science Museum collection found that colours in everyday items have been steadily neutralised since the 1800s, with desaturated greys, blacks and muted tones now dominating consumer products, including traditional corporate workspaces and accommodation.

In response, Mafojane emphasises that the experience economy is drawing attention to the potential of incorporating creative, elevated spaces into travel programmes, and the very real impact they can have on the mood and productivity of travelling employees.

“As research reminds us, environment is not just ambience. It is employee wellbeing, and a measurable input that directly influences your team’s mindset,” she says.

Making the distinctive possible

The conversation about the value of unique stays finds its clearest expression in the meetings and events space, where the choice of venue shapes the tone and outcome of an entire programme.

Lance Nkwe, Business Leader South Africa at FCM Meetings and Events, puts it plainly:

“When we design a meeting or incentive programme for a larger multi-national company, one of the first things we ask is: what do you want people to remember? Because the venue and the stay are not the backdrop to the event. They are part of the event.”

Nkwe has seen firsthand how a carefully curated property (one with history, character, and a genuine sense of place) can shift a group’s energy within hours of arrival. “Conversations that would never happen in a conventional meeting room happen naturally in a space that feels genuinely different,” he says.

The implications extend well beyond delegate comfort. A leadership retreat held in a restored heritage property or a treehouse beneath the stars creates a context for candour and collaboration that a conventional boardroom simply cannot replicate. A team incentive programme anchored by a truly unique stay becomes a shared reference point that people talk about long after the agenda has been forgotten.

This is clearly seen in a new seasonal tented camp developed by Chiefs Tented Camps near Victoria Falls targeting the growing safari incentives market in Southern Africa. Victoria Falls has increasingly expanded beyond leisure travel into incentive programmes, group tourism and multi-destination safari itineraries linked to Botswana and Zambia.

For businesses considering new MICE opportunities, Nkwe sees a significant untapped opportunity: “South Africa is sitting on an extraordinary inventory of world-class, unique properties that most travel managers have never seriously considered. Big or small, there are plenty of ideas to explore.”

Duty of care

Distinctive, of course, cannot mean gimmicky or reckless. For Mafojane, the conversation about unique stays must remain inseparable from the fundamentals of sound travel management.

“Travel has always been about moving people efficiently, but unique stays, when selected for the right trip and the right team, become an extension of your culture. They signal how you value your people,” she says. At the same time, she is clear that creativity cannot come at the cost of compliance. “Policy, duty of care, and cost governance do not disappear because the building used to be a prison. The job of a good TMC is to make the distinctive possible without compromising the fundamentals.”

It is a balance worth striking. The unique stay, used thoughtfully, is not novelty for novelty’s sake. The category that makes genuine sense in a corporate context is what Mafojane and Nkwe both describe as purposeful distinctiveness: accommodation that is memorable and immersive, deeply tied to a place or a story, while still delivering on the non-negotiables of comfort and care.

Johannesburg – FCM Travel announced that Sam – already known to customers as the company’s AI travel companion – has been fundamentally reimagined. What goes live across more than 90 countries in June is not just an upgrade.

It is a new category. A proprietary AI ecosystem built at the core of FCM’s technology, making Sam the intelligence layer running through everything FCM does – not a feature sitting on top of it. For existing customers, what’s coming will feel like a different product entirely.

“This is a genuine, game-changing first for the managed travel industry,” said John Morhous, Global Chief Experience Officer, FCM Travel. “A lot of our competitors are trying to bolt AI onto existing stacks, but the real power in AI is that the more connected it is, the more you can do with it. Sam is built, not bought – and that compounds over time.”

Sam intelligence works across all roles – travellers, arrangers, and travel managers – with equal depth. Most AI in managed travel still focuses on a single point in the journey. Underpinning it all is FCM’s proprietary technology architecture, which defines which trusted data sources Sam queries for each interaction, preventing hallucination and ensuring enterprise-grade accuracy.

Customer data is stored in FCM’s private environment and never used to train public AI models.

Central to Sam’s architecture is its proprietary guardrail system – a capability that goes far beyond hallucination prevention. Travel managers can configure precisely how Sam responds to specific query types, ensuring answers always reflect their policies and rules of engagement.

A traveller not entitled to business class will never receive a recommendation for a premium fare. An out-of-policy hotel will not be surfaced as an option.

Spend thresholds, approval workflows, and supplier preferences are all automatically enforced in conversation, giving organisations the benefits of conversational AI while retaining the programme controls that enterprise travel demands.

“Travellers are tired of fragmented experiences – piecing together more than five tools just to get through a trip,” said Morhous.

“Sam isn’t a single point of support. It’s there throughout the entire journey, for every person in a travel programme. Because our AI is proprietary, the accuracy and compliance enterprises need isn’t bolted on, it’s built in.”

“But what truly sets this apart is our people. Sam works alongside our FCM travel managers so that when a human moment matters most – a disruption, a complex itinerary, an urgent need – our experts step in with the speed, context, and care that no technology alone can replicate. Sam makes those moments more meaningful, not less.”

At launch, Sam delivers end-to-end trip support across the full traveller journey, with real-time programme data intelligence for travel managers through plain-language conversation, seamless handoff to FCM Travel Managers with full context intact, and a unique smart redirect into customers’ existing booking tools – the only AI solution in managed travel to offer this.

“June is only the beginning,” said Morhous. “Because we own our technology end-to-end, every release makes our customers’ programmes smarter.”

Mummy Mafojane, General Manager at FCM South Africa, agrees:

“Sam represents a meaningful shift in what you can expect from a travel management partner. FCM South Africa customers have travel programmes that stretch across the continent and beyond, often through complex routings and shifting conditions. Sam brings another layer of intelligence, consistency and speed into every interaction, allowing our local travel experts to focus on what they do best. We see this as the start of something significant for managed travel in our market.”

ENDS

Media contact

Sonnette Fourie, Account Director at Big Ambitions (on behalf of the Flight Centre Travel Group – Corporate Brands)

sonnette@bigambitions.co.za

+27 81 072 2869

Johannesburg – Business travel is holding its own, even as global conditions shift. New data from FCM Consulting’s inaugural hotel-focused research report shows that while the routine internal meetings that once generated high volumes of corporate trips have given way to more purposeful travel, demand into key markets, including London, Dubai and Johannesburg itself, remains strong.

FCM Consulting’s Insights Report 2026, released ahead of the global corporate hotel RFP season, reveals that hotel occupancy in major business hubs averaged 73.7% globally in 2025, up 1.3 percentage points on the prior year.

Key corporate cities tell a similar story: London held at 81.2%, a top destination for South African corporate travellers, while Sydney reached 81.5% occupancy (up 4.0 points), Singapore hit 79.2% (up 2.0), and Tokyo led the Asia-Pacific region at 82.9%.

Closer to home, Africa has seen the steepest price change globally, with a rolling 12-month average room rate (ARR) decline of 19.8% by late 2025. Bucking this trend? Johannesburg and Cairo with an ARR up 23.6% and 12% respectively in Q4 of 2025.

On the opposite end of the scale, cities where prices eased include Ghana (-42.2%), Ethiopia    (-31.1%) and Kenya (-22.2%).

FCM Consulting reports that while corporate demand remains stable across the continent, it remains highly price-sensitive, with businesses shifting from premium tiers to 3- and 4-star properties, where monthly rates fell by up to 23%.

“Average daily rates can differ widely,” says Mummy Mafojane, GM of FCM South Africa. “As an example, Johannesburg, Cape Town, Nairobi, Cairo and Rabat were all up on 2024 rates – while Windhoek, Gaborone, Lagos and Luanda were all down year-on-year. South Africa was boosted by the G20, while North Africa (notably Egypt and Morocco) is seeing robust leisure tourism growth.”

For Mafojane, it requires targeted, proactive management as buyers head into RFP season.

“Where rates are softening, buyers have a genuine opportunity to consolidate volume and push for preferential corporate rates. Where rates are climbing, the focus has to shift to compliance and getting travellers to book further ahead, because that’s what protects the budget.”

Importantly, the global data reflects a fundamental change in how and why organisations travel. The report, authored by FCM Consulting’s global team of hotel programme specialists, finds that hybrid working has not killed business travel, it has made it more intentional, with teams coming together for client work, revenue conversations, project assignments and physical presence events.

• 77% of organisations say face-to-face meetings are essential to business objectives
• 73.7% global hotel occupancy in 2025 – up 1.3pts year-on-year
• 81.2% hotel occupancy in London, near multi-year highs
• 81.5% hotel occupancy in Sydney, up four points in a single year.

“Travel is now more focused on bringing people together with purpose, whether for client work, revenue generation, or internal alignment,” said Rachel Newns, Global Hotel Practice Lead, FCM Consulting. “The organisations recognising this are approaching the RFP season very differently from those still measuring success by reducing trip volumes.”

The research draws on data from managed travel programmes across the Americas, EMEA and Asia-Pacific, combining proprietary booking data with regional market analysis.

It finds travel patterns are diverging sharply by traveller type: sales teams prioritise location and consistency; project teams are making longer stays in fewer cities; and senior leaders expect a combination of reliability and discretion that legacy hotel programmes often fail to deliver.

“Hotel programmes tend to evolve gradually,” said Newns. “Suppliers change, targets move, policies are amended, yet the overall programme design can remain largely unchanged. Taking time to revisit its foundations often reveals where adjustments are needed.”

FCM Consulting’s data shows that contracted and consortia rates continue to deliver significant savings against the best available rate, with public rates fluctuating by up to USD$62 globally.

Fixed negotiated rates in high-demand markets provide meaningful protection – but only when programmes are actively managed, and travel patterns are understood at the city level rather than at the regional aggregate level.

The report also highlights a frequently underutilised lever in hotel programme management: corporate loyalty. Major hotel groups have continued to expand their loyalty ecosystems, and travellers holding status with preferred brands represent both a compliance risk and a genuine opportunity for buyers who manage it well.

Complimentary breakfast, lounge access and room upgrades can meaningfully improve the traveller experience at no incremental cost to the corporate account. The challenge is integrating loyalty strategically into programme design – and having frank, early conversations with suppliers about recognition and status support during transition planning.

“Ultimately, internal scrutiny of spend has increased,” explains Mafojane. “In today’s climate, buyers are expected to show financial control, while ensuring hotel programmes support productivity, safety and traveller well-being.”

-ENDS-

The FCM Consulting Insights Report 2026: Global & Regional Hotel Strategies Ahead of the 2026 RFP Season is available here: https://www.fcmtravel.com/en-za/guides/fcm-consulting-insights-report-hotel-edition-2026. The report covers global hotel market trends, regional analysis across the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia-Pacific, a case study in global hotel programme transformation, and strategic recommendations for the upcoming RFP season.

Media contact

Sonnette Fourie, Account Director at Big Ambitions (on behalf of the Flight Centre Travel Group)

sonnette@bigambitions.co.za

+27 81 072 2869