Biometrics, sleep pods and driverless cars: The future of work travel

Regardless of whether you’re boarding a plane for an eight-hour flight or stepping onto a train to go somewhere that’s only two hours away, the very nature of work travel is changing.

Technological advancements are making the journey easier for business travellers. Although we’ll be looking at the future of corporate travel that we’re all excited about – Machine Learning’s part in fuelling predictive travel planning will also have a major role to play. This will make booking a business hotel much more streamlined, which means less time spent booking the perfect accommodation for work travel.

Here are three innovative trends, in particular, that might change the very idea of how we view work travel in the future:

1. Using biometric data to speed up work travel

The only thing worse than being stuck on a flight for eight hours is the two hours it takes to go through all the administration that comes along with it like customs, baggage check or preclearance. A report by Sita found that 71 percent of airports and airlines aim to get rid of the hassle by using facial recognition or biometric data to make the journey to your airport lounge a little quicker.

Going paperless will definitely lead to far less friction in the process and make work travel a more enjoyable experience for everyone involved. But it’s not just airports and airlines that want to take advantage of new technology. Some in the business travel industry also think that hotel check-ins and ride-sharing could be made safer and more efficient with facial recognition technology.

2. Renting out sleep pods for airport dwellers

Flying through time zones and hopping on or off connecting flights can get exhausting for even the most seasoned travellers. Sleep pods are transforming how we think about spending extended amounts of time in airports.

Nap, sleep and work pods are ushering in the era of the independent business traveller. Located in a variety of airports across the world, these pods offer a quiet hideaway for those who are on a layover and need a bit of sleep before they head to their next destination. In Munich and Berlin airports, for example, NapCity offers rooms with a bed and workstation that people can rent by the hour.

Expect to see more of these individual rooms in airports. They give workforce travellers with odd layover times or unusual boarding times a chance to rest up or get work done before the journey ahead.

3. Driverless cars to automate work travel

Long journeys hauling products and even short drives between client sites can be physically and mentally draining. Consider this: Booking business accommodation 45 minutes away from where a person needs to be on a daily basis adds an entire day’s worth of work to a person’s week. You can avoid employee burnout by booking comfortable accommodation near the client site, and Roomex enables you to do this at the most affordable rates.

Driverless car technology has the potential to give employees back all the hours they spend gridlocked in traffic or on the road. This allows them to take up other tasks while the vehicle gets them to their destination, like studying for an industry certification or even catching up on some sleep depending on what time of day or night it is.

Get on board with revolutionary changes to work travel

While you may have to wait a few years to see these trends become widespread, advancements are being made every day in work travel thanks to transformational technology. Take booking business hotels for instance: rather than compare prices of different hotels manually (which probably aren’t the best prices you can get anyway), business hotel booking software like Roomex makes it easy to find great rooms for the right price at the click of a button.

Maybe your company doesn’t have a driverless car to offer its workforce – but it can get rid of the long daily commutes for employees on work travel by switching to Roomex. Get started with Roomex today.

Are you looking to streamline your company's business hotel bookings? Get in touch with one of our experts today to learn how Roomex can help.