Hilton Opens Direct Line to Navan, Cutting Out Corporate Travel Middlemen

Hilton is opening a direct line into its reservation system for Navan, the companies said Tuesday, letting the corporate-travel platform pull rates, availability, and marketing content straight from the source — bypassing the middlemen who have long controlled how hotel booking information reaches business travelers.

Legacy reservation systems used by travel management companies limit a given hotel’s marketing pitch, sometimes with as little as 80 characters of text. It’s difficult to differentiate a hotel from the one across the street when the system only lets you say so much. 

Direct connections intend to hand merchandising back to the hotel with full content and photos. The long-run promise is to enable upsells, plus confirmed discounts and perks negotiated exclusively for companies or specific loyalty members.

Navan introduced a new hotel content platform in March. 

The Navan-Hilton integration also includes virtual credit ca