Amex GBT introduces AI hotel sourcing tool and more. By TravelPress Staff October 19, 2026 American Express Global Business Travel (Amex GBT) has launched Hotel Lobby, a new AI-powered tool designed to streamline hotel sourcing and help corporate travel programs negotiate more efficiently. Amex GBT's established hotel sourcing process delivers average savings of 28.8% off the Best Available Rate and a 96% property response rate across more than 80,000 hotels sourced annually. The new technology aims to accelerate that process by automating tasks including data preparation, rate calculations and the validation of hotel requests for proposals (RFPs). Sara Andell, Director of Consulting Strategy at Amex GBT, explained that: "Hotel Lobby gives you the rigor of a full sourcing cycle and the speed to spend more time negotiating," The technology uses agentic AI and draws on negotiated rate benchmarks from thousands of hotels worldwide, supplier performance data from more than $5 billion in managed hotel spend and compliance trends across Amex GBT's client portfolio. Hotel pricing, demand and traveller behaviour change throughout the year, yet many corporate travel programs rely on a single annual hotel sourcing cycle. According to Amex GBT, this can create gaps in hotel coverage and missed savings opportunities between negotiations. By reducing the time required to prepare and review hotel proposals, the technology is designed to support more frequent reviews of hotel programs throughout the year, helping companies respond to changing market conditions and protect the value of negotiated rates. The tool is now available to Amex GBT Consulting clients and enterprise travel programs worldwide. In other news, Amex GBT and Delta Air Lines are also building on their longstanding partnership, piloting new features that will allow eligible corporate travellers to enrol in Delta's SkyMiles program and Fast Track to Medallion Status offer directly through their corporate booking platforms. Participating travellers using Egencia who are not already SkyMiles members will be able to join the program with one click. Eligible travellers using Complete by SAP Concur and Amex GBT will also be able to enrol in Delta's Fast Track to Medallion Status offer, providing an accelerated path to benefits including additional mileage earning, waived baggage fees and eligibility for complimentary upgrades once status is earned. The new features are in different stages of testing with participating corporate customers, with plans to expand the offering to other Amex GBT solutions.

Amex GBT launches agentic AI tool to speed up hotel sourcing. Published on: 15th October 2026 at 2:42 PM American Express Global Business Travel has launched Hotel Lobby, an AI capability within its hotel sourcing consulting service, aimed at shortening sourcing cycles and enabling year-round program optimisation. Amex GBT said Hotel Lobby uses specialised AI agents for coverage, negotiation and sourcing to automate time-intensive tasks such as data cleansing, wish rate calculation and RFP validation. The company said that unlike conversational AI copilots, the multi-agent system automates the sourcing workflow itself. It draws on negotiated rate benchmarks across thousands of global properties, supplier performance metrics from more than US$5 billion (AU$7.1 billion) in managed hotel spend, and compliance trends across Amex GBT's client portfolio. Amex GBT's existing sourcing methodology delivers average savings of 28.8 per cent off the Best Available Rate and a 96 per cent property response rate across more than 80,000 hotels sourced annually. Hotel Lobby runs the same process with AI handling the data work, while consultants retain responsibility for strategy, negotiations and exceptions. "Our AI agents now handle the data work, compress sourcing cycles, and free our consultants to focus on what actually drives savings, backed by rich proprietary travel data and years of consulting experience," Amex GBT director of consulting strategy Sara Andell said. Amex GBT said many travel programs still run a single annual sourcing cycle, creating coverage gaps, compliance drift and missed savings between RFPs. It said Hotel Lobby lays the groundwork for continuous monitoring that protects negotiated value after the RFP closes. The tool is built on the same principles as Amex GBT's agent-to-agent architecture, which is already live across its servicing and booking products. It is the first in a series of AI-powered upgrades planned for Amex GBT Consulting in the coming months, and the company is looking to integrate them with its reporting and intelligence tools. Citing Forrester research commissioned by Amex GBT, the company said only 3 per cent of organisations surveyed described travel as part of a fully orchestrated enterprise workflow, while 92% of IT decision makers agreed AI will transform travel into continuously optimised systems. Hotel Lobby is available now to Amex GBT Consulting clients and enterprise programs worldwide.