On June 27th, key leaders from the global mobility and business travel landscape gathered at London’s iconic ODEON Luxe for AltoVita’s 5th Smart, Safe & Sustainable Summit. Together, they explored the future of the industry and shared forward-thinking insights on how technology, particularly AI, is reshaping corporate accommodation.
Watch all the recorded sessions on demand here or scroll down to read some of the key takeaways from the Summit.
Here’s a full recap of the most important insights, in case you missed it:
- Key Takeaways from our Un-panel Panel on Real-Time Booking
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Key Takeaways from Relocity’s Panel on AI & Integrated Ecosystem
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Key Takeaways from Our Panel on Disrupting Temporary Housing with Data & AI
- The Founders' Vision
Key Takeaways from our Un-panel Panel on Real-Time Booking
Will real-time booking ever be available in corporate accommodation? That is the question.
The summit kicked off with an energetic “un-panel” session, where our host, Senior Director of Client Partnerships Jess Dunderdale, joined Jose Nunez, Corporate Travel Manager at AMC Networks International UK, to explore the potential of real-time booking in the extended stay landscape. Together with the audience, they sparked a lively debate about what real-time booking truly means for the industry and whether we are, indeed, heading towards it.
One size does not fit all:
“We are dealing with a wide variety of use cases from global mobility business travel intern programmes, projects, meetings and events and so what we've learned is that real time booking doesn't have a “one size fits all”. It’s very specific to the unique needs of the programme so you might have a business traveller that's going for seven days next to headquarters and so for them, real time means I want an instant aparthotel with flexible check-in options. But then you've got a family moving to Singapore for six months and what they want is a curated short list of vetted accommodations, something that's checked suitability, availability, compliance before they can then go ahead and confirm within a couple of hours.” - Jess Dunderdale, Senior Director of Client Partnerships, AltoVita
The real-time challenge of temporary accommodation:
“One of the challenges with the global mobility world that we have is that we're not always able to use the technology directly with individuals. So we're relying on emails being sent with options of accommodation. And then you know people procrastinate. They're not quite sure on what area they're going to stay in for their temporary housing. They then come back a day later to someone in my team and say I want to book that apartment and it's gone. So for me that is the real time challenge that we have: the minute we get that email, it's out of date because property as we know disappears quite quickly.” - Karen FitzGerald from the audience, VP - Head of Global Mobility, NBC Universal.
Lack of collaboration is a blocker:
“When we think of corporate long-term accommodation, we're thinking of apartments. We're thinking of kind of boxed up spaces that still resemble hotel rooms. We have moved on from that a long time ago. What are you doing to challenge yourselves? What are the priorities that you are setting up? How are you collaborating among yourselves? Collaboration is still a blocker. There's not much collaboration. A lot of those in the serviced apartment sector are thinking individually.” - Jose Nunez, Corporate Travel Manager, AMC Networks International UK.
Real-time beyond booking:
“Instantness is not just about the booking. Instantness for me happens in real life where we had plans to close entities in Russia, immediately change plans and move families over to Kazakhstan. Our office is less than 50 headcount space. AltoVita was able to find homes for all the families we sent and these homes became onboarding locations for us because our office couldn't accommodate the number of families they moved.” - Kerwin Guillermo from the audience, Global Head of HR Compliance Enablement, HPE.
Real-time booking is the future:
“I think we are heading in the direction of making real time bookings in every aspect possible. We can see that. There is no turning back from where we are now. GDS was launched in the 1960s. GDS today does everything that we can think of, even support us with booking long-term accommodation. I'm sure you can think of a supplier that is in the GDS. And if that is the case, why is it that we cannot come up with a global solution or with an integrated solution that will help us with real-time booking?” - Jose Nunez.
Key Takeaways from Relocity’s Panel on AI & Integrated Ecosystems
Global mobility tech company, Relocity, hosted a sponsored panel on how AI is streamlining operations by automating repetitive tasks and predicting employee needs. Relocity’s SVP of Client Partnerships, William Taylor was joined by AltoVita’s VP of Client Partnerships, Beverly King, Bristol’s Director of EMEA Business Development, Natascha Clark and Aggreko’s Head of Global Mobility, Khadeeja Islam.
Reducing touchpoints through integration:
“When we think of the experience of the employee and the family who is going through the journey of moving from A to B, there are so many touch points in their lives. We want to make that journey for the individual and for the family, really smooth and exciting, so that when they hit the ground running at the host location, they are ready for whatever is coming next. I believe the integration of all the ecosystem partners in an ideal way would reduce those touch points and therefore give a huge advantage to the individuals and to the corporations as well.” - Natascha Clark, Director of EMEA Business Development, Bristol.
AI frees up time for meaningful interactions:
“If AI is helping us as the providers, create the options and present the solutions and the pricing and the availability that much faster, those people who are having those touchpoints with the individuals are going to have a more meaningful relationship with the people that they're serving because they're getting more time to do the stuff that they enjoy, which I know from speaking to our customer success managers is the the interaction with the with the people that they're working with - whether that's a relocation consultant in a global mobility relocation management company or a direct corporate or a travel management company, it's those interactions that make more impact.” - Beverly King, VP of Client Partnerships, AltoVita.
It takes a village:
“We are actually looking for seamlessness and anything that will automate and take away manual effort from all of the different stakeholders involved in the whole process, end to end. Having an integrated ecosystem will allow us to be able to do that, and from a corporate buyer's perspective, and it will allow us to focus on value added activities, knowing that our trusted partners can take care of the rest of it. It just doesn't take a global mobility advisor or Global Mobility Manager to do it alone, it takes a whole village, and so bringing all of our partners together in one seamless way will improve the process for everybody.” - Khadeeja Islam, Global Head of Mobility, Aggreko.
AI enables teams to deliver real value to the assignee:
“AI is not going to drive the sick intern to the hospital. It is not going to create community events to drive engagement amongst the interns, but the Customer Service Managers on your team can think about that now, because there is more space in their day and in their brain to deliver this. We know that our industry can be fuelled by a lot of tactical administrative work that is important, but as we build out these integrations and really look for ways to drive curation and personalisation, I think it creates a lot of exciting opportunities.” - William Taylor, SVP of Partnerships, Relocity.
Key Takeaways from Our Panel on Policy Compliance
Our VP of Client Partnerships, Beverly King hosted a panel on the “Headaches of Policy Compliance”, exploring the challenges of the field and how global mobility managers can overcome them with technology. She was joined by The Cozm’s CEO, Ben Oghene, RSA’s Head of Reward, Europe, Sigrid Nauwelaerts and Databricks’s Immigration and Global Mobility Lead, EMEA & APJ, Soren Strurup-Toft.
Immigration delays:
“I think the biggest problem is timing. It's applications being delayed. It's not having technology to augment your application flows. So it may be manual, it may be paper-based, and depending on which jurisdiction you're going into, there may be a lack of knowledge, depending on if your vendors are not linked up as well. So I think timing, and headaches with actually getting everything in the right place is a big one.” - Soren Sturup-Toft, Immigration and Global Mobility Lead, EMEA & APACJ, Databricks.
Geopolitical uncertainty:
“I think there is another element today in our geopolitical environment, which is uncertainty. For some people it might have been pretty easy to go to specific countries with specific nationalities, but it can become a bit more challenging today. So immigration for sure, is a challenge, and that also translates to the family. If my immigration is delayed, will my kids be able to go or to start a school fast enough? So I don't know if I really want to go now.” - Sigrid Nauwelaerts Head of Rewards Europe, RSA.
Cascading effect of compliance:
“If something happens within the immigration side or the compliance side, it then has an impact on everything else in the chain, and the whole chain falls down. Talking about the anxiety for the employees and the effect on their wellbeing is such a critical thing.” - Beverly King, VP Client Partnerships, AltoVita.
Governments are leveraging data:
“Government authorities are using data. So, if you don't have a good handle of your travellers and your mobile employees, you may find that the authorities have more of a handle. We typically think of government authorities as being slow in this area but actually technology is moving in a way that's making it much easier to build technology. Both government agencies and service providers are going to be building technologies much faster based on data.” - Ben Oghene, Founder & CEO, The Cozm.
Key Takeaways from Our Panel on Disrupting Temporary Housing with Data & AI
Our Senior Client Development Manager, Apurva Poddar, hosted a session on how data and AI can be leveraged to improve employee experience. She was joined by Squarepoint Capital’s, Global Move Manager, Carla Campbell-Smith, Stripe’s Talent Mobility Business Partner, EMEA & APAC, Emma Balogun and NBCUniversal’s VP Head of Global Mobility, Karen FitzGerald.
The importance of property vetting:
“We tend to focus very heavily on the employee experience and one of the things that we were kind of troubled with is that we just didn't work with organisations that truly understood those properties, hadn't vetted them. In some situations, especially post-covid when a number of properties had been sitting vacant for a long time, we had a lot of challenges around quality and availability. And people have not really had their own personal stance on what they require, which I think can have an impact on people's well-being, people's enjoyment of their assignment or their time in another country. It's really, really important.” - Karen FitzGerald, VP - Head of Global Mobility, NBCU.
Combining AI with human expertise:
“Going back to how AI can transform this, we've already found a solution in terms of AltoCurate which is AI-driven technology but with our teams in the back-end giving that human touch. We can add preferred properties, we did pre-move inspections, we selected a bunch of shortlisted properties and those are the preferred properties that will be used for the employees that come each year. So I think the solution to this is also shortlisting preferred properties and you know where your employees are going, your team has seen them so it reduces the escalations in a way and through word-of-mouth it’s also easier to book them.” - Apurva Poddar, Client Development Senior Manager, AltoVita.
How AI can help with availability:
“One of the challenges is with the supply of stock. So you can send a request off to the individual. The individual's really keen to get their housing and then something gets in the way. So I think when they go back to the platform, it would be good to have the first, second, and third preference at the time. If it's two days or three days after that request has been made, if you could see that that option is no longer available before they book, I think that would be really useful.” - Carla Campbell-Smith, Global Move Manager, Squarepoint Capital.
Balance between AI & the human touch:
“We need to have a hybrid approach. The automation and the AI is great for the mundane tasks and the 24/7 support for the really simple questions. But, global mobility is a hugely emotive area. We are always going to have cases that are nuanced. We’re going to have that need for connectedness, trust and empathy that only human beings at this time can provide.” - Emma Balogun, Talent Mobility Manager, Stripe.
The Founders' Vision
AltoVita’s Co-founders, Vivi Himmel and Karolina Saviova delivered a powerful overview of the company, taking the audience on a journey from AltoVita’s origin story to its realised achievements and future vision.
Reflecting on the company’s journey, Co-founder and CEO, Vivi Himmel shared:
“AltoVita means ‘high life’, and whilst our logo has modernised over the years, our core value has never changed. Our mission has always been to provide an elevated living experience to guests no matter where in the world they land. Over the past 8 years, we haven’t just built a platform. We’ve built an ecosystem, a movement, and we have a very strong product-market fit with Fortune 500 companies.”
During the day, our product team shared three exciting and interactive live demos:
- AltoCore Fully Managed, AltoVita’s all-in-one platform for corporate accommodation supply chain management. Watch the full product demo.
- AltoVita’s exciting AI developments: from VITA, our AI-powered assistant to our upcoming integrations with Outlook and Teams. Watch the full reveal.
- AltoStay, AltoVita’s much anticipated mobile app designed to streamline the accommodation experience and boost employee satisfaction. Watch the full reveal here and sign up to experience it first.
Reflecting on AltoStay’s reveal, Co-founder and COO, Karolina Saviova shared:
“76% of travellers expect experiences tailored to their personal preferences, including in corporate accommodations, but only 56% say theirs actually do. That’s where AltoVita steps in. By blending technology with the human touch, we’re reimagining corporate accommodation to serve every type of traveller across business verticals and employee profiles, from Gen-Z to Senior Executives. AltoStay is the natural next step in that journey, delivering deeply personalised experiences at scale.
The Smart, Safe & Sustainable Summit once again proved itself as a leading industry event, gathering the brightest minds in global mobility and business travel while fostering meaningful connections.
Where you’ll find us next
Preparations for the NYC edition of our Smart, Safe, Sustainable Summit are already underway. Find out more and register here.
