In this guest blog, Sharon Bannister, business development director at Hotel and Travel Solutions (HTS) shares her behind the scenes view of HTS since starting with the company.
Delivering high-touch service blended with cutting-edge automation
Since joining HTS as Business Development Director, I’ve gained an even deeper appreciation for what sits behind the company’s reputation.
I joined the business with a strong understanding of HTS’s reputation for delivering high-touch, customer-centric travel management, meetings and events solutions. What has become even clearer since joining is how much strategic thinking, investment, and expertise underpin that reputation, and how being an independent business enables HTS to design programmes that really reflect how people travel and meet for work today.
Business travel is not one-size-fits-all
One of the first things I noticed is how often internal conversations focus on traveller profiles that sit outside the traditional view of business travel.
Engineers driving overnight to site locations who require secure parking and late check-in. Construction teams arriving late in the evening who still need access to food. Field-based and operational teams whose schedules do not always align with a standard nine-to-five working day.
These scenarios are increasingly common. Industry research, including that by The BTA (Business Travel Association), shows that business travel is far more diverse than it used to be and not all programmes are designed to support that change.
At HTS, traveller welfare, flexibility and operational practicality are just as important as rate, often more so. As an independent business, we have the freedom to build solutions around these realities rather than forcing customers into predefined models.
That independence allows HTS to respond quickly, adapt programmes locally where required, and ensure policies and supplier strategies reflect real-world needs.
High-touch service, enabled by smart technology and procurement-aligned strategies.
HTS’s approach is high-touch, customer-centric service, supported by cutting-edge, proprietary technology and strengthened by independence that aligns naturally with procurement-led, managed travel and meetings programmes.
Unlike large organisations constrained by mandated supplier relationships or shareholder-driven volume targets, HTS’s independence allows customer and procurement objectives to drive decisions. This model creates greater alignment and transparency, and stronger accountability across programmes.
For procurement teams, this means confidence that we design sourcing strategies, supplier selections and commercial models to deliver total programme value, not just headline savings. HTS works collaboratively with procurement to balance cost control, compliance, traveller welfare, risk management, and supplier performance within a managed framework.
Alongside this flexibility, HTS continues to invest significantly in proprietary technology that evolves in line with customer and procurement requirements. Importantly, we never develop our technology in isolation. It is shaped by real traveller and booker behaviour, ensuring clients achieve practical policies, higher adoption, and compliance through intelligent design rather than enforcement.
In practice, this means:
- Making it easier for bookers to comply with policy at the point of decision
- Ensuring travellers feel supported, safe and considered
- Providing procurement with meaningful data to support governance, supplier management and informed decision-making
The result is a managed programme that delivers measurable value – risk mitigation, policy adherence and consistent supplier performance – while retaining the personal accountability that becomes critical when plans change. Supported by experienced teams and 24/7 service capability where required, HTS combines human expertise with data-driven insight in a way that larger, less flexible models often struggle to achieve.
Looking ahead
Independent innovation in meetings and events
A key focus of my role is strengthening partnerships – with customers, suppliers and industry peers, and one of the most exciting developments I’m part of is the evolution of HTS’s meetings and events technology.
Independence plays a crucial role here. Without the constraints of third-party platforms or externally dictated roadmaps, HTS can innovate faster and invest in functionality that directly reflects customer demand.
In 2026, HTS will introduce fully integrated live availability and instant booking functionality for meetings and events clients as part of its ongoing proprietary platform development.
While the technology capability already exists within our platform, we decided to phase its rollout. For Instant Book to deliver genuine value within a managed programme, it must provide accurate live availability, transparent rates and meaningful venue choice. Without broad supplier participation, the experience risks creating friction rather than removing it.
Instant Book will allow bookers to:
- View real-time venue availability
- Access transparent pricing
- Book meeting space instantly
However, it can only operate effectively when venues have confidence in the model and are prepared to make live availability and contracted rates accessible in real time.
HTS has built the functionality to enable this. We are actively engaged in cross-industry collaboration to ensure a wide range of venues are actively participating, so customers benefit from real choice and efficiency.
The functionality is designed specifically for simple, straightforward meetings, an area where customers are increasingly seeking speed, simplicity and transparency. Data shows that users make many of these bookings outside of traditional business hours, with short lead times and relatively low transaction values.
These are meetings that should be quick to source and book, without lengthy contracts or extended email exchanges. HTS’s ability to focus on this segment reflects both customer demand and the flexibility that comes with being independent.
Today, customers can already search for venues directly, submit enquiries themselves, and receive proposal submissions from venues in real time on the HTS platform. We provide speed and visibility while retaining the approval processes and service oversight required within a managed programme.
Instant Book represents the next evolution of that capability. It moves from rapid enquiry and response to fully confirmed, live inventory booking where appropriate.
We are committed to ensuring that the user experience is a positive one and that it works commercially and operationally for both customers and venues.
As our CEO, Julie Shorrock, recently shared with me: “What’s exciting about Instant Book is that we’re finally removing friction from something that should be simple. Because we’re independent, we can work closely with partners and customers to make sure the experience genuinely works for both sides.”
Partnership at the heart of progress
The focus on partnership is central to how HTS operates, and independence means having the freedom to collaborate openly and constructively across the industry. We are already in discussions with key suppliers and hotel groups keen to pilot the Instant Book functionality, and the market’s appetite is clear.
For Instant Book to become truly transformative, hotels and venues must feel confident that the model protects rate integrity, supports managed programme objectives and delivers mutual value. Broad adoption is what will enable efficiency at scale.
The HTS team are excited to roll out this functionality to customers; providing the technology, transparency and programme structure that gives venues confidence while giving customers the immediacy they increasingly expect.
As an active member of industry associations including beam, The BTA (Business Travel Association) and The MIA (Meetings Industry Association), HTS plays a role in shaping conversations around how technology, procurement and managed programmes can evolve together.
Every quarter, I proudly join a group of industry leaders spanning agency, venues and technology partners to ensure we continue to push forward on the Instant Book offering, working in partnership with those considering or already fully adopting the technology.
From an agency perspective, the focus is on articulating what customers are asking for, identifying friction points and ensuring new solutions integrate effectively into managed programmes.
Progress in this space depends on listening, collaboration, and shared accountability, and those principles closely align with HTS’s independent model.
Independent by design
What I have discovered at HTS is a business that genuinely understands how people travel and meet for work today, and is building solutions around that reality, rather than outdated assumptions.
Being independent enables flexibility. It strengthens alignment with customers and procurement teams. It creates clear accountability for outcomes, and it allows real needs, not legacy structures, to drive innovation.
High touch does not necessarily mean manual. Innovation does not mean removing the human element. The future of travel and meetings belongs to organisations that combine technology and data with empathy and accountability, with the customer experience at the heart. I am excited to be part of that journey.