Many businesses have work and projects that take their people to the farthest corners of the world. Even if you or your clients don’t have assignees in typically high-risk locations, crisis events can strike anywhere, any time and impact all elements of the business travel and mobility lifecycle.
Examples from recent years include:
- Houthi Red Sea attacks (October 2023) – delayed shipments of household goods impacting relocating assignees
- California Wildfires (January 2025) – emergency evacuation and relocation of in-house guests
- Overnight collapse of major corporate housing provider (November 2025) – overnight displacement of in-house guests and immediate cancellation of upcoming reservations
- US Israel Iran conflict (February 2026) – UAE airspace closed overnight, emergency relocations needed
The Role of Global Mobility Teams, Buyers and Accommodation Suppliers
Global talent mobility is a critical mechanism used by organisations to strategically scale their operations; deploying and building human capital faster than competitors is increasingly the differentiator for strategic expansion into new geographies.
This means mobility teams are more involved earlier in strategic business decisions and, given expanding in and sending people to new markets carries risk in itself, strong risk management and crisis response is key to proving value in the organisation. It’s important that every business has their own internal crisis response protocol and business continuity plan, but also that they know their suppliers have a crisis management framework in place too.
For corporate accommodation buyers, it’s more important than ever to have a robust supplier network and to trust your housing provider(s) are prepared to manage, respond to, and support you during a crisis. Ultimately, if your housing provider is left scrambling in a crisis, so are you - which can have significant financial and reputational implications.
In terms of temporary housing, you need to partner with a supplier who will house your people safely wherever they need to be. This starts with selecting an accommodation partner who helps you carefully curate a housing programme that accounts for market variations, maximises governance and consistency, and reduces risk in your mobility programme in the first place. Then, it’s critical that your supplier will provide the right support when emergencies do happen.
1: From Procurement to Long-Term Relationships: Crisis Management Response as a Differentiator for Enduring Supplier Partnerships
Strong everyday service delivery backed by proven crisis management should be a non-negotiable in RFPs
Asking suppliers to describe their duty-of-care framework and crisis response protocol should form a key part of any temporary housing procurement exercises you run. For buyers, it’s increasingly important to evaluate how equipped potential suppliers are to minimise the risk of an emergency and support your people during emergencies if/when they do happen.
Strong everyday service delivery with documented service standards remains a top priority, as well as supply chain compliance and vetting, but proven crisis mitigation and contingency should be an increasingly heavily weighted item in your proposal evaluations.
Selecting the right corporate accommodation supplier is an important commercial decision, but it’s also a vote of confidence that they can ensure the safety and wellbeing of your people at all times. Crisis management capability is no longer a bonus to look out for; it should be standard compliance.
Building trust through the good times and the bad
Beyond procurement, the right supplier relationships should go further than the transactional; your housing partner should become an integral cog in your mobility function. Look for a partner who delivers a consistently excellent experience in everyday service but also one that can be the stable support network you can rely on when you need a lifeline in crisis situations.
If they can become a reliable source of certainty during high-pressure situations with a robust, structured crisis response framework, your relationship will go beyond business and become an alliance.
Resilient programmes = long-term supplier partnerships
Once embedded, the strength of your partnership will foster a resilient accommodation programme built on trust and transparency. Overcoming challenges together, being there when the going gets tough, and learning from every crisis to bolster the response for next time are signs of a strong partnership that will set a supplier apart.
After all, isn’t the hallmark of any good relationship how well you work together under pressure?
2: Select a Supplier Who Can Help Shape an Effective Accommodation Programme That Minimises Risk in the First Place
The strongest crisis response starts long before crises strike: a well-constructed accommodation programme and compliance with your accommodation/travel policy is essential risk mitigation. The fewer vulnerabilities the better, so consider potential suppliers’ experience and capability to curate a global programme that promotes policy engagement, drives consistency but still accounts for local variances across your key markets.
Make sure you understand your travelling population well and can provide current travel data to make this process more collaborative and personalised because adherence to travel policies will be far greater if they’re tailored to your organisation, your people and the way they travel. Accommodation bookings made in policy and from the approved programme of pre-vetted properties are at lower risk of safety and security issues and are easier to track and report on in a crisis situation.
To minimise risk and maximise governance, suppliers should work with you to devise an effective housing programme that’s in line with your policy and accounts for things like:
- Your traveller profiles/user groups and their common preferences
- Cultural differences and accessibility requirements within your travelling population
- Accommodation norms and standards in key markets
- Prohibited locations and bespoke location- or role-based approval workflows
This process doesn’t stop once the programme is implemented; engagement with the programme and adherence to the policy should be continuously monitored within the context of your wider talent strategy to ensure it continues to meet business needs. A strong and evolving housing programme that sits within a comprehensive travel policy will be your first line of defence against the impact of unexpected crisis events.
In terms of ROI, an effective accommodation programme with strong policy adherence means fewer exceptions, out-of-policy approvals, over-budget or emergency spend requests. A large amount of non-compliant bookings can become a serious liability during a crisis when you’ve got assignees staying in unvetted properties and limited visibility over those bookings. When out-of-policy bookings slip through the gaps in an emergency, not only could it be a duty-of-care failure but you’re also more vulnerable to expensive last-minute decisions.
Not to mention more broadly that consistent policy engagement and bigger in-programme spend puts you in a stronger position to negotiate better terms and rates with preferred properties during recontracting, so the commercial advantages go way beyond protecting you from financial damage during a crisis event.
3: Shift from a Reactive Approach to a Structured Framework and Response Protocol
Rather than tackling each crisis event in isolation, proactive crisis management and response need to be built into your overall travel strategy. If your supplier has already mastered service delivery for the everyday requests, they’ll already have strong foundations for effective crisis management. When assessing partners, look out for differentiators like:
- Global, 24/7 support teams
- SLA-enforced rapid response and turnaround times
- Proof of strong supply chain relationships and sourcing capability
- Financial stability and credit facility to support with upfront payments for urgent relocations
Experience-led insight: it’s all well and good finding a supplier who can offer a broad global coverage, but do they actually have the real-world experience and knowledge about the markets they cover? Risk lies in the local nuance, varied compliance criteria, and unique operational norms, so it’s important to select an accommodation partner who can advise on these things and mitigate the implications on your programme.
Knowledge is power: it’s critical to always be on top and ahead of crises, so continual monitoring is key to quick response. Build out your own intel tracking and communication frameworks but, as the housing expert, you should also consider whether your accommodation partner will be able to provide timely information and advice.
Data-backed advice: knowing where your travellers are is crucial at all times and accurate tracking information is the only way to enact a rapid response in an emergency that threatens your people’s safety. Make sure you partner with a supplier who can provide an immediate report on which in-house assignees and upcoming check ins are at risk in a crisis, then mobilise an effective communication and escalation framework with those assignees.
From a financial perspective, swift response supports better cost containment: lower risk of assignees stranded or stuck in dangerous places and fewer urgent bookings at premium rates. Using data to ensure recovery plans are set in motion as soon as a crisis or potential crisis is identified means in-house guests can be rehoused and upcoming reservations can be amended with no or minimal financial penalty.
4: Clear Communication and Escalation Frameworks Stress-Tested in High-Pressure Situations
Once the crisis has been detected and assignees at risk have been identified, time is of the essence to contact them and put a plan in motion for their safe and swift relocation if required. Crisis operating practices will usually be very different to standard, day-to-day service delivery, so can your provider prove that they have real experience successfully delivering a crisis response rather than just having a crisis policy in theory?
It’s critical that your employees feel safe, supported and properly looked after and recovered in an otherwise stressful situation, so consider if your suppliers’ operating model is agile and resilient enough to manage under the pressure of a crisis event:
- Are their operational teams trained on emergency, fast turnaround requests?
- Do they have designated crisis team leads assigned in every area of the business? Will they have senior global stakeholders available 24/7 as the senior escalation point and to make significant executive decisions?
- Are they equipped to provide a higher touch out-of-hours support when required (if they don’t already)?
- Do their standard practices and processes have crisis-specific versions e.g. streamlined onboarding for emergency displacement accommodation or bespoke credit agreements for unforeseen extra accommodation costs?
- Does their technology infrastructure support swift crisis response and ongoing monitoring?
- Do they have accredited business continuity frameworks to ensure they can continue to provide business-critical services if they themselves are caught in crisis?
The Competitive Advantage of Effective Crisis Response is Clear
If your supply chain can demonstrate strong crisis management capability, it’ll contribute to your organisation’s ability to deploy talent into complex or uncertain geographies without the reputational or duty of care risk that could otherwise constrain or delay that deployment.
A firm that can guarantee its people are safe even during geopolitical shifts, natural disasters or other crises can deploy more quickly and confidently and ultimately be more competitive in an unpredictable market. Every smooth move a travel team delivers is a small but real contribution to a firm’s ability to attract and retain the talent it needs to compete.
By demonstrating strategic value like this, the travel and mobility function is far more likely to seen as a strategic asset rather than an administrative cost.
Want to Learn More?
Corporate travel strategy is at the mercy of unpredictable events and emergency situations, so it’s a business-level responsibility to build a travel policy and a supplier infrastructure that’s resilient against crisis events. Crisis management and response protocol should be baked into your own operations, and you should expect your suppliers to have it baked into theirs. Not only does this protect your people and your business, but it’s commercially responsible, too.
Speak to us if you want to discuss any of the advice featured in this article in more detail.
