Today Blachford is in the process of answering that question, rolling out Ex-pedia’s corporate-travel service–separate from the main site for leisure travelers. Booking airline tickets, hotels and car rentals for companies is a promising market: more and more businesses are turning to online reservation systems instead of dealing with an agent on the phone. Blachford spoke with NEWSWEEK’s Brad Stone about how Expedia’s corporate service works, the effect of the Net on traditional corporate travel agents and his own dreams for digital-travel technology:

STONE: You’ve been rolling out a business-travel service. Why?

BLACHFORD: Most people associate Expedia.com with leisure travel. They’re right to. About two years ago, as we started to grow, a number of customers asked us to offer a corporate-travel service… We decided we could either build one from scratch, buy an existing big agency or buy a small agency and grow it. We picked the last option. We bought a small regional company called Metro Travel in Seattle.

How does the service work?

We provide both online and offline tools to book flights, along with hotel rooms and car rentals. On the site we give employees choices consistent with their company’s travel policies. For more complex itineraries, like multiple days and destinations and requests for ground transportation, it’s still easier to book over the phone, so we have travel agents on the phone 24 hours a day. Ideally, in the long term almost everything will easy to do online. Meanwhile, managers get a complete record of transactions, so they can see where travel dollars are being spent.

How is technology changing the corporate- travel business?

It’s easier for software to find low prices than it is for brand-new agents. When you add a new server, it’s as smart and experienced as all the other servers right out of the box… We also save a lot of money because our fee structure is lower. On average, there’s a $31 fee for a corporate-travel agent to book a ticket. We charge $5 online and $20 for an agent-assisted booking. There’s also an initial account-setup fee of $149.

How will all this affect the older, independent travel agencies that catered to companies?

I can’t make any predictions… I can tell you, in 2002 something like 9 percent of corporate travel was booked online. And we believe that will end up closer to 40 to 60 percent over the next seven years.

Do you compete primarily with offline travel agencies, or with other online companies like Travelocity or Orbitz?

I think it’s both. In the short run, we certainly are hearing more about online competitors. In the long run, anyone who books corporate travel for a living is going to consider us to be something of a competitor. There is an important distinction between what we do and what some other online companies do. When we go talk to a company about managing their corporate travel, we’re talking about managing all of it, online and offline. Other online companies can’t offer the offline service, so they end up allying with more traditional agencies.

The conventional wisdom says leisure travelers shop for price, while business travelers shop for convenience. Does the Net have advantages for both?

It always comes down to schedule and efficiency versus cost savings. But in this environment, an awful lot of companies are expecting their employees to be cost-conscious. So you are starting to see the same behavior in each category. Of course, employees are not staying over Saturday nights. But you see the same kinds of trade-offs. Software helps you handle that.

Are you seeing signs of the economic recovery in the travel business?

All the signs are there. Airlines are flying full. Hotel occupancy is coming up on weekends as leisure travelers come back. I wouldn’t be surprised to see 2004 be a relatively good year for corporate travel.

On a lighter note, what’s the one travel headache that you wish Expedia could solve?

That’s easy. I can’t wait until there is a reliable device to tell you whether there’s a Wi-Fi network where you’re standing… Give me a new key chain that glows red if there’s a Wi-Fi network there or not.