THE FIVE FUNDAMENTALS OF TRAVEL BUYING

1. Create and enforce a travel policy

For the majority of SMEs buying business travel is unstructured and unmanaged, with travellers operating without policy costing the company time and money. By following the five fundamentals of travel management, SMEs can successfully buy travel smarter, cut costs and get more for their money.

A well-crafted policy is at the heart of anysuccessful corporate travel programme. Your travel policy should be designed to control spending (encouraging them to book ahead, look at the total cost of travel, for example) and steer the travel booker/individual travellers towards preferred suppliers (loyalty pays) while also giving them enough flexibility to meet their trip needs.

2. Choose the right TMC

Travel management companies play a crucial role in supporting your travel programme but it’s important that you find the one that’s right for you. If you book overseas travel, you may wish to use a TMC that is a member of a global consortium such as TravelSavers or Global Star Travel Management. You may also wish to use a TMC that provides a 24 hour service.

If you have a small business travel budget, then a mid-sized TMC will work better for you. Choose a TMC that has a full suite of travel technology in place that looks after, not just reservations, but security tracking, mobile apps and live booking.

If your travellers rarely travel internationally, then consider using hotel and rail booking agents instead of a TMC.

3. Introduce a self-booking tool and maximise adoption

Many organisations book some of their travel through an online reservations tool, but the real work starts once you have chosen your technology provider. Learn how to implement a booking tool to maximise adoption and bring down processing and travel costs while keeping your travellers onside.

4. Learn to get more for your money from travel suppliers

SMEs may not have the spending power to negotiate discounts with business travel suppliers, but remaining loyal to a limited number of preferred suppliers will pay off. By signing up for programmes that reward companies AND travellers, you can use kickbacks – such as free upgrades – to get more for your money. Most major airlines and hotel groups operate reward schemes and the good news is that, thanks to the recession, they are on the rise.

5. Always consider the safety, security and sustainability of your travellers and travel policy

Good travel management isn’t just about finding the best price. Corporate social responsibility issues are increasingly important, too, including looking after employees’ safety and security on the move and, for many companies, reducing their travel-related environmental impact.

Further Information

These tips were provided by David Chapple, the event director of the Business Travel Show, Europe’s leading corporate travel event and organiser of the world’s largest hosted buyer programme for travel buyers.

The Five Fundamentals of Travel Management form the basis of a series of free to attend conference sessions at the Business Travel Show, which takes place 5-6 February 2013 at Earls Court in London. With more than 200 suppliers, 50 conference sessions and a variety of networking opportunities, it’s the ultimate business travel destination for all travel bookers and buyers. Entry is free – simply register atwww.businesstravelshow.com.

GUEST BLOG: GDS RATE AUDIT - IS THERE REALLY ANY POINT?

Finalising the negotiated hotel rate programme is the start of the process…not the end!

Hotel negotiations are just the first step in reducing hotel spend and adding value to your hotel programme.  Once careful negotiation of rates and amenities are completed things are then often left very much to chance in the GDS hotel rate implementation and loading process.

As hotels are responsible for loading the accepted negotiated hotel rates at property level, and agencies are responsible for loading the GDS access security link tables, no one person or group has control over the entire process.

There is still a widespread belief that

·         Savings are generated once lower rates are renegotiated with hotel suppliers and

·         Rates are available to be booked at the negotiated rate once negotiations are finalised

The reality is all too often quite different.

Preferred rates only create the platform for savings to accrue to the business.  Actual savings only occur when room nights are booked at the lower, negotiated rate.  Contracting a rate does not automatically ensure the correct rate is loaded or available to be booked by travellers

Rate loading errors are costing corporations an estimated EUR5bn each year in additional expense.  A client with EUR30m in spend can spend an additional EUR1.5m per year due to Rate Integrity issues.  Corporate buyers are aware of the need to conduct rate audits, but the vast majority conducts just one rate audit per year.  Even those that audit more than once do not then continuously monitor rates throughout the year.

Preferred Rates contracted with LRA (Last Room Availability) can be completely and correctly loaded, but may still not be available to be booked.

NLRA (Non Last Room Availability) rates give no guarantees that the rate will be honoured and allow the hotel to increase the rate at will.

Millions of EUR are invested in annual rate negotiation processes, yet billions of EUR in value do not materialise.

So what’s the solution? 

There are a number of compliance measurement and support tools to ensure that the hard work put into rate contracting is turned into concrete savings for the organisation.

An initial audit of the GDS is imperative to ensure that all negotiated pricing has been completely and correctly loaded by all hotels in every applicable CRS.  The problem is that a rate loaded correctly today may not be visible to the booker in three months time.  Property Revenue Managers are responsible for maximising the revenue potential for each property.  From time to time individual properties may decide to withdraw negotiated inventory or submit higher than agreed negotiated pricing without your knowledge.  You therefore need to follow up with additional Rate Availability Reporting that will keep checking that your preferred properties are offering the negotiated terms at the point of sale.  That will keep a check on what is being displayed in the GDS – but you also need to keep an eye on non-GDS inventory!  You can also get reports that compare the negotiated rates at your preferred properties against the public that is being offered directly through online travel agency (OTA) and/or hotel supplier websites.  Your travellers may well be checking these alternative sites and if lower rates appear to be available, this threatens to undermine the integrity of the whole rate sourcing process.

And if you still aren’t sure there’s any quantifiable RoI in Rate Audit, take a moment to do the following simple calculation for yourself.  The table below (Table 1) shows actual data for a single city (Geneva) in a negotiated Hotel Programme for 2013. 

This is one city.  Even if rates at only a fraction of the properties in your programme are not loaded, what is the cost implication for your own organisation?

Rate negotiation doesn’t generate savings - Programme Management does.

Sourcing, of itself, won’t generate the savings – strategic programme management will.  This is why, if the final stage of the procurement process – implementation – does not happen, the sourcing process remains just that – a process without a purpose.

For more information please contact Jean.squires@lanyon.com. Lanyon is exhibiting at the Business Travel Show. To register, please visit www.businesstravelshow.com 

GUEST BLOG: Put TMCs to work for you

Travel is one of the largest controllable expenses for most companies. Using the right travel management company will give you peace of mind and save you time. A TMC should want to learn about your business and think strategically about what you need and offer a full range of services.  

At Wings Travel Management, it is our passion to find the best fares for your business travel needs – advising you on how to best leverage your travel budget while monitoring your travel policy. We work with creative ticketing, Internet fares and our own negotiated fares from all our offices across the globe. This applies to hotels, too.  Sometimes the best fare is one that a TMC can get for you using a pricing index available through one of its branches in another part of the world.

When deciding on a travel management company, there are some key questions to consider:

• Does it have people on the ground in those emerging markets where travel can quite easily not run to plan?

• Does it have the technology to keep up with your travellers, no matter where they are?

• Does it specialise and understand your industry, in other words, know what you need to make it a successful trip?

• Does it have a history of success and leadership in places that are important to your business?

• Does it give you access to company staff 24/7/365?

• Does it offer standardised technology throughout its global operations so you get the same service and reporting everywhere?

• Does it track the performance of all your travel suppliers: air, car, hotel, ground transportation, TMC?

• Does it have process and reporting audits that provide for accuracy and accountability?

• Does your TMC put the client first, understanding that this is not a one-size-fits-all industry? 

• Is your TMC growing into the areas where your business industry is growing? Is it following your industry trends?

• Does it set itself apart in ways that matter: human attention, experience, passion, integrity?

Travel management companies should have easy, ready answers to the above questions. 

To determine whether you’re getting the most from your TMC, contact Wings Travel Management on +44 (0) 207 458 7000 or visit Stand No. 230 at the Business Travel Show.

By Paul East

Paul East is chief operating officer at Wings Travel Management, which specialises in corporate, oil & gas, and marine travel. Meet Paul at the Business Travel Show at Stand No. 230 to find out what sets Wings apart from other TMCs. You may contact him directly on 0207 458 7000 or at paul.east@wings.uk.com

Is Big Data the Way to Ensure Compliance?

Big data – according to Wikipedia – is a collection of data sets so large and complex that it becomes difficult to process using on-hand database management tools. Yawning yet? The truth is big data is exciting. And the excitement lies in the additional information that can be pulled from these data sets and what you do with them.

In the past it’s been prohibitively expensive thanks to the cost of servers needed to store and drill down the data to make it useful. But as technology gets cheaper, the opportunities available from big data are becoming more accessible to everyone.  And when it comes to buying business travel, big data holds a lot of potential for corporates.

Big data allows travel managers to understand the traveller better, track him or her and push information out to him. It’s this last element that is particularly useful for travel managers because it allows them to push information to travellers that enables and encourage them to stick to policy and budget while away from the office.  

For example, managers can use big data to tell junior staff, who may well feel apprehensive about taking public transport abroad, not to get a cab when they arrive at the airport, but to go to bus transfer stop A or train station B. They can give them directions, explain where to go to buy a ticket, ask them to use the NFC company credit card, pick up the ticket, get on the train at time x to destination y, remind him when to get off, that he can walk to the hotel in five minutes rather than take an overpriced unnecessary cab, where to go for dinner that’s close to the hotel, within policy and within budget… the possibilities are pretty endless.  

And, as we know in this day and age of the rogue, anything that helps travel managers to know more about their travellers and use that information in a way that increases compliance has got to be a good thing.

David Chapple is event director of the Business Travel Show. Talk to him about Big Data on Twitter @btshowlondon or directly at david@businesstravelshow.com.

GUEST BLOG: Who are your business travel villains?

Without a doubt our award for Business Travel Villain goes to roaming charges! No one likes them and yet we all get them when travelling abroad and there is very little we can do about it – or is there? Here at RoamingExpert.com we have put together a guide with some handy hints and tips on how to banish that villain or at least reduce its impact on your budget.

Look at where you roam to

Where is it that you travel to mainly? Is it outside of Europe, within Europe or all a combination of both? Each network has slightly different rates depending on where you go.

Do you use voice, data or both?

What is your main concern when roaming? is it your voice calls, data usage or both? Again, different networks have different charges for voice and data and some are more competitive than others so it is important to know how you need to use your mobile when you are roaming.

What handset do you use?

We would always recommend using a Blackberry as they compress data more efficiently than other handsets and so data charges will always be less.

What are your roaming rates like?

Are your current roaming rates competitive? Or are they actually over inflated? What are you being charged to visit the countries you do? Roaming rates from provider to provider vary greatly some are vastly overinflated.

Do you know how your network bills?

The networks bill completely differently, some calls may be included in inclusive minutes and some may not.  Also some networks charge per minute and some per second, this can make a big difference to your final bill.

Renewing your mobile contract may not be the top of your list of priorities but if you want to avoid a major travel villain in today’s new, global and technologically focused world it could well pay to re assess your contract. Finding out a little more about it and taking some top tips on how to best deal with the situation could well pay off and we are here to help too of course!  

This blog was written by Kate Staley, marketing manager with  Roaming Expert. You can contact her at kate.staley@roamingexpert.com and find out more about the company at www.roamingexpert.com 

GUEST BLOG: SMM: So much talk, so little action

Everywhere we look someone is discussing meetings: meetings management, strategic meetings management, small meetings management – but this is not a new subject.  ‘SMM’ has been the ‘next big thing’ for years.  So why, after all this time, is there still so much talk and so little action?

Admittedly there are plenty of reasons offered up:

No clear internal owner to champion the initiative and drive success.  The absence of a solution that is easy to deploy, supports broad based adoption AND integrates with the rest of your hotel management strategy.  The other perennial favorite, “we don’t really have that many meetings”, is also all too often cited.

These and many other factors contribute to an ‘Ostrich Mentality’: I can’t see it, therefore it isn’t there.

But it IS there and the cost implications of ignoring this category can be huge.  Admittedly, you don’t know what you don’t know, but from our own experience the total ‘hospitality’ spend for the majority of organisations is split across 3 areas – 40% on Transient Accommodation, 40% on Meetings and 20% on ad hoc Projects.  If your focus is purely on your Transient Accommodation, you are managing less than 50% of your total hotel spend.

So – how difficult can this really be?

You need to understand what your requirement is, so start small.  Begin by identifying your target audience.  Head for the departments most likely to generate meetings bookings – sales/marketing, training, the executive floor – and ask for volunteers for a ‘super-user’ test team.

At this stage, you want to garner support and not give the impression that you are trying to take away the responsibility for these meetings.  All you want is to build the environment where everyone creates their meetings requests (RFPs) in one place.   From there you will quickly gather the data you need to put the ‘strategic’ into strategic meetings management.

Aim to start with the small frequently booked meetings. The large conferences and major company events may be the more visible piece but (a) it’s always much tougher to persuade these bookers to give up any aspect of control or management of these bookings and (b) the chances are that you spend much more on smaller meetings.  You are offering meeting planners a solution that will take the ‘grunt work’ out of the process without stripping them of ultimate control and the easiest meetings to target for this are the smaller ones – which are usually just a time consuming chore for those that have to book them.

Ask a few basic questions:

Approximately how often do you book?  What’s the average size of the group and the length of the meeting?  What are the most common features they always need (refreshments, break out rooms, AV equipment etc)?  What type of venue do they typically look for (hotels, internal meeting space, other venues)?  Where do they go to find these venues and what influences their choice?

The answers will help you build the most useful information and features into your RFP tool so that the first time a meeting planner looks for a venue for a meeting, they find what they expect to see and the basic information is pre-loaded to make it the simpler process that you promised!

So all you now need is a system that all your meeting planners can access with nothing more than a User ID and Password, without any additional implementation, and with just an hour or so training.

  

And if they like it, if the system gives them access to the properties they need, helps them create an RFP with all their requirements in 4 easy to follow steps, presents the responses in a format they can share with their colleagues, gives them full budgeting and reporting capabilities and allows them to complete the process in a fraction of the time, then you’ve got your ‘champions’ within the organisation and selling the benefits to others will be so much easier.

And finally, the single most important element to consider.  The first step on the road to success is always the hardest. As you ponder this article, think about this.  What stops you from being the internal champion that gets the ball rolling at your company?  Just because you don’t have it in your job description, does that mean you can’t own it?  At a time when companies are in a constant process of evaluating people, processes and performance, perhaps the greatest thing you can do for your company and yourself is to take that critical first step.

This blog has been written by Jean Squires, director of business development EMEA, Lanyon. To find out more about how the Lanyon Meetings RFP Tool can help please contact Jean at jean.squires@lanyon.com 

GUEST BLOG: A Vision for the Future of Business Travel

Business travel is faster and less isolating than it used to be but, until recently, no-one has been looking out for the business traveller. Now, the landscape is changing and Concur is proud to be a leader in that evolution.

Travel used to be lonely. Gradually, over the past 10 years, and rapidly in the last two, the Internet and mobile devices have changed business travel for the better.  Our smartphones now fulfil a dual role of travel buddy and personal assistant. But we still have a steep hill to climb to improve business travel even more.

The current reality:

Self-serve online travel booking enables the business traveller to book travel at a click of a button – but, because no-one is looking at the experience through the eyes of the business traveller, the whole experience is very disjointed and often frustrating.  For those that travel across Europe, there’s the added complication of different languages, currencies, procedures and cultures to overcome.

A vision for the future of business travel:

Concur has spent considerable time thinking about what would make ‘The Perfect Trip’.  Imagine a journey with no paper or queues, a journey where your smartphone knows your preferences and has pre-booked every step of the journey to seamlessly blend into the next. We have this perfect trip firmly in mind, and we’re figuring out how to make it happen

How Concur is working to improve business travel:

Making the perfect trip a reality will mean partnership and collaboration between travel suppliers across the entire eco-system for the good of the business traveller. This a huge challenge, particularly in Europe, where suppliers’ regional coverage varies so dramatically. Fortunately, the landscape is already changing and Concur is proud to be a leader in that evolution.

What happens next?

By sharing ideas on how business travel can be improved due to technological integration and the fostering of closer networks we can help shape the future of business travel together. So, whether you are travel supplier, travel app developer, card provider, in the travel business or a business traveller, we’d love to hear your ideas and opinions.

How do you think business travel could be better?

What are your favourite travel apps? What innovations would make the most impact on travel in Europe?  These are the kind of questions that will influence the development of a bigger, better travel and expenses management network across Europe. We have made a start by setting up a Facebook community for those that want to contribute or stay in touch with developments.  Join us – like us or post your recommendation in the comments below.

Written by Lisa Hutt

Lisa heads marketing for Concur Technologies in EMEA and is responsible for growth in the region through brand awareness, pipeline generation and customer success programs. Lisa is an advocate of the latest marketing innovations, global collaboration, sales alignment, lead-to-revenue and influencer marketing. Lisa’s background in marketing communications was developed with IT and online organisations such as Salesforce.com, Dell, Intel, Epson, Sybase and Monster.