Good afternoon,
Although travel has seen a slight increase over the past few weeks’, it is obviously nowhere at the levels we would normally see, in fact we are only seeing around 25% of our clients travelling at all. It would be interesting to get some feedback with regards to your company’s policy and when you think you are likely to begin travelling again and what circumstances you would need to see before doing so.
I do know more of our clients are more comfortable currently travelling within the UK and possibly Europe rather than long haul and with this in mind I thought I would take the opportunity to remind you of the hotel rates we have in place, globally but especially within the UK market also. In my experience, employees who just a 1 night stay in the UK often think it’s not worth using their designated TMC but here I will show you exactly why it is.
HOTEL RESERVATIONS: TTCE versus Online websites
I understand you can use a variety of hotel websites to book room nights. I am unsure of your volume; budget or how you control what is spent. I would like to say the hotel system we have is the most comprehensive available. We have a mix of hotel rates chosen from reliable sources, these are Expedia, Bookings.com etc and our live agent feed from the hotels directly. We are also part of the WIN HOTEL PROGRAMME which has some excellent benefits.
The Advantage Hotel Programme gives you access to:
- the best available rates at a wide range of accommodation in every business destination worldwide
- negotiated rates at 35,000 properties
- three- to five-star hotels
- recognised key brands to luxury and boutique properties plus apartments and UK pubs and inns
Most hotels offer one or more benefits including:
- discounted rates
- free Wi-Fi
- complimentary breakfast
- free car parking
- room upgrades
- discounts on food and beverage purchases
- airport transfers
Rates are fully flexible with Last Room Availability (LRA) and travellers can collect loyalty points when booking with your Travel Professional via the Advantage Hotel Programme. Promotional rates are also available.
Special Hotel Rates
We have access to special rates at thousands of hotels that can bring even more value to your booking in larger, more comfortable hotel rooms. These rates are not available via an online travel agency and have Wi-Fi and breakfast included as standard, with many also including additional benefits to enhance your stay.
Business Travel Centre versus Booking Independently
In cost terms alone, you have the hidden cost of researching, billing and reconciliation can be both cost and time expensive.
Research from Cornell University confirms that it can take 37.5 minutes to complete each Internet search for travel and that it can take up to 12 searches before a booking is made.
Factoring in back-office processing per invoice / credit card payment / expenses can cost upwards of £20 per invoice.
If we based a very rough guesstimate of the number of hotel bookings you make as 400 that means that your reconciliation costs are 400 x £20 = £8000.
If we add in the cost of searching and booking online based on 2 visits (37.5 minutes per visit) to the Internet (75 minutes) then the cost in salary is £15.38 per booking (based an average UK PA salary of £24,000 (source: Payscale). For 400 hotel bookings this costs you £6152.
Total hidden cost is £8000 + £6152 = £14152 and that’s before we factor in that we have all the benefits of negotiated rates, room upgrades, cost control and compliance with your duty of care.
If you are currently sourcing and booking your own hotels why not drop me a line.
Take care.
Mike
Business Development Manager
07511 160406
