On our fourth podcast episode, Jay Campbell and David Jonas chat with Harriet Washburn, John Guarneri and Richard Clowes about travel management configurations, insourcing versus outsourcing and the ARC Corporate Travel Department model. Harriet leads a team of category managers serving clients who have outsourced travel and expense management to IBM. Now a consultant with GoldSpring Consulting, John spent…
It’s another tough negotiating cycle for corporate hotel buyers. Healthy demand and tight availability mean some hotels are even declining to bid. But it’s not the same story in all markets and there are several ways clients can attempt to mitigate rate hikes. Buyers should have more leverage in markets that are adding lots of new rooms. New York still is the most expensive big U.S….
Virtual payment remains a hot topic in managed business travel. The benefits for companies that employ non-cardholding travelers are clear. Not resolved, however, are the headaches associated with faxing card authorizations. Travel managers wonder why the hotel industry can’t get its act together. It’s not as easy as they would hope. Choice Hotels has received praise for one initiative it’s testing, but that’s a stopgap. The real…
Meritor global travel manager Jack Reynaert Jr. is a quintessential example of knowledge as power. For the Detroit-area drive train manufacturer, Reynaert established a highly insourced, no-nonsense program. The roads that led him there were a lot like his booking policy compliance — nearly perfect. Seemingly the industry’s only second-generation travel manager, Reynaert has travel management in his blood. His late father was one of the founders…
At the beginning of the year, this publication laid out reasons why airfares may not follow dropping fuel costs. Nine months on, it’s clear they have, but it’s not all because of oil prices. Demand growth this year isn’t as robust as expected, dragged down by sharply reduced volumes from the energy sector. There’s been some pick-up in overall capacity led by increases at Alaska, JetBlue, Southwest and Spirit…
They have hinted about it before, and American Express Global Business Travel officials this week reinforced the company’s desire to own an online booking tool. The big question is, in what sense? “We will have our own solution,” said chief sales officer Christine Ourmières-Widener during an interview Tuesday. She said the company fully expects to continue supporting a variety of tools, but “having our own solution moving forward…
[UPDATE, Jan. 28, 2016: BCD Travel announced it acquired GetGoing, including its San Francisco and Kiev-based product and engineering teams. Co-founder Alek Vernitsky joined BCD as SVP, product strategy, reporting to EVP of supplier relations and global strategic sourcing Rose Stratford.] About four in ten surveyed Canadian and U.S. business travelers at companies with travel policies said another person made their latest hotel…
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