In corporate travel, sourcing is all about negotiating deals with airlines, hotels, car rental companies and other suppliers. Of course, organizations want to get the best value, but travel procurement is about more than price. It’s also about using data to monitor performance on both sides, working with intermediaries, building deeper relationships and exploring new technologies that improve processes.
TMC sourcing isn’t for the faint of heart. Nor is it for the impatient, as the sales cycle extended considerably in recent years. Providers are developing new products and services, making some customer relationships more involved. But the elongated time between an RFP and final contracts is primarily due to legal, security and IT complexities…
Similar to the traditional soft dollars made available for consulting support and the like, travel management company “tech credits” help clients adopt new technologies, customize products and services, and connect with third-party providers. They let TMCs tailor proposals, compete without offering significant rebates and strengthen client ties. Industry consultants questioned how transparently TMCs establish and…
As American Airlines tries to rebuild its sales bridges and considers various policies related to corporate and loyalty programs, the airline asked buyers to teach it about the corporate market. Several travel managers this month said AA sent them surveys asking about their travel policies, relationships with travel management companies and booking tool providers, priorities…
Atlanta — The GBTA Foundation and GBTA Sustainability Committee in June published sustainable procurement standards for lodging. They followed a similar resource made available in March for air travel sourcing. Some of those involved in creating the lodging standards spoke here last month during panel discussions at GBTA’s annual convention. The critical message was to…
Nobody likes the annual corporate hotel RFP process. Buyers want longer-term deals, but the industry’s sourcing infrastructure doesn’t effectively support them. What about negotiating evergreen deals that tie rates to market indexes? Elevance Health travel services consultant Dan Stagnitta is exploring it. During a June 6 BTN webinar sponsored by Cvent, Stagnitta described as “silliness”…
Two pillars of American Airlines’ Fall 2022 to Spring 2024 sales strategy were that it needed corporate travel volume less than before and that when corporates got discounts, they often failed to deliver the commensurate market share. The carrier found the first to be false. On the second, it will be hard-pressed to repair itself…
Global corporate hotel booking volume continues to build, but pressure on consumer spending and hotel rate hikes have companies keeping travelers closer to home and extending trips to get a bigger bang for their buck, according to a new report from booking platform HotelHub. The company’s director of business development, Paul Raymond, saw the data…
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