Sourcing

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.

Some examples
• Extending or renegotiating contracts
• Assessing marketshare and volumes
• Hotel RFPs, rates, LRA and security
• Understanding service-level agreements
• Outsourcing
• Price assurance
• Political and social considerations
• Working with intermediaries

CTBR Transforms Consulting Practice, Offers Consortia Rates And ‘Turnkey’ Travel Management

Jay Campbell

Twenty-year industry consultant Donald Swartz is reinventing his shingle. The Florida-based managing director of Corporate Travel Buyer Resources wants to streamline the corporate travel procurement process. New programs represent selected sets of suppliers and travel management companies, offering clients consortia rates and quicker sourcing. The services are most likely to appeal to companies spending under…

Change In The Air (RFP)

David Jonas

Chicago — There are lots of tactics for bypassing the hated corporate hotel request for proposals. Mauro Ruggiero hopes the same is happening in airline sourcing. The director of global travel management at Finastra spoke here this month at the GBTA convention about his company’s move to ditch what he described as an inefficient process….

Delta-TripActions Dispute Was About Rewards For Trading Down As Well As The Display

Jay Campbell

When Delta Air Lines and TripActions last winter resolved their dispute, the parties suggested it had something to do with the display interface. As it turns out, Delta also had a problem with the TripActions rewards program. TripActions client Jennie Robertson of InVision in January speculated about whether the incentive scheme was to blame. The…

Boeing, EY Buyers Demonstrate Why Dynamic Hotel Pricing Isn’t For Everybody

Jay Campbell

Chicago — GBTA billed the session as a point-counterpoint. Well-known and charismatic buyers from two very large companies would debate the merits of using dynamic pricing over static rates for lodging. “Who will survive the debate?” the session’s description asked. “Hear from both sides as they passionately argue their position for and against dynamic pricing.”…

Op Ed: John Harvey On The Vision Of A New Channel Model

John Harvey

TMC industry veteran John Harvey in January asked whether changing market forces and increased demand for greater value and transparency in the channel would bring about a next-generation travel management company model. Since then he’s been considering what the new model could be. Should a TMC’s core intention be to make money from the travel…

Industry Vets And A Newbie Muse On Travel Management Metrics That Matter

David Jonas

Some travel management pros see service level agreements with travel management companies as pretty much worthless. SLAs can be hard to measure or validate, and they produce little actionable information. Others view SLAs as integral parts of TMC relationships. Without them, how do the two sides baseline performance, uncover service deficiencies and track improvement? From…

Tripbam Automation Will Relentlessly Bug Hotels Violating Deals

David Jonas

One of the most frustrating aspects of hotel relationships for corporations is that the better the negotiated rate, the more often it shows as sold out. Hotels tinker with room inventories and in the process sometimes violate contracts stipulating last-room availability. Tripbam is testing a program that alerts hotels when they fail to live up…

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