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.
When Bjorn Hanson last year published his preliminary outlook for 2016 corporate negotiated hotel rates, the New York University professor predicted buyers might suffer their biggest increases in years. It didn’t happen. The aggressive prognostication followed several years in which hotels outperformed expectations on rates. Entering 2016, Hanson said last month, “There was a sense…
Thanks partly to rate assurance technology and data, some buyers now are thinking about setting fire to the lodging RFP process. Or, at least, subjecting it to a little controlled burning. According to 2014 GBTA Foundation research sponsored by Best Western, the hotel RFP process was taking between three and six months for more than…
It’s natural to look askance at HRS when executives say they’ll do your hotel sourcing for free. We’ll get to that. The other story on hotel sourcing partners this year is whether we’re at peak Lanyon. To manage the onerous hotel rate negotiating process, corporations and travel management companies turn to technology. Lanyon has been…
After the golf outing and spa day are over and before evening frivolities, away from the exhibition floor din and the general session celebrity, GBTA’s convention attendees in Denver next month will seek education. This year there are more than 80 sessions. Putting on that many in an effort to appeal to all is an…
Everyone talks about the SME, but they really mean the M. That’s the midsize in small and medium-sized enterprise. Executives at business travel booking tech firm Serko are going after the S. They say this collectively huge segment of the business world is due for recognition with quality travel management services. Serko is releasing a business…
Big U.S. airlines sell lots of add-ons. Business travelers crave several of them. They get some from status or their company’s travel program. Bundles and fare families can deliver them, too. Ascribing dollar values to these value-adds can be challenging. Reports from the Big Three airlines help make the case about the usefulness of their…
[UPDATE, Feb. 13, 2020: Rather than letting their marketing pact expire, American and Alaska announced a “West Coast alliance” including codesharing on both carriers’ domestic flights and some AA international routes from Los Angeles and Seattle. Loyalty program and lounge access reciprocity are part of the partnership. Alaska also intends to join AA in the…
End of content
End of content
