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.
It’s bad enough that hotel sourcing is so frustrating. What makes it worse is when some of the effort is wasted. Understanding why a corporate rate program isn’t as effective as it could be and figuring out what to do about it isn’t seasonal. It’s never-ending. “We actually buy travel twice,” said Susan Savy, a…
Delta’s been on a roll during the past few years, and now it’s pressing the advantage. The airline will compensate well-performing corporate accounts when on-time performance and completion factor are worse than both American’s and United’s after a full calendar year. Because Delta has been running a tight ship, it’s not a very risky move. Travel managers like it and they, too, have…
[UPDATE, April 8, 2016: We published new information related to this article here.] Despite significant consolidation among major U.S. airlines during the past decade, contracting with corporations is no less complex. Why? For one thing, published pricing is getting ever-more intricate. Some would say convoluted. That’s because airlines continue to apply more sophisticated revenue management…
There are fewer big U.S. airlines, they negotiate with fewer companies, and their generosity on discounts has diminished. But airline contracting is still complicated. The market offers several tools to help buyers at large travel programs optimize airline combinations. Sabre last month revealed plans to refresh the Prism Avion corporate data platform in use by…
[UPDATE, April 8, 2016: We published new information related to this article here.] The seller’s market in lodging continues unabated this year. U.S. occupancy is on track to hit record highs, hotel execs are rocking and rolling and business travelers are paying more. Recent data on New York City, though, raises questions. The nation’s biggest…
Personalization. It’s not just for people anymore. Lufthansa is using Amadeus technology to offer product and service add-ons to passengers based on where they work rather than who they are. The capability applies in direct and indirect channels, including travel management companies that use Amadeus or integrate using Web services. Negotiated discounts are not the…
Hotels had to reckon with Expedia before it acquired Travelocity and proposed the same for Orbitz. If it’s able to enhance its negotiating power, Expedia could reinforce the notion that online travel agencies offer lower lodging rates than traditional managed travel sources. In a Feb. 13 research note, Oppenheimer analyst Manish Hemrajani wrote that Expedia’s “Hulk-esque proportions…
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