BTN's 2009 Large Market Benchmarking Report

After more than a decade of annually benchmarking the 100 biggest spenders in terms of U.S. point-of-sale airline travel, and taking several annual measurements along the way of the companies with small and midmarket air travel volumes, Business Travel News editors this year for the first time sought a clear picture of the companies constituting the large market, those that spend between $10 million and $40 million in annual U.S. booked air volume.

While developing this picture of previously uncharted territory, we found some differences in what otherwise was not completely unfamiliar terrain.

Business Travel News thanks the large market travel buyers, Diners Club International and other industry participants who supported our efforts to create this baseline of negotiating and performance measures and practices.

Download a PDF of the full 2009 Large Market Benchmarking Report here, including all data, charts, stories and large market buyer profiles.

Click the headlines below to read each article online.

Sizing Up Large Market Travel Buyers
The very largest buyers always can capture travel vendors' attention, but their large market colleagues have to try a little harder. Large market travel buyers don't have the most clout, but they have enough to get supplier attention. While large market companies usually don't have to work as hard as those with smaller travel budgets to prove their value to suppliers, more size only ensures an opportunity to show what they can deliver to suppliers.

Finding Travel Program Opportunities
Corporate travel buyers for large companies this year have witnessed enhanced receptivity among travel suppliers to structure pricing agreements-with hotels leading as the most flexible with which to negotiate. Though buyers running mature travel programs have found consistent success at the negotiating table with hotels this year, they continue to find the least success in that area when it comes to traveler compliance.

Large Market Profile: Estée Lauder Puts On Meeting Face
Estée Lauder next month will begin to flow all of its meetings bookings through its new strategic meetings management program, which includes a single technology platform, policy, meetings procurement card and a core group of part-time meeting planners throughout the organization.

Business Class Use No Longer Dropping
More than one-third of those responding to Business Travel News' large market benchmarking survey this year have made business class policies more restrictive, helping to fuel dramatic declines in premium cabin usage. As those deep cuts continue to ravage airline balance sheets and remain down year over year, the bleeding in business class utilization has stopped and some even are seeing nascent signs of a premium recovery.

Expanding Travel Agency Consolidation
Many corporations with large market travel spending are expanding travel management company consolidation efforts as they target cost cutting, greater program control and maximum supplier negotiating leverage.

Keeping Buyer Control Of Hotel Rates
Large market buyers, even without the volume advantages of the largest travel buyers, are keeping hotel rates under control by boosting compliance, compiling data to benchmark their performance by city, following such best practices as vendor consolidation and enacting tiering down strategies.

Using Booking Tools As Tech Backbones
With large market company travel spending becoming more multinational, travel buyers in the segment are requiring more capabilities and enhanced functionality from travel technology to raise their control over travel expenditures and traveler behavior as they seek to bring consistency to increasingly complex travel footprints.

Large Market Q&A: Co. Seeks Total T&E Compliance
Thomas Barrett, director of strategic sourcing for Ingersoll Rand—which continues to integrate his previous company, Trane, following last year's acquisition—this month spoke with Business Travel News senior editor Jay Boehmer about supplier receptivity, compliance and the budget planning process.

Embracing Meetings Management Practices
Large market buyers are following the largest travel buyers in embracing meetings management best practices, with a majority capturing data for their meetings and leveraging hotel negotiations with their transient volumes. Consultants also said the economic downturn has spurred more large market buyers to step up demand management policies for their meetings programs and centralize meetings management functions.

Finding Room For Making Ground Moves
Car rental contracts, while a much smaller part of the travel budget than air and hotel spending, can be fertile negotiating ground for large market travel buyers, particularly since rates are less affected by volume.
The large market buyers surveyed by Business Travel News reported spending in 2008 an average of $40 on daily rentals for midsize cars, not counting taxes or fees. Corporate Travel 100 buyers in 2008 paid on average a rate of $37.80 for midsize car rental, and that number has changed little in the past decade.