BTN Research Issue: Connecting With Managed Travelers

There are more opportunities for corporate travelers to become both connected and disconnected from their managed travel programs than ever before. Advancing technology has brought new touchpoints to the travel cycle, providing new opportunity for program managers, suppliers and travelers themselves to exert influence. While it's obvious that an evolving mobile culture is affecting travel management, the trick is determining what to do about it.

The BTN Group conducted a comprehensive survey of travel programs to assess how managers and buyers offer services and communicate policies to corporate travelers, and the extent to which those travelers get the message, comply with organizational rules or stray to external services and unapproved channels.

[To view the digital edition of the Connecting With Managed Travelers special research edition of BTN, please click here]. 

This research examined many aspects of the business travel experience, from guiding policies, supplier selection, booking and pre-trip approvals to pre-departure communications and processes, en route components, service recovery and crisis management and through to expense reporting and collecting traveler feedback.

In each of these areas, there are instances when buyers and travelers see eye to eye and share similar perceptions of organizational travel programs. In other instances, the disconnects are clear.

In terms of policy, for example, 3 percent of polled buyers said their organizations have no policy or preferred suppliers, while 18 percent of travelers—nearly one in five—said as much about their organizations. That disparity, as well as others explored in this report, likely is the product of several factors, including separate samples of surveyed organizations for each of the two groups of respondents. Another possible, and for buyers problematic, factor is that many travelers simply are not aware of company policies.

Younger travelers particularly seem unaware of policies or unwilling to abide by them. According to traveler respondents under 35 years of age, 55 percent of all 2010 transactions on average complied with overall travel policies. That compared with 73 percent of transactions among those aged 35 to 54 and 86 percent of transactions among those over 55 years of age. Similar splits were observed for a number of specific travel policies (see chart below).

Mandates also are a factor in policy compliance, of course, but they are not necessarily as influential as program managers might expect. For example, buyer respondents indicated that an average of 67 percent of 2010 airline transactions complied with company policies, while those who said such policies are mandated indicated an average compliance of 75 percent. Higher, yes, but not a magic bullet. Similar differentials are observed for car rental, corporate card, hotel and booking channel.

At the same time, survey results show that for every medium listed other than mobile apps, a much greater percentage of buyers than travelers said that medium is used to communicate travel policies. For example, 74 percent of surveyed buyers said email is used to communicate company policies versus only 31 percent of travelers. Similarly, 66 percent of buyers said an intranet site is used to communicate travel policy versus only 25 percent of travelers.

The easily stated but not-so-easily executed solution is to better communicate policies and processes to traveling populations. To do so, program managers must consider traveler demographics and travelers' preferred means of receiving information, and target messages based on those preferences. Eighty-three percent of traveler respondents already use smartphones. About 40 percent use tablet devices, and nearly 30 percent more expect to do so within 12 months.

Meanwhile, across all travel categories, the percentage of buyers indicating their organizations have preferred agreements is far higher than among traveler respondents. The largest disparity observed in the research is for travel agencies, where 71 percent of buyers said their organizations have a preferred relationship versus 35 percent of travelers.

Moreover, among the common channels used in managed travel programs, a noticeably smaller percentage of travelers than buyers say such channels are used for shopping and booking airfares, hotel rooms and rental cars. Given the implication that the shopping and booking of fares and rates may be more fragmented than travel program managers would like and spread across more channels than some may even be aware, organizations must improve traveler communications, not just about travel policies, but also the reasons for them.

Managers also may consider developing flexible policies that allow other channels to be integrated into the program.

In most tightly managed travel programs, travelers are told to book through designated channels, usually the preferred travel agency, the company's travel department or a designated online tool. But no amount of reminding and prodding can force all travelers to recognize, understand and follow every rule, even when their own safety may be at risk.

"We tell [travelers] every single time to book through our sources, but we know some will not do that," said Rita Visser, Oracle senior manager and global travel procurement lead, speaking about the importance of traveler well-being during The Beat Live conference in September. "When we send a letter to the top levels of the organization and say, 'Here's the issue, here's what happened, here's what we know,' we always have to put in a disclaimer that there are [some travelers] that didn't follow policy, and we can't help them. You reach out to all lines of management and say, 'If you know someone is [potentially in danger], and they didn't book through us, now it's your responsibility to make sure your employee is fine.' "

Regarding crisis management, perhaps the most important aspect of a travel program, the disparity in how travel program managers provide information and how travelers receive information is stark and possibly disturbing. For example, 63 percent of buyers said they use email to send out crisis alerts but just 25 percent of travelers said they receive information in that manner.

Another disconnect relates to travel itineraries (67 percent of surveyed buyers said email is used to provide itineraries to travelers but only 42 percent of traveler respondents said they receive itineraries in that way). At the same time, of course, a growing number of travelers use mobile applications to organize travel reservations, receive trip information and coordinate with colleagues. Travelers increasingly also are turning to provider websites (and/or provider mobile apps) to pay for checked baggage, check in and accomplish many other tasks.

All these developments again relate to exploding use of smartphones, which are becoming the primary point of contact in the travel process—if they haven't already. Though such issues as data privacy and direct supplier marketing to travelers require attention, mobile technology, if not yet integrated into a managed travel program, need not be seen as taboo.

Discussing her company's travelers' use of mobile apps at The Beat Live, Hewlett-Packard global director of travel and meeting services Maria Chevalier said, "They supplement, and do what we cannot do today, outside that original booking. If you need to go to them to check in or get a better seat, that's fine. That doesn't stop me from managing through a crisis. We are working with mobile applications to try to bring them in-house and enhance them, but today we look at them as a supplement and not in lieu of what is done through the booking."

Meanwhile, as airlines develop unbundling and merchandizing strategies, the types of expenses travelers may incur on the road consequently is changing. Here, too, travel buyer and traveler perceptions vary. For example, buyers are less likely to say their organizations will reimburse travelers for inflight entertainment (6 percent of buyers said their organizations would versus 22 percent of travelers) and priority boarding (13 percent versus 24 percent). The same is true in other areas of the travel experience, including hotel room upgrades (8 percent of buyers said their organizations would pay for them while 26 percent of travelers expect to get reimbursed) and car rental class upgrade (11 percent versus 32 percent).

Younger travelers are more willing to pay for optional services themselves. Twenty-six percent of those under 35 indicated they'd personally pay to check a first bag for their air flight, compared with 15 percent across the full traveler survey base.

Younger travelers also are more willing to personally pay for in-room hotel Internet access (24 percent versus 17 percent) and GPS devices in rental cars (24 percent versus 14 percent). Considering all 13 air, hotel and car optional services listed in the survey, 13 percent of travelers under 35 said they wouldn't pay out of their own pocket for any, compared with 27 percent between 35 and 54 and 44 percent over 55.

Travel program managers, therefore, may need to find new ways to ensure travelers understand reimbursement policies. In some cases, they may consider altering their corporate policies or negotiating with suppliers to provide travelers with the conveniences and travel amenities they seem to value most.

"The audience is changing, my travelers are changing, the market is changing," said Jennifer Steinke, manager of corporate travel, meetings and expense for US Foodservice. "I have a younger audience coming in as corporate travelers that have seen and done everything on the web, on tablets, on smartphones. When they see all the consumerization out there, they expect that in their managed travel program, too. And we are still doing things in this industry in very archaic ways, and that has to change. We are no longer going to keep up with the new human element that is coming into this industry."

Based on The BTN Group's research, travel buyers have an opportunity to create applications and map out processes that travelers want to use. They need to do so before travelers deviate further from managed travel programs, perhaps by adopting consumer solutions and allowing use of provider websites and social networks in ways that are not detrimental to company goals.

Connecting managed travelers to a company program may be difficult. Keeping them connected may be harder still. But travel managers can convert the hurdles into program benefits if they take a holistic view and better understand their travelers.

Survey Demographics & Methodology 

This survey collected responses from 260 U.S. travel buyers who subscribe to Business Travel News or Travel Procurement and/or are members of The BTN Group Research Council, and 502 U.S. business travelers who are members of Equation Research panels.

For the purposes of this study, travel buyers are defined as those involved in setting corporate travel policies, managing business travel cost controls, negotiating rates for transient travelers, negotiating rates for meetings and/or selecting/recommending meeting facilities and/or meeting destinations. They represented companies across industry sectors and of all sizes. Of the 260 respondents, 94 indicated their organizations' 2010 U.S.-booked air volume was under $1 million, 33 indicated between $1 million and $2 million, 79 between $2 million and $12 million, 30 between $12 million and $20 million and 24 more than $20 million.

Participating travelers indicated they fly for business at least four times per year. In the past 12 months, they averaged 13 trips and 34 nights away (26 in the United States and 8 in other countries).

They also represented a cross-section of company sectors and sizes (the median for total sales in the most recent fiscal year was about $527 million). Their average age was 42, with 30 percent below the age of 35, 52 percent between the ages of 35 and 54, and 18 percent at 55 or older.

The BTN Group conducted this research between May and June 2011.

Buyer and traveler respondents answered separate online questionnaires. Unless otherwise noted, data presented in this issue is based on multiple-choice questions.

Equation Research tabulated the results.