A broader base of employees are being waved past the velvet
rope to enjoy premium-level support from their travel management companies.
Gail Grimmett, president of Travel Leaders Luxury Brands, said corporate
clients have been putting more of their people under her care. A company that
allowed only the C-suite and board members to enjoy concierge-level travel
agent service, for example, now might allow SVPs to partake, as well.
The same is true at Ovation Travel. EVP Michael Steiner told
BTN that among the clients that used premium TMC services in 2016, the number
of employees they put under that umbrella increased 25 percent in 2017. That's
the largest increase in the eight years the TMC has offered such services.
As online booking tools absorb more booking activity,
companies may be losing the personalized touch needed for VIPs and
international travel, Grimmett said, and premium TMC services can restore that.
Steiner said, "They just really value the hand-holding. … The value of
those services is increasing."
Altour global account manager Betina Williams said such
service is needed even more so as travel itineraries become more complex. "The
world is a smaller place. If you're going to go to Asia, you're going to hit
two cities and not just the one," she said. Especially "if you're
paying [an executive] a lot of money, you want them to have their complex
travel handled really quickly and efficiently."
There May Be No I in Team, but There Is in VIP
Lately, Williams said, clients have given Altour not only
their standard rosters of job titles that are eligible for premium service but
also names of particular people. "We don't always know why it's those
particular people," she said, "but when we see their travel patterns,
we see that they fall into this more complex pattern."
Professional services firms, where most travelers already
receive premium TMC services, are pushing certain individuals up even another
level, said Travel and Transport Ultramar VP of operations Barbara Yarar. Over
the past six months, they've quietly been asking the TMC for certain people
like managing partners, rainmakers, those on complex trips and those traveling
to high-risk markets to receive a level of service that the TMC provides but
doesn't market: round-the-clock access to an individual agent or team of two or
three agents.
This hyperpersonalized service tier focuses on the
individual traveler's preferences rather than the company's. "Corporations
want their senior executives … to feel secure and safe and that there's someone
there: Regardless of what happens, they can get to someone," Yarar said. "That
level of security is not necessarily there in a traditional TMC plug-you-in
kind of model. You need to elevate that and build a relationship with someone
that when they see your number on their phone they know exactly where you are,
exactly what you need and maybe it is even preempting and calling you instead
of you calling them, so it's more predictive."
Here to Stay?
Williams attributed the expanded base of premium-grade
corporate travelers to the rising cost of hiring and retaining employees,
especially high producers/road warriors. HR departments are putting travel
policy in their tool belts, implementing concierge-level service based on job
requirements rather than just job title, she said. "They want them to be
comfortable. They want them to stay with that company."
But will premium policies tighten again the next time the
economy does? "It will completely depend on the corporate culture and how
badly they want to retain that talent," she said. "In a company that
can withstand an economic downturn, they want to hold on to their employees
even more in that situation."
Steiner said an eventual economic decline could prompt
companies to rein in their lists of premium travelers, but, in fact, no Ovation
client has ever scaled back its VIP TMC list.
TClara managing partner Scott Gillespie, meanwhile,
maintains that demographics is a stronger driver than economics. Baby Boomers
will exit the workforce twice as fast as Millennials enter it over the next 15
years, he said. "All industries, regardless of their economic situation,
are going to be forced to compete much harder over the next 15 years for talent,"
he said. "I could imagine that yes, this is the beginning of a new norm.