Healthcare startup Roivant is in growth mode. Over the past
three years, the company went from 40 employees to more than 500. Nearly
three-quarters travel at least once a year, and 40 percent are road warriors. In
addition to the growing travel volume, travel patterns have leaned increasingly
more international, and Roivant needed a more mature approach to managing it,
said travel and event manager Jessica Courtney.
The company had operated on the motto "Spend Roivant
money as your own" and otherwise just had a few agreements with hotels
near its major offices. By November 2016, however, "we went from having no
T&E [guidance] to having a fully-fledged program using a travel management
company, Concur Travel and Expense and Rocketrip," said Courtney.
Roivant didn't consult with travelers before setting up the
program. "We looked at where spend was and what we needed to
control," she said. There was pushback. "When travelers are
accustomed to just going to Kayak and booking their own travel, anytime you
implement a system or process it can be a little bit of a learning curve and
challenge." But Courtney had a good idea about how to get buy-in.
Rocketrip as a
Behavioral Tool
Rocketrip rewards corporate travelers for reducing trip
costs. In its most basic form, it presents a business traveler with a budget to
beat, after which the traveler can book the trip in any channel allowed by
their company. If the traveler can book the trip under the budget to beat, he
or she banks points redeemable for gift cards and other rewards. Most Rocketrip
company clients reward their travelers with points equal to half the realized
savings.
Rocketrip CEO Dan Ruch has kept the tool independent from a
booking tool so it can integrate with multiple platforms rather than impose its
own booking channel onto a customer. For its part, Roivant leveraged Rocketrip's
Concur Travel integration, which presents the budget to beat within the
standard workflow for booking a business trip.
Driving Engagement
Roivant also took training and engagement tactics seriously
to get the most out of its behavioral strategy. The company devoted a section
of employee T&E training to Rocketrip, making sure travelers understood how
to get a budget to beat and what to do if their trips change and answering
frequently asked questions. "We tried to think through all the questions
employees might ask and document it in an easy-to-understand way," Courtney
said.
The company introduced fun ways to drive engagement with
Rocketrip, such as TV monitors throughout the office that showcase top budget
beaters. It also allows travelers to donate rewards to their favorite charities.
Adoption momentum accelerated after a few rewards started to roll in, said
Courtney. "Once the budgets to beat became tangible points, we stopped
getting any negative feedback, and people were really excited about the
program."
Results Don't Lie
Roivant saw a reduction in their T&E spend after
introducing a comprehensive travel program. Courtney said controlling spend
through good policy and driving standard compliance doesn't tell the whole
story; Rocketrip incentivized travelers to do better than policy.
Roivant's travel policy still allows travelers to access
four-star hotels and business class flights, especially for international
itineraries, which represent 65 percent of the company's travel volume. With
Rocketrip in place, 7 percent of business class-eligible itineraries are booked
in coach instead, saving an average of $4,076 per round-trip flight, which the
company then splits with the traveler. Twenty percent of travelers book the
lowest airfare available, saving an average of $125 per round-trip flight.
Airfares represent the biggest savings for Roivant, but
travelers' lodging decisions drive savings, as well. Thirty percent of
travelers choose hotels rated below the allowable four stars, saving an average
of $52 per hotel night booked. Roivant also has seen a 5 percent reduction in
hotel nights booked, even when the trip involves a flight. This indicates
travelers are staying with friends or family instead of at a hotel; that saves
an average of $317 per hotel night booked, which, again, is ultimately split
with the traveler. Rocketrip cites that outcome in its marketing, but according
to Courtney, "To be honest, I really wasn't expecting it."
Rocketrip has integrated a duty of care workflow to ensure
corporate clients know where travelers are staying, even if they don't have a hotel
booked. As Rocketrip graduated its target customer to large enterprises, duty
of care integrations became a priority. Questions around productivity also dog
the company, even as it has expanded its client reach. Critics
posit that employees, by spending time trying to book travel under the budget
to beat, are wasting company time, which can cost the company more money than
it saves.
Courtney, however, hasn't seen that problem. "We
are pretty busy, and not a lot of people are spending the time to [look for
trip pricing in other channels]," she said. "The Rocketrip extension
into Concur takes the guess work out of it."