GetThere: Online Bookings Surpass Pre-Sept. Levels - 2002-02-25

January turned out to be a record month for GetThere, the corporate booking subsidiary of Southlake, Texas-based Sabre Holdings Corp., as corporate travel bookings surpassed even those levels seen before September of last year. GetThere today unveiled some findings from its biannual Corporate Travel Benchmark survey, to which 28 of its top 100 clients responded. Among that high-end subset, 45 percent of total bookings are going online, versus 24 percent in March, 2001.

The upswing supports continued emphasis on online corporate travel systems for cost savings (BTN, Feb. 11), as most companies polled by GetThere cited increased executive involvement in corporate travel. At 65 percent of polled companies, for instance, CFOs were more involved this year than one year ago.

A company spokesperson also said the survey indicated that 80 percent of those polled have differential transaction pricing with their agencies for online versus offline bookings, and 60 percent either have implemented a mandate to book online or are planning to do so. The companies polled said airfares booked online were 15 percent lower than those booked traditionally and agency fees were 50 percent lower, according to GetThere.