TMCs Push Policy Benchmarks

BCD Travel and Carlson Wagonlit Travel this month each released client benchmark surveys that focused on optimizing travel programs through such measures as policy compliance, increasing adoption of online booking tools and communicating with travelers.

BCD Travel in May polled 181 clients and the results provide insight on air, hotel and car rental programs, as well as recommendations—culled from BCD's newly created consulting unit—for dealing with increased travel costs.

As in 2005, reducing travel expenses remained the Atlanta-based agency's clients' first priority, according to the survey, while negotiating more effectively with suppliers jumped to the second-highest goal in 2006 from the fourth last year. Mark Walton, principal of Deerfield, Ill.-based Consulting Strategies, attributed this to increasing rates.

"The market conditions have caused air, hotel and car rates to go up and, coupled with the fuel crises, there's a lot of pressure on cost," he said. "If travel managers aren't experiencing it now, then they may soon get pressure from finance or executive level management to try and navigate through this problematic issue."

Adoption ranked as the most popular method of measuring the success of an online booking tool at 89 percent of respondents, followed by transaction fee cost savings at 52 percent. On average, 2006 respondents set a goal of 52 percent online adoption, compared with 43 percent last year, though BCD reported an actual average adoption rate of 36 percent was achieved in 2005.

Sixty percent of clients surveyed reported "good to excellent" online booking tool satisfaction levels, 8 percentage points higher than in 2005. Tool enhancements respondents would like to see to help push adoption are online ticket exchanges, the ability to book meeting travel and online ticket voids and refunds without exchanges.

BCD's sixth annual survey found that 83 percent of respondents use technology to track travelers, with 53 percent using the tools multinationally.

Though traveler tracking is prevalent among BCD clients, it rates as the least significant attribute in a travel program by Carlson Wagonlit's respondents. At 61 percent, traveler tracking was outshined in importance by customer service at 89 percent, experience at 82 percent, access to all airline inventory at 80 percent, data reporting at 74 percent and price at 70 percent.

"Traveler tracking has been an important theme for the last couple of years or so," Walton said. "Companies have accomplished the requirements to track travelers, so that's probably why it's not higher on the list of importance. It's more of a tool that exists now."

CWT's survey, conducted last fall, included responses from 2,100 business travelers and 650 travel managers in 12 countries. The travel managers said the most rewarding aspect of their job is demonstrating to senior management how the travel program is saving the company money, and ranked "being the bad guy with travelers" as the most challenging aspect of their job, due to the responsibility of enforcing company travel policy.

CWT's findings may have uncovered why travel managers are often dubbed "the bad guy": While 64 percent of travel managers said their policy is mandatory, only 42 percent of travelers said the same, with 56 percent referring to their company's policy as a guideline. In North America, 60 percent of business travelers said they book travel outside of policy at least once a year. In Asia/Pacific and Europe, however, 49 percent and 48 percent of business travelers respectively say they never book outside of policy. About 48 percent of business travelers believed their out-of-policy actions had no consequences.

According to CWT's results, 76 percent of business travelers said providing an online booking tool is the most effective way to get travelers to comply with policy, followed by communication explaining reasons behind the policy at 68 percent, booking restrictions at 67 percent and penalties for booking outside of policy at 55 percent. "Online tools provide a traveler with information on a screen in real time and they can ascertain the value of making the right decisions relative to policy," Walton said. "It's motivating travelers to do the right thing."