Travelport For Business To Initiate Onsite Agent Services

Travelport for Business today announced it would provide onsite agent services for corporate clients, a move Orbitz Worldwide Corporate Travel Solutions Group COO Dean Sivley said was driven by demand from current and prospective corporate accounts.

The majority of prospective clients and corporations inquiring about onsite agent service have at least $5 million in U.S. booked air volume, according to Sivley, who also noted that some buyers with lower air spending who manage heavy international travel and high-touch programs are considering adding at least one onsite agent.

"There were a number of clients who called us or sent RFPs who were interested, loved our service and loved the idea of driving online adoption to 80 percent, but would like one or two agents onsite to either handle VIP or international, then supplement that through a source like ours, but we couldn't participate in that because we couldn't support that configuration," Sivley said.

There is no set timeframe for the first onsite implementation because the sales, marketing and account development stages began earlier this week, Sivley said. A standard cost-plus pricing system, in which corporations pay a base fee for each agent as well as a management fee to Travelport, will apply.

Travelport for Business has not begun the recruiting process for agents, but Sivley anticipated some agents would transfer internally to onsite operations. "Many times, they are switching from an existing agency, so it's not uncommon that many of those people are coming across if it's a noncompete or if the customer's employees themselves come across," he said.

While onsite agents no longer are commonplace in the industry, some corporations with complex international travel patterns, where passport and visa issues come into play, still choose onsite service, said Mark Walton, principal of Deerfield, Ill.-based Consulting Strategies. "In a traditional, more common corporate travel environment, onsites are a thing of the past," he said. "There are few companies that require that, but the few that still do believe in it. If they are willing to pay for it and you are a TMC, you need to be willing to provide the support," Walton said.

For corporations considering installing onsite agents, consultant Carol Ann Salcito, president of Norwalk, Conn.-based Management Alternatives, said the lower costs of an online travel management company may be offset by the addition of onsite service.

"When you think about Internet travel management companies, you think about the robotic piece, you don't think about the human factor behind the scenes," she said. "You are not paying for them outright, it's built into the lower cost. Once you start putting bodies on site, you are then looking at labor costs. Labor plus the low cost may still be lower than a traditional agency, but it may not."