Travel industry suppliers frequently tout the awards they have received. But few, if any, of those accolades are based on criteria critical to managed travel buyers and their travelers. A new venture set to debut this spring aims to enable business travel buyers and travelers to rate, rank and review suppliers on the metrics that matter most to them. Beyond such crucial services as speed, efficiency and cost-containment, the index is designed to capture ratings of supplier sales and account management staffs, bid competitiveness and customer service.
Developed by Andy Menkes, the Travel Services Index is designed to allow travel buyers to rate travel management companies, air, ground and lodging providers, and suppliers of booking, reporting and middleware technology. Buyers and travelers also may critique airport services and efficiency, including Transportation Security Administration screening.
Menkes last week told attendees to an Institute of Supply Management-National Business Travel Association summit here that he founded a new company to run TSI, Managed Travel LLC. Evan Newman serves as chief technology officer for the new firm. Menkes also continues to run the Partnership Travel Consulting practice he relaunched last year after selling it to Hogg Robinson Group in 2006 and then working at Eos Airlines.
TSI would allow buyers and their travelers to rate airline lounges, ticket counters and gate agent staff, among other criteria. Ratings would be collected for long- versus short-haul carriers, as well as for competitors on particular city pairs. For buyers, metrics include the efficiency of the request for proposals process and overall value received for rates paid. The tool would allow buyers to "select business hotels based on input from business--not leisure--travelers," select the best airline on a major city pair and review rankings of the best Internet TMC sites, as ranked by other corporate buyers and their travelers, Menkes said.
Hotel metrics include the effectiveness of rate implementation, billing and receipts. At the property levels, measurements include those for the concierge and front desk staffs, as well as for the efficiency of the check-in process.
The online booking tool component asks buyers and travelers to rank the ease of use, speed and support of the online booking tool, as well as the accuracy of its travel policy and profile applications. Mobile access, mapping and reporting are among other OBT rankings.
"We don't have any type of industry-recognized repository for supplier ratings," Menkes said of the need for TSI. "The RFP process is very much buying in the blind." The index is designed to arm buyers with more insight from other buyers and their travelers.
Menkes said NBTA and its allied council agreed to support the tool he conceived last fall in exchange for free access for its travel manager members. NBTA direct members will receive through 2010 a free annual subscription, which will cost other buyers $499 a year or $299 for six months. Menkes said buyer members of the Association of Corporate Travel Executives would be offered a discounted subscription.
Suppliers can purchase reports that indicate ratings of their own companies by various segments, but cannot access the online rankings or competitors' rankings, Menkes said. One report is designed to allow airline, hotel and travel management company suppliers to "identify geographic areas of weakness in account management, sales or customer service," Menkes said.
In about 70 questions, buyer subscribers are asked to rate supplier performance as excellent, good, fair or poor. The four categories are designed to force buyers to make a choice, Menkes said. Subscribers also must provide their geographic locations, industries and annual travel volumes so all users can sort aggregated responses by these criteria. The index provides only aggregated rankings--never the specific ratings of one company or traveler, Menkes noted.
He expects to begin data collection in March, with reporting expected by May. Rankings from at least 1,000 buyers altogether and a minimum of 10 for a given supplier will be required before supplier summary reports are displayed, Menkes said.
By August, Menkes said, plans call for the addition of separate modules on meetings, payment systems and expense reporting tools. A version of the tool will be available for Europe-based travel buyers by July and for the rest of the world in August, to allow all to input and sort the data by travel spend in various currencies besides U.S. dollars.
Managed Travel LLC this spring also will enable corporations to survey travelers about the preferred suppliers in their managed programs. Some of these traveler ratings will roll up to the overall TSI database, but other data will be provided only to the corporate buyer to better gauge their travelers' satisfaction with preferred suppliers. Such insight can help travel managers or procurement teams prepare for supplier reviews or negotiations, Menkes said. Depending on the degree of customization required, pricing will range between $2,000 and $10,000, Menkes said.
TSI is patterned after the Managed Travel Index that Menkes and Newman developed for NBTAto allow managed travel buyers to benchmark their travel programs against others.