Travel Buyers Have More Success Negotiating Desired Amenities into Hotel and Ground Transportation Contracts Than Airline Contracts

Travel Buyers Feel Successful in Communicating Travel Policies to Business Travelers

Alexandria, VA (February 25, 2016) – A new GBTA Foundation survey found when it comes to airline contracts, the add-ons and amenities most valued by companies are often not included in the final contract. The report, Valuable Vendor Contract Add-ons: Prioritizing + Communicating = Saving, surveyed over 100 travel buyers across North America and is sponsored by Amadeus.

When considering which airline add-ons to negotiate into contracts, travel buyers most commonly report eliminating fees for cancelled or changed itineraries (99 percent), receiving name change waivers for tickets and ticket credits (97 percent) and removing checked-bag fees (91 percent) as valuable. However, these valued add-ons frequently don’t make it into the final contract. These three are “always” or “often” included 25 percent, 61 percent and 15 percent of the time, respectively.

For hotel contracts, the most valuable add-ons for travel managers and their companies include free Wi-Fi (99 percent), last room availability (97 percent) and free breakfast (96 percent). The final contracts more often than not contain these valued add-ons (89 percent, 82 percent and 82 percent, respectively). Similarly, ground transportation contracts frequently incorporate the add-ons travel buyers value as bringing the greatest savings to their company, including expedited rentals (94 percent), vehicle-class upgrades (88 percent) and vehicle choice (82 percent). These “always” or “often” appear in the final contract 80 percent, 70 percent and 69 percent of the time, respectively.

“Companies may see cost savings if the amenities and add-ons identified as valuable are more often negotiated into the final contract, particularly when it comes to airlines,” said Kate Vasiloff, GBTA director of research. “The study also reveals that while travel buyers appear confident in their efforts to successfully communicate travel policies and negotiated add-ons with their employees, very few companies collect data to support this. Collecting data around compliance rates presents a huge opportunity for companies to identify areas where communication efforts can be improved and money can be saved.”

“While cost savings is generally the driver for contract add-on services and amenities, improving the traveler’s experience throughout the journey is also critical in maintaining employee productivity and satisfaction,” said Jay Richmond, Head of Amadeus North America’s Business Travel Group. “Negotiating the right amenities aligned to particular traveler needs and evolving them as those needs change is a great way for travel managers to continue delivering value to their organizations.”

Communicating with Business Travelers

Two-thirds of travel buyers (67 percent) feel they successfully communicate negotiated travel add-ons to their travelers. Among that group, the most prevalent methods of relaying the information is updating the employee handbook once a year (52 percent), sending quarterly emails (36 percent) and holding meetings with travelers on an annual basis (31 percent).

While few companies track whether or not travelers pay for add-ons or services already factored into the negotiated rate (17 percent), travel buyers feel the majority of travelers are not incorrectly paying for already-included add-ons. They estimate only about one out of every five trips involving a hotel stay include an erroneous expense (19 percent), compared to 15 percent involving ground transportation and even fewer involving airlines (8 percent).

Metodología

This study is based on an online survey of 103 travel buyers or travel managers based in North America conducted December 3-14, 2015.

Más información

The study, Valuable Vendor Contract Add-ons: Prioritizing + Communicating = Saving, is available exclusively to GBTA members by clicking here and non-members may purchase the report through the GBTA Foundation by emailing [email protected] The results of the study will also be presented in a webinar on May 17th at 2pm ET.

CONTACTO: Colleen Gallagher, +1 703-236-1133, [email protected]

Acerca de la Fundación GBTA
La Fundación GBTA es la fundación de educación e investigación de la Asociación Global de Viajes de Negocios (GBTA), la principal organización comercial de viajes y reuniones de negocios del mundo con sede en el área de Washington, DC y operaciones en seis continentes. Colectivamente, los más de 9000 miembros de GBTA administran anualmente más de $345 mil millones de viajes de negocios globales y gastos de reuniones. GBTA proporciona a su creciente red de más de 28 000 profesionales de viajes y 125 000 contactos activos educación, eventos, investigación, defensa y medios de comunicación de primer nivel. La Fundación se estableció en 1997 para apoyar a los miembros de GBTA ya la industria en general. Como fundación líder en educación e investigación en la industria de viajes de negocios, la Fundación GBTA busca financiar iniciativas para promover la profesión de viajes de negocios. La Fundación GBTA es una organización sin fines de lucro 501(c)(3). Para obtener más información, consulte gbta.org y gbta.org/foundation.