Concur and GBTA have published a European survey of 741 business travellers from France, Germany and the UK. The report, entitled "Booking Behaviour: The Business Traveller's Perspective", highlights the delicate balance between compliance, best price and ease of booking.
A full-time position with medium or high responsibility, held by a man or woman of 35 to 54 years which carries out on average eleven trips a yearmost often concentrated on the domestic market is the profile of the french business traveller in 2016according to the latest study by GBTA and Concur. The "Booking Behaviour: The Business Traveller's Perspective" report, which also looked at the profile of mobile professionals working in Germany and the UK, deciphered the booking habits of these business travellers. The results show that 60% of these French and German employees have used "alternative" booking channels - meaning "not directly recommended by the company" - over the last 12 months. The trend is even more marked in the UK, where the rate is 64%.
An experience of reservation not practical enough (53%)and less attractive rates (40%) or a lack of availability from the recommended supplier are the most common reasons for deviating from the travel policy and the famous "compliance" principle. According to the Concur-GBTA report, these deviations are all the more common the more experienced the business traveller. In fact, 63% of French nomads who make more than 6 trips would prefer to book directly with the supplier, because of the preferences developed by these frequent travellers, or to use their loyalty programmes.
However, the study "Booking Behaviour: The Business Traveller's Perspective" shows that reservation systems still carry a great deal of weight, particularly in the French market where OBT remains the preferred distribution channel in 61% of casesThis compares with 54% in the UK and 49% in Germany. Nevertheless, a third of those surveyed (33%) deal directly with the supplier at least once a year. This situation has prompted Concur to reaffirm the relevance of its TripLink tool, which is designed to recover booking data that the company does not collect, and thereby to restore visibility and control of the business on the business travel of its employees.
