Booking: hotels in the firing line

Focus on hotels! After the air and rail budgets, two components of business travel that are generally well controlled by companies, purchasing departments, like travel managers, have made controlling accommodation expenditure their number one ambition. The latest American Express Business Travel barometer shows that 54% of large companies have put this item under tighter control. And this priority is likely to remain at the top of the list for some time to come, since controlling these costs clearly leaves plenty of room for optimisation... "Only a quarter of bookings go through a dedicated channel, whether by us, the travel agencies or by platforms specialising in hotel distribution, or self-booking tools. This means that 75 % of bookings still fall outside this framework", notes Mélanie Dubus, Marketing Manager at American Express Business Travel.

Business travellers always tend to book their hotel directly. And the reasons for this are as numerous as they are varied. The most obvious is that some companies, although increasingly rare, have simply not formulated a clear policy. "They provide their staff with an Excel listing of the establishments they prefer- res, without giving further instructions".says Stéphane de Laforcade, Managing Director of Hotel Corporate System.

Digital divide

First positive point: the solutions are being strengthened in areas where they were previously lacking, namely the provision of of establishments that were flying under the radar of the agencies. With the launch of last year of CRS by CWT, Carlson Wagonlit (CWT) has enhanced its Hotel 360 solution by offering bookableindependent hotels not previously listed in the GDS. Another innovation, Your Place by CWT "which enablesto include their accommodation solutions in their hotel programme. in-house, for example within their training centres or their campuses abroad".explains Peggy Studer.

American Express Business Travel has similarly opened its HotelHub reservations to a host of independent hotels, particularly in France.towards partnerships with voluntary chains such as Logis, InterHotel and Citotel. "If a company has links with an out-of-the-ordinary establishment, we we can also integrate it into the system"., emphasises Mélanie Dubus. Previously a purely off-line solution, HotelHub is now part of the online offering of American Express and will gradually be rolled out to customers with the self booking tool (SBT) from publisher KDS.

Attractive platforms

In the face of ever-increasing expectations, the world leaders in technological solutions nologies are working hard behind the scenes to develop new solutions to a range of problems. for companies and their employees travel agencies. Amadeus, a strategic intermediary as both GDS and SBT supplier, has launched Link- Hotel, which allows you to book properties in real time that are not accessible via the Internet. GDS - 6,000 at present. "ForTo reduce accommodation costs, it is important to offer independent hotels.and economical, says Isabelle Falque, Marketing & Innovation Director at Amadeus France. In additionof the major chains, we are also integrating content from aggregators such as Destinations of the World and Transhotel".

Amadeus has gone even further by entering into a strategic alliance in early 2012 with the reservation platform German hotel company HRS. In its 40 years of existence, this player in the business travel sector has built up a solid reputation in the market. close relations with hoteliers 250,000 establishments, including 50,000 independent ones which until now have only been accessible by via the HRS portal. "This partnership global revolutionises business travel, says Emmanuel Ebray, Managing Director of HRS France. Amadeus can thus offer travel agencies and companies, through its SBTs, a range of of establishments. Hoteliers who did not attend in the GDS for cost reasons offer real-time availability". This rapprochement illustrates the rise of hotel reservation centres, also known as "central reservations". the Anglo-Saxon name of Hotel Booking Agencies (HBA). Because the difficulties faced by the major agencies business travellers to offer solutions to their These fully satisfactory results have raised the ambitions of players specialising in hosting, such as HCorpo,

CDS, iAlbatros, BSI or, recently, BTravel. Rather than confronting these players head-on, travel agencies are finding partners who can extend their hotel offer. Frequent Flyer Travel offers the services of HRS, HCorpo and CDS to its customers. Even in among the leading TMCs, and Carlson Wagonlit has deployed a number of in the UK and Northern Europe the hotel booking tool (HBT) - CWT Room Select, created in partnership with Hotel Zone. France is on the first quarter of 2013.

Improving reporting

Why this new craze? Because these professionals offer state-of-the-art technological solutions and, above all, a range of over 200,000 hotels. Building on its track record, HRS deals with 30,000 companies in France, a third of which are CAC 40 companies. Or as many customers seduced by an argument solution costs them nothing, since HRS lives off the commissions paid by hoteliers. "For the latter, we are one of the cheapest in the market with only 15 % of commi- sions. In this way, we can offer companies a best-price plugs, between 5 and 30 % lower than public tariffs".emphasises Emmanuel Ebray.

HCorpo, which has embarked on the adventure in 2010, for its part, is based on a busi- ness model that is not remuneration-based. of its role as intermediary, but on a margin between the purchase and resale of rooms. In practice, the dif- is also based on the classic model: the travellergeur no longer gives out his card number or Corporate as security for the booking before paying the hotel themselves and then being reimbursed by their company. Payment is centralised on the platform and bookings are made directly by the customer. are covered by a voucher. Only extras are payable at the end of your stay.

This cover option is appreciated as much by the public sector as by certain private companies. "We offer our entire inventory in prepayment. Practical for SMEs who don't have a Corporate card"., Jérome Fouque, Managing Director Egencia France. For its part, "HRS does not does not rule out developing its offering by in this sense", says Emmanuel Ebray. For his part, Stéphane de Laforcade sees in this system another advantage with a better consolidation of data. "We buy the rooms, so we can centralise invoices and send them a monthly statement of transactions showing all expenditure. This data is level three, offering a high level of ?ness in terms of data: traveller name, room category, breakfast, etc.ner, number of overnight stays ..."

The current lack of visibility on hotel spending is largely due to inadequate reporting. But it's not enough, as you can see, things are looking upluent. All the more so since payment by escrow account is also making its appearance.tion in the hotel sector. Thisallows companies to cut out the time-consuming work of processing faxes.while at the same time encouraging a rise in information. HCorpo accepts the Air Plus card and American Express. Amadeus and Sabre have joined forces with Conferma, a British specialist in the settlement of hotel expenses, to use a virtual card. Accor is working on this.

The beginnings of virtual payment

American Express Voyages has integrated its Vpayment solution in hotel reservations. "This makes it easier to consolidate spending, but not only that: it is also a lever for apply the travel policy. With virtual payment, travellers don't have to give their card as a guarantee or worry about reimbursement of expenses appendices. Hoteliers also appreciate this formula because they are paid immediately. While not everyone is familiar with This solution is still perfectly is nevertheless developing quite rapidly".says Mélanie Dubus.

Monitoring loads

But beyond reporting travel managers need to make live these programmes, analyse expenditure. To this end, suppliers offer them new tools. Carlson Wagonlit has recently added new functionalities to its global Hotel 360 offering such as CWT Value Rates preferential rates advertised at over 7,000 hotels with breakfast and WiFi included in addition to the possibility of annu- the same day free of charge. "For companies, these competitive rates are a real advantage. interesting additions to towns where they do not have negotiated contracts"., explains Peggy Studer, Senior Director, Global Hotel Product Marketing at Carl- its Wagonlit. "We have also developed the Missed Savings tool, which analyses each transaction to put a stop to it. to highlight the differences between therates negotiated with hoteliers. This means that corrective measures can be taken if necessary. We are also in the process of a forward-looking tool that will give an idea of future availability".explains Philippe Chausson, Director EMEA hotel solutions for the same travel agency.

Often felt to be a bone of contention between companies, their employees and their customers. travel agencies and hospitality groups. the loading of negotiated fares into booking tools is also a major challenge. placed under increased surveillance. Ama- deus has developed the Hotel Dynamic Saver tool to ensure that negotiated rates are are those accessible in the booking tools. "We also check that squatter hotels, which present themselves as as referenced by companies then that they are not, are excluded from the sys- system".explains Isabelle Falque. "After Having negotiated hard, companies are not formally following the load. Which is a shame, because that's where everything begins"says Philippe Chausson, "which is why CWT carries out audits regular intervals to achieve char- optimal management".. Supporting companies in the definition and management of their programmes and conduct negotiations where necessary in their place: business travel agencies have a strong role to play in the long-awaited optimisation of the hotel budget.