Business Travel News - December 15, 2008 - (Page 13) FORUM BTNonline.com DAVID MEYER Editor-in-Chief (646) 654-4431 (dmeyer@btnonline.com) CHRIS DAVIS Executive Managing Editor (646) 654-4437 (cdavis@btnonline.com) JAY BOEHMER Airline Editor (646) 654-4434 (jboehmer@btnonline.com) MICHAEL B. BAKER Hotel, Expense/Payment Editor (646) 654-4433 (mbaker@btnonline.com) SETH HARRIS Travel Management Editor (646) 654-5716 (sharris@btnonline.com) ERIC WONG Art Director (646) 654-4439 (ewong@btnonline.com) • CONTRIBUTING EDITOR AMON COHEN +44 (0) 1963-351-219 We welcome your letters, comments and feedback. Please contact the editor at dmeyer@btnonline.com. For breaking news and original research, and to search articles since 1996, visit BTNonline.com. Focus On Managing Supplier Relations Continued from page 12 NANCY LAZARUS Research Director • SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES (847) 763-9050 Fax: (847) 763-9037 LIST RENTAL/POSTAL INFORMATION JULIUS SINGLE (845) 731-2731 E-MAIL INFORMATION WAYNE NAGROWSKI (845) 731-3854 CUSTOM REPRINTS OF 500 PIECES OR MORE: KRISTI FULKERSON, The YGS Group (800) 290-5460, ext. 144 (BTN@TheYGSgroup.com) BTN EDITORIAL & SALES OFFICES 770 Broadway New York, NY 10003-9595 Editorial Fax: (646) 654-4455 All Rights Reserved ing off around the world. As such, when you are making the decision on a specific vertical in business travel, you need to focus on price, service and quality, but you can only get two out of the three without sacrificing one of them. That’s not to say that price is not critical, especially in today’s economic environment, but there’s more to the equation than the transactional price, whether it’s an agency fee, hotel rate, airfare, etc., as we’ve all seen during our careers. When I was the travel manager for a major bank based in New York, I told my primary hotel sales executive that I didn’t want her lowest room rates for New York City. She looked at me oddly and then finally asked me why. I told her that, like the Godfather, there would be a day where I would need a favor, as in a room for our CEO on a sold-out day or an upgrade for a vice chairman, and that she’d be more willing to do it if she remembered that I didn’t beat her up on price. Of course, that day came twice. I got our CEO a suite at the standard room rate, and to coin a phrase, it was “priceless.” Our CEO didn’t care about average daily rate or average ticket price, for that matter; what mattered to him was that I took care of him when company, perhaps through your travel management company, that can amount to a significant numhe needed a favor. ber at year-end. More than 50 perAllow me to give some examples: cent of all hotel bookings are not • It’s expected that your preferred at the corporate negotiated, and airline partner, as opposed to a ven- usually net, rate. dor or supplier, provides elite sta• Considering that travel mantus for your top executives and your agement company fees represent most frequent travelers. What you the smallest portion of a T&E budgcan measure is the percentage of et, it’s amazing how much focus times your negotiated fare invento- business travel buyers place on ry is available. This is them. Despite their attempts to lowespecially critical durer fees by merely ising periods of high desuing a request for mand. It’s not enough proposals, the real to negotiate a huge dissavings can be please opinions please send opin to achieved by workcount: The seats have d dmeyer@btnonline.com ing with your travel to be available at the time of booking in ormanagement comder to achieve any significant sav- pany and investing in account manings. Being able to clear a seat dur- agement and/or consulting time ing winter break or special events is spent on reviewing the waste, lost a significant achievement that can’t productivity and missed savings as a be measured in unit pricing alone. result of noncompliance with airline, • The pricing systems for hotels hotel and car rental contracts. are looking more like airline yieldmanagement systems, and the perWe now need to focus on supplicentage of times your negotiated er relationship management, where rate is available or not is an easily there is collaboration between premeasurable metric that will define ferred suppliers and buyers to rethe quality of the business relation- duce the total cost of ownership for ship. The ability for a hotel chain to services, while creating competitive update your company on special advantages for both sides through rates that could undercut your nego- deeper relationships instead of antiated rates is a measure of the qual- nual RFP rituals. ity of the relationship. I for one would rather partner If your preferred hotel partners than procure. Maybe then, when it can provide an automated audit comes to price, service and quality, trail of commissions due to your you can get all three. ■ Sound Off BTNonline.com Highlights ON-DEMAND WEBCAST FRESH BTN RESEARCH FREE NEWSLETTERS Buyers can subscribe at no charge to get BTN's e-mailed newsletters. >> Virtual Corporate Travel World: Business Travel Management 2009 BTN's online education, networking and trade show featuring forecasts and future issues in corporate travel aviation, lodging, meetings and technology. >> BTN WHITE PAPER Benchmarking savings >> Euro BTN Weekly: Get breaking business travel news and the latest developments in managed travel for companies based or doing business in Europe by subscribing to BTN's new weekly news product. >>THE 2008 CORPORATE TRAVELER Measuring policy compliance, service expectations and technology use. Sponsored in part by American Express Business Travel and Travelport. Business Travel News www.BTNonline.com Monday, December 15, 2008 13 http://www.BTNonline.com http://www.BTNonline.com http://www.btnonline.com http://www.BTNonline.com
Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Business Travel News - December 15, 2008 Business Travel News - December 15, 2008 Contents Inside Track Profiles In Travel Mgmt Forum Aviation Lodging Ground Transportation Travel Management Meetings Today Washington Wire Business Travel News - December 15, 2008 Business Travel News - December 15, 2008 - Business Travel News - December 15, 2008 (Page 1) Business Travel News - December 15, 2008 - Business Travel News - December 15, 2008 (Page 2) Business Travel News - December 15, 2008 - Contents (Page 3) Business Travel News - December 15, 2008 - Inside Track (Page 4) Business Travel News - December 15, 2008 - Inside Track (Page 5) Business Travel News - December 15, 2008 - Profiles In Travel Mgmt (Page 6) Business Travel News - December 15, 2008 - Profiles In Travel Mgmt (Page 7) Business Travel News - December 15, 2008 - Profiles In Travel Mgmt (Page 8) Business Travel News - December 15, 2008 - Profiles In Travel Mgmt (Page 9) Business Travel News - December 15, 2008 - Forum (Page 10) Business Travel News - December 15, 2008 - Forum (Page 11) Business Travel News - December 15, 2008 - Forum (Page 12) Business Travel News - December 15, 2008 - Forum (Page 13) Business Travel News - December 15, 2008 - Aviation (Page 14) Business Travel News - December 15, 2008 - Aviation (Page 15) Business Travel News - December 15, 2008 - Lodging (Page 16) Business Travel News - December 15, 2008 - Lodging (Page 17) Business Travel News - December 15, 2008 - Ground Transportation (Page 18) Business Travel News - December 15, 2008 - Ground Transportation (Page 19) Business Travel News - December 15, 2008 - Travel Management (Page 20) Business Travel News - December 15, 2008 - Meetings Today (Page 21) Business Travel News - December 15, 2008 - Meetings Today (Page 22) Business Travel News - December 15, 2008 - Meetings Today (Page 23) Business Travel News - December 15, 2008 - Meetings Today (Page 24) Business Travel News - December 15, 2008 - Meetings Today (Page 25) Business Travel News - December 15, 2008 - Washington Wire (Page 26) Business Travel News - December 15, 2008 - Washington Wire (Page 27) Business Travel News - December 15, 2008 - Washington Wire (Page 28)
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