Room for Savings: Optimizing Hotel Spend - Carlson

6. Improve traveler
compliance
The full benefits of a well-designed hotel
program can be reaped only if travelers
respect their travel policy. Unfortunately,
compliance is often low when it comes to
using preferred hotels and preferred booking
channels. To improve compliance, travel
managers can implement a number of best
practices, ranging from implementing policy
mandates to ensuring follow-up with
travelers who book out of policy.
Low compliance with preferred hotels
and preferred booking channels
Compliance with the hotel program is generally
low. CWT analyses of nine companies’ booking
transactions show that only 26-57 percent of
bookings involve preferred hotels, while as few
as 20 percent of transactions are made through
preferred booking channels (i.e., corporate
online booking tool or travel management
company counselors), as shown in Figures 102-
103. The fact that one company’s travelers used
preferred booking channels for 94 percent of
bookings indicates that high compliance levels
are possible. Nonetheless, companies cannot
expect 100 percent use of preferred hotels as
no preferred hotel program can cover all
destinations.
Figure 102: The use of preferred hotels varies between 26% and 57% in a sample of
9 companies
%
100
80
Bookings at preferred properties as a proportion of all hotel bookings worldwide
43 50 52 55 56 59 66 67 74
60
40
20
0
57 50 48 45 44 41 33 33 26
AC AD N H I C M T AE
Company
Preferred
properties
Other
hotels
Program coverage*
*Program coverage: the percentage of transactions that could be made at preferred hotels if available (i.e., the program offers at least one
preferred property in the relevant city)
Sources: CWT Hotel Solutions Group, CWT Travel Management Institute
Based on transaction data and credit card spend data for 2007