Room for Savings: Optimizing Hotel Spend - Carlson

Require travelers to book their hotel at
the same time as transportation
whenever possible. Most air travel (which
is used for 70 percent of trips) is booked
through an online booking tool or TMC
counselor. Requiring travelers to book rooms
at the same time can therefore be an
effective way to increase the use of preferred
booking channels, which in turn tends to
increase the use of preferred hotels.
Ensure follow-up with non-compliant
travelers. Only a minority of travelers say
they have to justify non-compliance: 12
percent of those booking outside the
preferred channels and 48 percent of those
booking a non-preferred hotel (Figure 114).
Yet a large majority of travelers say
companies are right to ask them to stay at
preferred hotels and use preferred booking
channels (84 percent and 89 percent
respectively, as shown in Figure 115). Most
travel managers say non-compliance
generates a response (e.g., an email
reminder to travelers) and some invoke
tough measures such as withholding
reimbursement of expenses or invoking
disciplinary action (Figure 116).
Figure 114: Most travelers say they do not have to justify non-compliance
No
Unlikely
Probably
Yes
Source: CWT Travel Management Institute
Based on a survey of travelers (1,884 responses / 580 responses)