Room for Savings: Optimizing Hotel Spend - Carlson

Tracking traveler compliance
Companies need to track compliance to ensure
the program and preferred booking channels
meet travelers’ requirements, as low compliance
may indicate a problem. They should also
identify cases of non-compliance that could be
avoided and, where necessary, implement
measures to change behavior within the
organization. Ensuring travelers respect the travel
policy is essential for reaping maximum benefits
from the hotel program.
This said, only 47 percent of surveyed travel
managers say they measure travelers’ use of
preferred hotels. Even fewer (32 percent)
measure the use of preferred booking channels,
as shown in Figure 123.
Figure 123: Only 47% of surveyed travel
managers measure compliance with
preferred hotels and 32% with preferred
booking channels
Source: CWT Travel Management Institute
Based on a survey of travel managers (86 and 97 resopnses)
No
Yes
Moreover, companies that track compliance with
the preferred hotel program tend to measure
simply the percentage of hotel bookings
involving a preferred property or chain. This
information provides a useful indication of
traveler compliance. It does not indicate,
however, whether travelers have booked the
authorized room type. Similarly, this data fails
to account for situations in which travelers
booked at non-preferred hotels while following
the rules laid out in the travel policy (e.g.,
respecting a city cap).
To measure compliance effectively, companies
should track the following performance
indicators:
Room nights booked at preferred
properties and chains.
Use of appropriate room types. This can
be difficult to determine from the room rate,
as hoteliers do not always apply the
negotiated rate. In other words, a more
expensive rate does not necessarily imply
that the traveler has booked an upgraded
room.
Compliance with city caps when nonpreferred
hotels are used (i.e., room rates
respecting a specific price limit).
Other rules such as not booking deluxe
hotels.
As discussed on Pages 32-36, it is challenging to
obtain comprehensive data. Nevertheless, travel
managers can work with hotel sourcing and
program optimization specialists to produce
reporting dashboards that serve as an essential
indication of how well the travel policy is
respected and which areas need to be improved.