The Business Travel Magazine Aug/Sept 2019

SMEs / Spend management
anonymous multiple SME spend.
Traveleads is typical of the TMC approach,
spending time in the discovery and
educational process with clients as many of
them have no travel policy, approvals
process or have considered data needs.
“Often it’s a case of spending time showing
them how sophisticated a programme we
can create for them, which is often an eye
opener if they’ve been used to the
experience of ‘give us your credit card and
go away’ online booking,” says McLeod of
Traveleads, one of the smaller TMCs which
has long focussed on this market.
The availability of technology has helped
level the playing field as SMEs can benefit
from mobile solutions and data analysis
software for very little outlay.
Suppliers raise their game
SimiIarly, suppliers are waking up to the
SME opportunity. “Suppliers certainly
recognise the critical mass which the SME
market generates in terms of travellers and
combined spend,” says McLeod. And ITM’s
Davies adds: “Suppliers need a lot of SMEs
to match or replace revenue generated by
large corporates. For this reason, the sales
support tends to be virtual or delivered
online through web portals.”
Accor Hotels, for example, has a team
looking after SMEs and has developed
products and services for them, most
recently Business Offer which offers a
discount off BAR (see panel for details). Its
LeClub Member Offer (for those booking
leisure travel) includes perks.
“We are keen to work directly with SMEs,
but the challenge is that it is a very
fragmented sector, and many SMEs book in
the same way as leisure customers, such as
through OTAs, perhaps unaware of the
advantages of corporate accounts and
booking direct,” says Jonathan Pettifer,
Director of Corporate Sales and TMC
partners, Accor UK & Ireland.
TMCs can offer consortia rates from
independent hotels says Mark Bevan,
Head of Strategic Partnerships at Business
Travel Direct, where SMEs are a core part of
the client portfolio.
“Consortia rates from independent hotels
discount the rate by 5%-15% and more like
10%-15% regionally, both on transient and
day delegate business,” he says. Forwardthinking
suppliers are targetting SMEs, says
Bevan, citing Best Western as an example.
Perks aside, SMEs need help managing the
travel spend. “Collecting Nectar points from
The spending power
of smaller corporates
should never be underestimated,
which is why we
offer our loyalty progamme
OnBusiness, so they can
benefit from free flights”
a train company might not be meaningful
but a hotel billback facility that gives you 14
days credit to help cashflow is much more
valuable,” says Black Box’s Sachdave. “A TMC
will give an SME resource and cashflow so
that’s the real saving.”
Airlines move in
On the airline front, despite it being a more
challenging spend category, SMEs can
benefit from nett fares and discounted
fares. “We use rate analysing tools from
time of booking to time of departure and
the same flight can be reduced by 20-30%,
particularly on long-haul,” says Bevan.
Airline loyalty schemes can be of benefit
too, providing discounts, extra points or
value-added items. Fortunately, they have
moved away from perks and towards more
tangible benefits such as discounted rates
and flights in response to buyer feedback.
“Most airlines offer fares targeted towards
SMEs,” says Brett Gerrett, General Manager,
Isleworth Travel Management. “British
Airways offers discounted and increased
flexibility on Business Bespoke fares
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