A recent study by Egencia, the business travel arm of the Expedia group, found that despite the wide use of travel policies worldwide, “rogue booking”, the practice of business travellers booking outside of their travel programme, is still an issue for corporate travel programmes, especially when it comes to hotel stays.
While 60 per cent of companies have a travel policy in place, more than half of the business travellers surveyed are still allowed to book travel using any method they choose, and a full 46 per cent have done so for hotel bookings, according to the 4th edition Egencia Business Travel and Technology Survey.
To rein in these rogue booking tendencies, the study suggests that relevancy, incentivisation and clear policies can pave the way.
When it comes to hotels, relevance beats quantity
UK business travellers book out-of-policy because either they could not find a hotel close enough to their destination (42 per cent), or found a better price or hotel within their per diem (37 per cent).
With this in mind, providing relevance in a travel programme means surfacing a selection of hotel choices at the top of their online search results that are tailored to the needs of the business travellers. This can include location of hotels as well as flexible booking options. Additionally, offering fair and competitive pricing eliminates the need to shop outside the company’s preferred booking channels.
“When it comes to hotels, we know that it’s not about searching, it’s about finding. That’s why we find ways to serve up the right choice for business travellers within the first few search results. And it works – 75 per cent of Egencia travellers book one of the top seven hotel results and over half book from the top three,” said Andrew Dyer, vice president global supply-lodging.
“Travellers want an intuitive, cross-device experience with clear descriptions of what is included in the price. With this they can feel confident that they are booking the right accommodations, which will in turn increase policy compliance,” added Dyer.
Incentives foster compliance
According to the study, incentives for staying within policy vary by region, but globally, monetary rewards prove to be the most likely incentive to encourage travellers to book within their policy.
Sixty-two per cent of business travellers say that they would choose within policy if they receive a percentage of savings for booking below the cap and an additional 60 per cent would comply if they received funds they could apply to other travel options. This percentage is slightly higher in the UK, where 65 per cent of business travellers say they would choose within policy if they received a percentage of savings for booking below the cap. Loyalty points are the third most appealing incentive, and 56 per cent of UK travellers reported they would book within policy if offered hotel loyalty points.
Adoption improves safety and costs
When travellers book within policy, companies can protect the safety of their travellers and create cost efficiencies in the long-term. With increased adoption of policies and booking tools, travel managers can immediately locate travellers in an emergency, whether it is weather-related, geopolitical and/or a terrorism event. Access to immediate, accurate reports helps keep travellers safe wherever they are in the world.
The concept of going rogue creates extra work for safety officers who must locate individual straying travellers in an emergency, and calls for more time spent on collecting data streams from rogue bookings to consolidate into a comprehensive report and more spending overall.
According to GBTA, 79 per cent of travel managers acknowledge that using a travel management company leads to more efficient processes and drives savings in business travel. The most successful travel policies can drive compliance among travellers which means companies can ensure the safety of their travellers first and forefront, in addition to driving cost savings long-term.
To learn more, visit the Egencia website for more information about their lodging supplier network.
