Case Studies
BACKGROUND
With over 500 employees, our client, a leader in the energy industry, requires over 6,000 hotel room nights each year. More than half of that demand is in Bucharest and Constanta, where the company has a regional HQ and a subsidiary. Typically, the rooms are for the employees and management involved in training and meetings.
THE CHALLENGE
The large number of energy companies with operations in the area means there is fierce competition for hotel rooms in and around, especially mid-week. Although our client has a substantial hotel program with a number of last room availability (LRA) negotiated rates, the high demand means these rates are not always available once hotels sell out of standard rooms. When making reservations online, the company bookers were securing hotel rates as they became available, so the lowest rate shown could be a non-standard room costing over 200 Euro per night. What’s more, bookers were still under pressure from some travelers to book their preferred hotel.
THE SOLUTION
By allocating a genuine hotel sector expert to manage their account, Business Travel has been able to drive further savings for the client, bringing average room rates down and continually monitoring hotel activity to reduce non-compliance with travel policy.
Since the end of February 2016, the Account Manager has requested daily management information (MI) reports that include every hotel booking made them for the previous day. The reports clearly show whether the transaction complies with company travel policy and whether the hotel has honored the LRA rate. Using this information, BT Account Manager has been able to investigate all bookings made