1. 8 | Travel Management Canada – December 2014
Travel Procurement Symposium 2014
WRANGLING MAVERICK TRAVELLERS
Unmanaged spend and the rise of open booking
By Michael Power
I
n a managed travel environment, boundaries and controls exist not
only at the time of purchase but also at the time of travel. While all
are important, they must be connected in order to succeed. But
how much of that is really under control? Ian Race, senior VP of
sales and account management, Vision Travel Solutions Group, asked
this question during a panel discussion entitled Wrangling Maverick
Travellers. Travel buyers must deal with issues such as leakage, blind
spend and no spend visibility. “Most people that do book outside of
your corporate policies and the approved channels aren’t doing so with
mal intent,” Race told the audience.
Still, 55 percent of travel booked in the US is unmanaged, Race said.
As well, for 40 to 50 percent of air bookings with an associated over-
night stay, the hotel isn’t booked through the travel management com-
pany. Studies also show that it’s not “Generation Y” or “Millenial” trav-
ellers, but seasoned road warriors who think they’re doing what’s best
for their companies, Race noted.
Central to the conversation was open booking, and Race began the
discussion by asking what’s driving the move towards open bookings.
Panelist Carol McDowell, manager of corporate travel services, Finan-
cial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), answered that most travel-
lers want to do right by their companies but don’t know what that is.
Simply telling travellers to “do the right thing” is insufficient since the
definition of what that is can differ among employees, she said, so giv-
ing people guidelines helps build compliance. Travel can be personal
and few people like to be told what to do, especially if it’s something
they’re not comfortable with or used to. “For me, this evolution to
what’s called open booking is because things have evolved in the buy-
ing field because of technology,” she said. “Information is accessible to
everyone via the Internet 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”
Unmanaged spend isn’t simply an issue within travel, but throughout
indirect procurement, said fellow panelist Phil Hammer, director of
travel services at Runzheimer International. The question remains how
to enable savvy road warriors to use the tools they’re going to use
anyway, and he referenced the virtual online booking tool his company
produces, called Flex. The tool takes negotiated discounts and enables
travellers to use them directly with suppliers. The tool provides data
and reporting, as well as a direct feed to a duty of care provider.
“We’ve created a virtual online booking tool,” he said. “If you think
of what that is, it’s discounts, data, and reporting. We’ve got all those
boxes checked off.”
Several years ago, her company began hearing from travellers of
client companies saying that they had found a flight online, but their
organization insisted they book with the travel management company,
said panelist Kristi Lamont, production innovation director at Short’s
Travel Management, a travel management company. Those employees
would then ask her company to book the flight. But it’s inefficient for
travellers to shop online for flights themselves them asking the TMC to
book it, Lamont said, prompting her organization to create a tool called
FindIt, which allows travellers to shop at consumer sites while still
booking within policy and through their TMC. “It’s travellers that have
demanded this—it’s just natural traveller behavior with the tools they
have available for them,” she said.
Asking travellers what they want can also solve problems, McDowell
said. For example, her organization surveyed employees and discov-
ered that they wanted per diems because they didn’t like attaching
receipts. The issue disappeared when employees were allowed to take
pictures of their receipts. Challenges arise when a company doesn’t
understand travellers’ needs and can’t address them. In terms of
whether a company’s travel policy should allow employees to book ab-
solutely anywhere, McDowell said no, and that travel needs to be man-
aged. Open booking is simply another way to book.
Panelists agreed that duty of care remained important regardless
of booking policy. Organizations must know where their employees
are, Lamont said. For here part, McDowell listed duty of care as the
“number one” priority, noting policy must include the need to know
where travellers are. Meanwhile, Hammer stressed the importance
of ensuring duty of care for employees not booking through proper
channels.
Photos:StephenKingPhotography
Ian Race Carol McDowell Phil Hammer Kristi Lamont
Sponsored by