Self booking helps companies cut TMC fees by 25%
Self-booking tools are helping companies save an average of 25.6% in travel management company fees, according to new global research by by the Business Travel Research Centre at Cranfield University.
The survey of 400 companies, commissioned by Amadeus, found those using self-booking technology were saving, on average, a further 9.1% on airline ticket spend.
But it also found that many companies are not achieving the full benefits of self booking due to an online corporate environment not supported by senior management.
Dr Keith Mason, Business Travel Research Centre at Cranfield University, said: “Moving to a self-booking culture has been, and still is, a long journey for many organisations to make despite significant cost benefits which can be achieved in the very first year of adoption.
“Given these potential savings, it is remarkable that 38% of organisations in our study do not yet enforce a travel policy which recommends online booking.”
Adoption levels within consulting services and logistics companies reached a high of 67% and 65% respectively, however public utilities and agricultural companies achieved far lower adoption of 10%.
The study revealed that companies with a ‘self-service’ mentality, where employees manage contracts online, have been more successful in driving up the adoption rate.
Younger travellers are also more willing to ‘do it themselves’, while the adoption rate was also higher in companies with a flatter organisational structure and with managerial buy-in.
Self-booking tools which give users easy access to a variety of options, including fares from low cost carriers, are also more successful.
Companies with a lower travel spend of under $2.5 million per year have been the most successful at driving travel bookings via self booking tools, and highest adoption level is seen in the first year of implementation.
By Bev Fearis
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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