Prologue:
Managed travel was based on managing behavior.
The concept of managed travel was based around a formal travel policy that originally was in a printed handbook and evolved into an online form. Employees were expected to “comply” with the written travel policy and in some cases, employees required pre-trip approval from their manager. As of this writing there are still companies that require pre-trip approval before you can even make a booking.
Adults, especially business travelers, don’t like to be told what to do.
Going back to the day of office supply catalogs, there was a huge book from which you can choose whatever you might need for your role at the company. You wouldn’t find a Mont Blanc pen in the catalog, but as an executive you could order one “off-book.”
In many cases, Frequent Business Travelers (and I include myself as one who has-taken 67 flights year-to-date) know ahead of time exactly which flights and what hotel they want to book. When using an online booking tool takes three screens to get to the flight they already know they want or the hotel they want to stay at again, it adds to the frustration for those travelers if they can book quicker on their own.
Enforcement of a travel policy lacks credibility when the travelers believe they can find lower travel costs (airline and hotel) than the managed travel program.
When the business traveler is using an OBT to search for flights and hotels, and they are not confident in what’s being presented on screen, they will be inclined to look for themselves directly on the supplier websites. The problem arises when the traveler is able to find a lower airfare on the exact same flight or a lower hotel rate the exact same room. Then a mandated travel policy with strong enforcement is vulnerable to challenge from the bottom-up and the top-down.
During a recent discussion with a travel manager, she recounted a phone call from an employee who said he had found a fare that was $900 lower for the exact same flight as booked through the OBT/TMC. He asked if he could get that ticket issued and was told no. More specifically he was told if he wanted that flight and fare, he would receive no support, including changes to the booking, and his flight information would not be sent to the Risk Management Company.
I shared my honest opinion that a travel manager who takes that approach instead of facilitating getting the lower fare that the employee found (compared to the OBT or TMC) – especially if that approach continued and other employees also found lower fares – that travel manager would probably be out of a job.
This is an example of how a wolf would manage this situation. The traveler is told that even though he found the airfare was $900 lower, instead of getting that booking facilitated, he would receive no service whatsoever. Furthermore, he could potentially be in harm’s way. Instead, how about telling him thank you and we will make sure that it’s taken care of by the TMC?
Consider a more strategic approach to dealing with the challenges especially around lower airfares on the airline website.
A few months ago, a travel manager reached out to me and told me she received a call from her CFO who was flying cross-country in the front of the plane. He told her he had found the exact same seat on the airline website for $1300 less. He asked her to explain how that could happen, and she attempted an explanation using acronyms – NDC, OBT, TMC, GDS – to no avail. He refused to hear her explain definitions and instead asked, “When was the last time she audited the travel agency?” She said that they have never done an audit, and he ordered one started effective the first of the next month for a minimum of three months.
The audit identified significant differences in airfares, especially long-haul domestic and international Business Class. The differences in airfare between carrier websites and what was ticketed applied across a significant number of airlines. Once the travel manager had data on the cost to the company, she could then respond to her CFO with the cost impact and the proposed solution.
In Summary
Every week I hear from a different travel manager faced with a similar problem and at a recent Travel Industry Event, I was asked for my recommendation. In summary, what I said is the travel manager has three choices:
1. Hope the problem goes away
2. Change the OBT
3. Change the TMC
When you have the same discussion with someone in Procurement or Sourcing, I put a qualifier in between Items 1 and 2: Retain an independent auditor review the magnitude of the problem and then give the TMC right of first refusal to fix the problem. If the TMC refuses to fix the problem, go to directly to Item 3.
So, in summary if you can eliminate the credibility gap on content, you could manage a travel program as a shepherd and never have to bark like a wolf.
