Ask the Expert

Hotel Options with Egencia

In Egencia's recent global benchmarking study, we identified that the current hotel landscape offers many cost-saving advantages for companies. We checked in with Regional Hotel Relations Manager, John Crivello to learn about how to leverage Egencia's buying power to stretch your hotel spend.

Q: John, what's your role at Egencia?

A: I work to recruit new Egencia Preferred Rate partner hotels and continually negotiate great rates for your business travelers.

Q: What is the Egencia Preferred Rate Program and how can it benefit my company's travel program?

A: The Egencia Preferred Rate Program is a broad offering of unique air, hotel and car options that offer our clients additional value and savings. Egencia has a dedicated team that works directly with air, hotel and car suppliers to ensure the fullest access to inventory and savings for our clients.

Egencia Preferred Rates can benefit your travel program in several ways:

  • For clients with smaller programs or to supplement your company's air, car and hotel contacts within your less frequent markets Egencia Preferred Rates allow you to leverage Expedia and Egencia's buying power.
  • More and more companies are looking for opportunities to outsource management of their negotiated agreements. To secure the greatest value, each contact requires many man-hours of attention to set up the initial agreement, monitor rates to ensure rates and amenities are being charged as negotiated, tracking spend to ensure share commitments are met, and renew each contract favorably. These clients are finding that by leveraging Egencia Preferred Rates, they can realize the savings of a negotiated rate program without having to dedicate the resources to manage it.

Q: Some of my travelers have questions about the different hotel options available on Egencia? Can you explain the differences between the rates?

A: Sure. Travelers can choose from four different rates on Egencia.

  1. Your Company's Negotiated Rates
    These are rates that your company has secured directly with hotel.
  2. Egencia Preferred Rates (EPRs)
    EPRs are designed to meet the needs of the business traveler. They are more flexible than ESRs and often include amenities that make corporate travel easier such as free parking, internet access and free breakfast. EPRs typically offer discounts of up to 25% off published rates year round. EPRs featured on the Specials page offer deeper discounts ranging from 20-40% off published rates.
  3. Expedia Special Rates (ESRs)
    Initially designed for the vacation market, these rates offer broad availability and are a great option for last minute booking.
  4. Published/Rack Rates
    These are the standard hotel rates offered by each hotel property.

Q: What are the cancellation policies for EPR hotels?

A: Most EPRs allow customers to cancel a reservation up to 1 hour before check in - a benefit not available through any other rate. ESRs are more restrictive and in some cases cancellations before check-in (within the hotel's cancellation window) can result in the full balance of the stay.

Q: Are EPR hotels still a good fit for my program if my travelers check-out earlier than expected?

A: In many cases, the savings of EPRs and ESRs outweigh any early check-out fees. Talk to your Egencia Account Manager to create an early checkout report for you. This report will identify how frequently your travelers do check-out early. It's also important to note that there are fees for early check-out with some published rates.

Q: Can my travelers still earn their loyalty points with Egencia Preferred Rates?

A: Yes, travelers can earn loyalty points with EPRs (Egencia Preferred Hotels) but not with ESRs (Expedia Special Rates).

Q: What types of business traveler amenities are included with Egencia Preferred Hotels?

A: EPRs include amenities that matter most to business travelers such as:

  • Free Internet
  • Free Parking
  • Complimentary breakfast

Some EPRs also include complimentary evening wine receptions.

Q: In which regions are Egencia Preferred Hotels located?

A: We have secured Egencia Preferred Rates with over 5,700 hotel properties in North America, South America, EMEA and APAC.

Q: How does Egencia make sure it's EPRs offer a competitive rate in each market?

A: Egencia and Expedia has a unique Market Management Organization with over 450 Hotel Market Managers in 28 cities around the globe working with hotel properties directly to build and maintain our hotel rate program. We compare Egencia hotel rates to the standard published/rack rates on an ongoing basis and continue to offer savings in key markets. Take a look at the most recent review:
Egencia Preferred Hotel Rates vs. the Average Daily Rates.

Q: How can I encourage my travelers to book Egencia Preferred Rates?

A: Here are a few ways you can help your travelers take advantage of Egencia Preferred Rates:

  • Ensure that you are seeing Egencia Preferred Rate options within the booking process and mark them in policy
  • Ensure that you have enabled the Specials page and have them set as Preferred. Talk to your Account Manager about turning these on.
  • Leverage the broadcast message tool on your Egencia site to make your travelers aware of Egencia Preferred Rates
  • Consider informing travelers about Egencia Preferred Rates in your company newsletter, on your intranet site or via e-mail.

Have a question for John? E-mail him here.

E-mail This to Your Travelers

Rollout Toolkit

Resources for Your Egencia Implementation

Leverage these resources for a successful implementation with Egencia:

  • Suggested comunications strategy and messaging
  • Rollout Posters
  • Traveler Resources

News From our Partners

News from our Air Partners

Southwest Airlines to Cease Transferability of Unused Tickets
Beginning on January 28, 2011, Southwest Airlines will no longer allow unused travel funds to be applied to another traveler.



AirTran Conducting System Maintenance - Will Affect Seat Assignments and Applying Frequent Flyer Numbers
AirTran no longer supports pre-assigned seats in the Sabre global distribution system (GDS), which means Egencia Travelers will not be able to select seat assignments on our site. Traveler's ability to apply their AirTran frequent flyer numbers will also be affected but only for a period of several weeks, beginning on July 28.



United/Continental Merger on Track -  Announces New Leadership Team
The United/Continental merger is on track and expected to be completed in December 2010. The merger will offer expanded routes, services and frequent flyer benefits. The airlines have introduced a new, combined fleet leveraging the Continental logo and United name. Headquarters will be in Chicago with a significant presence maintained in Houston.
Read more about the United/Continental Executive Team.



oneworld ® Global Alliance Welcomes Final Approval for Transatlantic ATI and Air Berlin
The oneworld® Alliance received final anti-trust immunity from the Department of Transportation for the alliance's transatlantic carries American Airlines, British Airways, Finnair, Iberia and Royal Jordanina in conjunction with a joint business agreement between the US, UK and Spanish companies. oneworld also announced that Air Berlin, Europe's fifth largest airline, will join the alliance.
Read more about the Transatlantic Anti-Trust Immunity.
Read more about Air Berlin joining oneworld.



Virgin America Doubles Fleet
Virgin America has agreed to buy 40 Airbus SAS A320 jets, with options for 20 additional aircraft. The new planes are scheduled for delivery from 2013 through 2016.
Read more about Virgin America's expansion.

Webinars

Review the Webinar -
Corporate Travel Policy Benchmarking

We recently partnered with NBTA to conduct an industry-wide benchmarking study on corporate travel policy. The findings were shared and discussed in a recent webinar. You can review the presentation to learn:

  • The effect of specific policy parameters on your program effectiveness and costs, such as:
    -Pre-Trip Approval
    -Advanced Purchase
    -Mandates
    -Hotel rate limits
  • Framework and matrix to review against your current policy configuration

Meet a Travel Manager

"Meet a Travel Manager" with Marielyn Oliveros, Ventura Foods

Q: What's your role at Ventura?

I'm Executive Assistant to the CEO, and responsible for managing all aspects of Ventura's travel program.

Q: What issues did you face with your previous travel program?

After three years of mandating that employees use a phone-based agency, we faced a number of issues with the program:

  • The Agency fees seemed too high for the level of service provided
  • Trip approval system was cumbersome
  • Travelers often found the proposed itinerary to be inconvenient or more expensive than the fare being offered by the carrier. Out of frustration, some were opting to ignore the mandate and book directly online with suppliers or through consumer agency sites.
  • Visibility into travel spend patterns and compliance levels was low, which impacted the ability to conduct internal audits, identify savings opportunities and negotiate with suppliers for preferred rates

Q: When looking for a new agency, what Travel Program goals did you have?

There were 5 goals we wanted to achieve:

  • Provide travelers with the ability to book online from a wide variety of options
  • Ensure that travel policies and approval processes were consistently being followed and that information regarding out-of-policy purchases was readily available
  • Lower costs by allowing travelers the flexibility to find reasonably priced itineraries that did not inconvenience them
  • Reduce the service fee costs associated with their program by maximizing online adoption
  • Improve the transparency and control over our company's travel spend with increased consolidation of spend and effective online reporting functionality

Q: Why did you select Egencia to replace your former agency?

We developed a comprehensive RFP detailing our requirements and distributed it to several corporate travel agencies. Based upon the intuitive booking tool and comprehensive online reporting, we found Egencia™ to be the best fit for our new program.

Q: What were some highlights of the implementation process?

Employee Training
With help from Nancie Paquin, our Egencia Account Manager, we offered a number of training sessions, including a 'Tips & Tricks' session that included valuable advice for our traveling employees. An FAQ document was also customized for our program, and distributed to employees to help them make the transition to Egencia.

Pre-Trip Approval for Out-of-Policy Bookings
To retain tight control over policy enforcement, we used the TripController™ features to require pre-trip approval for all out-of-policy air bookings. I was designated as the sole approver for these requests.

New Policy Parameters
We initially implemented an in-policy airfare tolerance of $50 above the lowest logical fare. Based on a higher than anticipated number of out-of-policy booking requests, we adjusted the tolerance to $150 and found that figure to be more aligned with the needs of traveling employees while still encouraging them to be cost-conscious.

Eliminating 'Alternate' Agency
After reviewing expense data, we discovered that a small portion of travelers were using another agency that was neither the previous preferred agency or Egencia. We ended that relationship and instructed employees to no longer contact that agency for travel services.

Q: How did you obtain approval to mandate Egencia's program division wide?

Three months after launching the new program, our President sent an e-mail to all employees mandating the use of Egencia for all travel purchases and encouraging online booking whenever possible. With the exception of a few rogue travelers, employees quickly complied with the mandate as they were already comfortable with the new agency.

Q: What Post Implementation Results did you achieve?

Employees regain control over purchases
With the ability to see all travel options available to them online, employees now feel they have regained control over their travel purchases. They are consistently able to find in-policy choices that balance the need for cost control with employee convenience.

Pre-Trip Approval No Longer Required
As travelers are clearly shown what options are in policy when booking through Egencia, air policy compliance has reached 83% and nearly all out-of-policy booking requests are justified. Once travelers realized that out-of-policy requests were being sent to their managers for approval, our compliance numbers quickly improved. As a result, the pre-trip approval process is no longer required to maintain high policy compliance, which saves time involved in reviewing and approving the request.

High Online Adoption, Lower Fees
For the first nine months of the new program, online adoption has averaged 91% and is now averaging 95%. As a result, our service fee costs reduced to just 1.5% of its overall travel costs. Our combined average service fee is now just $9.66, versus an industry average of approximately $35.

Low Per Trip Costs
In addition to lower service fees, our mandated program and policy decisions have resulted in:

  • Average airfares that are 7 percent lower
  • Average hotel rates that are 17 percent lower than companies of a comparable size.

Q: How do you maintain visibility over your program?

The detailed spend analysis provided in Egencia's many online reports and Quarterly Business Report provides excellent visibility of our program and progress towards goals. Ventura's ability to audit our travel spend and compliance has improved immensely at the program and the individual transaction level. We've even been able to negotiate an additional 12-15% savings from our preferred rental car provider using the data provided in the reports. The ability to easily locate travelers in the event of severe weather issues and airline delays is also tremendously important. I can immediately determine who requires assistance and reach out to them to get them back quickly and safely.

Q: Any final words of advice?

With the ability of the latest online booking technologies to allow travelers access to all of the options available and effectively enforce the company's policy, I strongly recommend putting the control back in the hands of your travelers by moving to a predominantly online booking model.

Read this Success StoryRead other Success Stories

Latest News - Keep Your Travelers Up to Speed on TSA Secure Flight

TSA Secure Flight Changes Taking Place November 1, 2010

Beginning November 1, 2010, many airlines will no longer accept reservations that do not contain full Secure Flight Passenger Data (full name, gender and date of birth). This regulation is in effect for airlines supporting travel to, from or over the United States, as well as all US carriers flying worldwide. Egencia is working closely with airlines and the TSA to ensure a smooth transition for your travelers.

In preparation for these new regulations, we recommend that you encourage your travelers to add their TSA Secure Flight Passenger Data to their Egencia profiles. This will ensure that your travelers are compliant once the requirement takes effect and prevent their reservations from being cancelled by the airlines due to missing Secure Flight Passenger Data. We have prepared a suggested e-mail and broadcast message that you may wish to share with your travelers. This information includes step-by-step directions for your travelers on updating their TSA Secure Flight Data as well as Frequently Asked Questions about the Program.

Suggested E-mail Message to Your Travelers

Dear Travelers,
Beginning November 1, 2010, TSA Secure Flight Data will be required for all air travel to, from or over the United States, as well as all US carriers flying worldwide. To prevent your reservations from being cancelled by the airlines due to missing Secure Flight Passenger Data, please ensure your Egencia traveler profile is updated with your TSA Secure Flight Passenger Data (full name, date of birth and gender). Please review the Frequently Asked Questions below to learn more.

Q. Where do I enter my Secure Flight passenger data within Egencia?
A: Travelers can add Secure Flight passenger data to the Egencia website using the Secure Flight module, which will appear in two convenient locations:

1.Your Egencia profile. You can access your profile by clicking "My Profile" in the top right hand corner of the page. On the Profile overview page locate the Personal Information section and click on TSA Secure Flight.


Enter your full name, gender, date of birth and TSA redress or known traveler number (if applicable). Click Save Settings and you are done.


2.The Trip Preferences page in the booking process.

In both locations, the Secure Flight passenger data that is provided will be saved in your Egencia traveler profile to be automatically applied to future reservations booked with Egencia.

Q. What is the TSA Secure Flight Program?
A: The mission of the Secure Flight Program is to enhance the security of domestic and international commercial air travel through the use of improved watch-list matching. The TSA Secure Flight program requires all U.S. domestic airlines to collect additional passenger data and transmit it to the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) for pre-screening against federal government watch lists. This regulations will be required for all air travel to, from or over the United States, as well as all US carriers flying worldwide beginning on November 1, 2010. After matching the passenger data against government watch lists, Secure Flight will transmit the matching results back to the airlines. Egencia will collect this data from you at the time of booking and transmit it to the airlines.

Q. What information is collected for the TSA Secure Flight Program?
A. The TSA requires the following information:

  • Full Name
  • Date of Birth
  • Gender
  • TSA Redress Number (if applicable)
  • TSA Known Traveler Number (if applicable

Q. Will Egencia mask the Secure Flight Data to protect my privacy?
A. Yes, protecting your privacy is very important to Egencia. All Secure Flight passenger data will be masked, with the exception of name fields, when authorized employees in your company are booking travel on your behalf.

Q. What is a TSA Redress Number and TSA Known Traveler Number?
A. A TSA Redress Number is for individuals who have been subjected to repeated security screenings due to being flagged incorrectly on the watch list. Travelers can apply for a Redress Number via the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Traveler Redress Inquiry Program.

Q. My company has disabled my ability to change my full name in my Egencia traveler profile. How can I update the full name in my profile for Secure Flight purposes?
A. The name fields in the TSA Secure Flight module can always be changed, and the ability to update these name fields cannot be disabled by your company. The TSA Secure Flight name fields are only used for watch list matching, and are separate from a traveler's existing (primary) name field on the Egencia website.

Q. Airlines are advising customers that they should update the name on their frequent flyer accounts to match the name on their government-issued ID. Does the Secure Flight functionality on Egencia impact this in any way?
A. No. The existing (primary) name field on the Egencia website is the name that is printed on the airline ticket when it is issued; and is also used for frequent flyer mileage accrual. The Secure Flight name fields are only used for watch list matching and do not impact frequent flyer programs.

Best Regards,
Your Travel Manager

Suggested Broadcast Message

You may wish to leverage the broadcast message tool to share this news with your travelers. Learn more about broadcast messages.

Beginning November 1, 2010, TSA Secure Flight Data will be mandatory for all flights to, from, or over the US, as well as all US carriers flying worldwide.  You are strongly advised to enter your Secure Flight Passenger Data on Egencia today to prevent your reservation from being cancelled by the airlines. Learn more.

Click the button below to easily paste the suggested e-mail message into a new e-mail and customize as needed.