By Eric Maryanov, Founder
& President of ALL-TRAVEL
There’s
a nationwide trend happening right now that you might not even be aware
of: companies are migrating back to the retail, brick and mortar travel
agency for some good old-fashioned customer service that the Internet
simply can not provide. High-touch transactions are coming back in a
big way, rebounding from the past few years of no-touch, virtual
ticketing and travel planning done by the boss’s secretary on
the
web.
The popular consensus driving many small and medium-sized businesses to
the travel e-commerce super highway was that by booking your own travel
online it actually saved time and money, and eliminated paying agent
fees. However, it never really worked that way.
Do-it-yourself travel planning ended up costing companies and
individuals lots of time, loads of money and the result was not always
the best schedule and no one to call for assistance while on the road.
The lack of accountability offered on the Internet is especially
problematic when a traveler needs re-routing due to a delayed or
cancelled flight. Whom do you turn to for help getting the next flight
out, certainly not a website? A travel agent would be available to
monitor travel and trouble-shoot in such a circumstance.
Even those of us in the industry rely on our own travel agents to help
navigate the process of trip planning. The absence of a knowledgeable
travel consultant in the equation of coordinating complicated
itineraries with connecting flights, several hotel rooms and rental
cars is often too much to ask any assistant to tackle in between
answering the phone and doing their own job. Planning travel is a
skilled profession in a constantly changing environment and it takes a
committed expert to negotiate rates, book appropriate rooms and secure
the best options. It requires time and a rolodex of industry
connections to deliver a travel schedule that meets the standards and
expectations of most seasoned corporate road warriors.
Now companies have learned. You hire a professional administrator to
run your office; you hire a travel agent to book your trips and manage
your corporate travel planning. It really is that simple.
The magnitude of a company’s travel spending can be quite
significant, and requires the finesse of a trained specialist. For many
firms, travel is right behind personnel on the list of biggest expenses
they incur each year. By returning to high-touch managed travel
provided by people with a personal relationship, rather than a
self-serve computer screen, businesses are not only reducing the time
spent on trying to book their own travel, they are also saving money in
several ways. Thanks to professional networks and consortiums, travel
agencies are able to extend lower industry-negotiated corporate rates,
secure upgrades when available, and keep track of the total travel
spend and track usage for an organization, ensuring all travelers
within a firm are adhering to company travel policies and per diems.
Whether
enforcing corporate travel policy for the organization or tracking
mileage points throughout the year, managed travel is all about
utilizing the tools. From ensuring quality control levels to gaining
access to pre-negotiated rates and the ability to generate a multitude
of tracking reports, online booking tools serve to empower the company,
the employee and the travel professional to consistently create
top-notch travel experiences.
It gets even better. Remember, when you work with a travel professional
you get the valuable advantage of interacting with a person who takes
the time to get to know you, your likes and preferences, and works as
your advocate in the planning process. What’s not to love
here.
An agent also offers accountability. Should you unexpectedly become
stranded and think you have no way out, just call your travel agent for
a creative solution. If you suddenly find yourself in need of a room or
if your passport is stolen, there are fewer worries when you have a
trusted travel professional working on your behalf to make things
right. No website I know of offers this level of personalized service.
The unexpected happens to all of us when we travel; this is one
constant jetsetters can always count on. Returning from a recent trip
to Seattle, I had one of those experiences when they cancelled my
flight back to Los Angeles after boarding the plane.
We
were sitting on the jet way awaiting take-off instructions when the
announcement came that we would be getting off the plane. I called my
travel agent. It was a Sunday morning. By the time we got off the plane
and regrouped in the terminal, my agent had me booked and protected on
an alternate flight to Los Angeles leaving in the next hour. While the
majority of my former flight-mates were scrambling trying to get on
standby for later departures, I was back at LAX later that afternoon.
Those without a travel professional spent the better part of the next
six hours waiting in Seattle for the next plane to arrive.
The day ended happily for me thanks to my travel expert who jumped into
action when I needed help. The point is, in this scenario, I was
managing my travel even in an unplanned situation. My travel was not
managing me, and therefore I was able to seek a reasonable solution to
my travel dilemma that Sunday morning in Seattle.
Regardless of the type of firm you run or work for, seeking the
advocacy of another professional to oversee the travel component of
your business is paramount to your success. Your job is to focus on
your business; our job is to help you do that by tending to your travel
needs.
You would not cut your own hair or do your own corporate tax
preparation after reading a how-to website; you would surely seek a
professional to perform these services. The same holds true for travel.
High-touch, professionally managed travel was an old-school way of the
past, and now it is the wave of the future. Have your travel
agent’s number on speed-dial and use it.
Components
of a well-rounded travel support program:
Consolidation and strength in
buying power worldwide
- Negotiated rates with hotels
- Negotiated rates with car rental companies
- A team of senior corporate
agents assigned to work directly with you
- Extended business hours for easy
access to corporate agent
- Accessible management team
- Electronic ticket tracking
- Monthly management reports with
cost-savings travel analysis
- Lowest fare analysis with
exception report
- Reconciliation of credit card
charges
- Hotel and Car
rental usage
- Separate departments for leisure
travel, groups, meetings and incentives
- Cutting-edge
technology - Automated Quality Control program provides a variety of
benefits designed to save you time and money including, E-Checker, QC Manager, and Fare,
Routing, Seat and Waitlist checkers
QC
Manager: Performs
multiple quality control procedures based on your specific travel
profile and preferences, and alerts your assigned agents of any changes
that need to be made before ticketing.
Benefits
to you:
- Assures that we will take
advantage of all discounts available to you
- Provides error-free quality
control
- Verifies negotiated rates with
air carriers
- Checks itineraries to ensure
hotel and car reservations match the date and location of flights
- Enables
your agency to run individual and group reports on travel expenditures
and send them to you automatically via email or fax
Fare
Checker: Guarantees
you will receive the best fare possible by accessing the reservation
system several times a day and night for up-to-the-second pricing and
reservations.
Benefits
to you:
- Checks automatically for fare
drops up to 24 hours before departure
- Reviews your travel policy to
match the best fares with your guidelines
- Flags
and returns ticket to our agents for re-booking when an applicable fare
reduction is found that meet all rules and regulations
- Ensures we will re-issue the
ticket and credit your account the difference, minus any applicable
fees.
- Provides all information for
analysis and reporting
Waitlist
Checker: Continually
accesses the reservation system, looking for either open waitlists or
the release of seats by the airlines. If availability is identified,
the booking is made and immediately communicated back to your agent.
Benefits
to you:
Saves money by locating
lower-priced and preferred itineraries - Automates the time-consuming
process of clearing waitlisted segments
- Captures all information for
analysis and reporting
E-Checker:
Tracks your electronic tickets for unused coupons and their status
regardless of changes to itinerary, and generates an updated report on
which coupons can be refunded or used for future flights.
Benefits to
you:
- Saves money by eliminating lost,
unused e-tickets
- Identifies e-tickets that are
about to expire
- Provides total coverage of your
e-tickets
- Produces a tracking report on
the current status of your e-tickets
Routing
Checker: Continually
conducts difficult routing searches based on your reservations, looking
among several carriers for the best-priced way to travel.
Benefits
to you: Provides
maximum savings by researching all possible travel options for even the
most complex itineraries
- Works within your travel policy
- Frees your agent to provide you
with one-to-one personal attention
- Captures all information for
analysis and reporting
Seat Checker: Automatically
secures preferred seating on domestic and international carriers using
live seat maps of the airplane.
Benefits
to you:
Finds you the seat you want- Continually checks for priority
and requested seating until departure
- Captures all information for
analysis and reporting
ALL-TRAVEL.com
Since 1984, ALL-TRAVEL has been the leading provider of personalized
travel services. For more information, call please call or
email
Vicki Daly Redholtz, ALL-TRAVEL at 800.225.3614 or VickiDr@All-Travel.com
or visit our award-winning website at www.all-travel.com.
If you would like additional information on this topic or others,
please contact your Human Resources department or Lighthouse Consulting
Services LLC, 3130 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 550, Santa Monica,
CA
90403, (310) 453-6556, dana@lighthouseconsulting.com
& our website: www.lighthouseconsulting.com.
Lighthouse Consulting Services, LLC provides a variety of services,
including in-depth personality assessments for new hires &
staff
development, team building, interpersonal & communication
training,
conflict management, workshops, and executive & employee
coaching.
Permission is needed from Lighthouse Consulting Services, LLC to
reproduce any portion provided in this article. ©
2006.
The information contained in this article is not meant to be a
substitute for professional counseling.
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