Half of Australian travel managers cannot demonstrate the return on investment generated by their managed travel program, according to research from Corporate Traveller and the Global Business Travel Association.
The research found 67% of companies consider balancing travel management fees against value their biggest challenge when evaluating a travel partner.
Corporate Traveller said much of the value generated by managed travel can be difficult to quantify, including waived change fees, hotel inclusions, disruption support and time saved by employees.
Its customer data shows 48% of Australian business travellers rank time savings as the biggest influence on the value of their travel management company.
Tom Walley, Corporate Traveller Global Managing Director, said this lack of visibility could make direct booking alternatives appear cheaper.
“What they’re not seeing is the $100 change fee that was waived, the hotel inclusion worth $40 a night, the after-hours call the traveller would have made themselves, or the disruption their employee never had to manage themselves because we handled it at 9 PM,” Mr Walley said.
Corporate Traveller has responded by launching a self-service ROI Dashboard for customers in Australia and New Zealand.
The platform tracks savings against management fees at transaction level, incorporating comparable airfares, hotel inclusions, penalty waivers, credits and the estimated value of staff time saved.
Air savings are calculated against the publicly available equivalent fare at the time of booking, while other benefits are recorded when delivered.
The dashboard also assigns a value to time spent by consultants handling complex bookings, itinerary changes, rebookings and disruption management.
Craig Ackerley, Consolidated Power Projects Australia Shared Services Finance Manager, said the additional reporting had improved visibility of travel expenditure and pricing trends.
“With our flights and accommodation taken care of, it gives us back valuable time in the business to remain hands-on with daily operations,” Mr Ackerley said.
The ROI Dashboard is now available to Corporate Traveller customers across Australia and New Zealand.
