Communication

• Targeted messaging:
  By adding a reminder to include a hotel reservation when they book a flight to the online booking tool (OBT), the client was able to influence the traveler at a key point in the booking process.
• Individual outreach:
  By collecting a custom hotel reason code during online and offline travel bookings, the client was able to learn why travelers omitted a hotel reservation at the time of booking a flight. This extra data afforded the client not only valuable insights but also the chance for dialogue. Acceptable answers for not booking a hotel included “I’m attending a conference with a room block.” But where travelers answered, “I plan to book my hotel later,” the travel team would follow up individually to encourage timely booking. As a result, the client noticed an 11% increase in the number of travelers who went back to book their hotel.
• Revising old patterns:
  Out-of-program hotel booking was especially common for overseas travel. Because employees feared choosing the wrong place in an unfamiliar area, especially if they didn’t know the language, they’d often ask a colleague in the local office they were visiting to book a hotel for them. Through a group email communication, the client reinforced the value of travel arrangers’ local hotel recommendations and asked them to encourage those inquiring to make their own hotel reservations via the OBT or their local American Express GBT offline travel team.
• Jumping on new rates:
  Another chance to tighten up hotel spend came early each year when the client’s new preferred hotels program had been negotiated. Through reporting and outreach, American Express GBT and the client were able to capture the newly negotiated rates as soon as they were effective in two ways:
  • First, they asked travelers with upcoming reservations with an “old” preferred hotel chain (booked during the previous year) to rebook with a current preferred hotel. Second, they asked new preferred vendors to adjust the billing for stays that took place between January 1 and the date that negotiated rates were finalized. Together, these simple but effective initiatives saved the client $50,000 USD in the first year.

• Training:
  With continuous growth and frequent acquisitions, there was an opportunity to teach employees who were new to the company’s travel program the right way to book from day one. The client took advantage, reinforcing the message to book hotel with each overnight air reservation during onboarding sessions and recurrent OBT trainings.