Putting a Price on Productivity

In the last few weeks (now that 2011 business travel budgets have been restocked!) I have visited both New York and London and had the pleasure of staying at two properties that have been bucking the unbundling trend by providing delightfully free services to support the business traveler.

In New York I was offered the house car to take me to the office in the morning which in the cold snowy January weather the East Coast of the US has been experiencing was a welcome surprise! It also saved me about 20 minutes of walking which allowed me to do some additional preparation work for my early morning meeting.

In London for the Business Travel and Meetings show, a cadre of colleagues and myself booked into a property that was listed closest to our main office by Victoria Station. Indeed we saved countless taxis to Belgrave House, but more importantly, the property did not charge anything for business service centre usage! 

Colleagues were able to use the Internet, scan documents, email, print -- all for nada. When we were asked our own cost center to print out booklets in the business centre at the Amex HQ, you know that is a real value!  

A preferred supplier agreement with a business hotel that is focused on traveler productivity -- and not pinching pennies -- is more important than ever. As we heard that so many properties were responding to keeping business rates flat or in the low single digits this RFP season by pulling out services that were tradtionally included, category managers must understand total cost of trip and where property partners can alleviate the expense creep that is happening more and more when employees are on the road.

A recent reconciliaton analysis of card, travel, and expense data for companies showed that the "Other" category is now more often exceeding that traditional leading player: air spend. To keep employees and the CFO happy, travel management professionals will have to consider the services they are getting -- or not getting -- from their properties more than ever.