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Questions to Ask When Hiring a Business Travel Services Provider

admin — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 16:53:44 +0000

Business travel services companies can deliver a wealth of benefits including; saving you money on bookings, and added value through additional services and saving time.

If you’re looking to change the company you use for corporate travel, or are thinking of hiring a business travel services provider for the first time, below are some useful questions to ask.

What services do you provide?

Before signing up to any contract or agreement with a corporate travel company, you’ll want to know exactly what they can provide.

If you’re a large organisation, making sure they provide a full range of services to meet the travel needs of all the individuals in your company is important.

How experienced are your business travel agents?

Experience counts for a lot when it comes to corporate travel. Asking this question will give you an understanding of the level of knowledge and expertise available to your business when you choose a corporate travel services partner.

How will you add value to the business?

When you’re paying for any service, whether it’s business travel services or anything else, return on investment is important.

By asking how a potential provider will add value to your corporate travel, you’ll be able to get a good idea of their professionalism and commitment to customer satisfaction. A corporate travel partner that can save your business significant sums of money and time is the ideal scenario.

What other clients do you work with?

Asking for evidence of other client relationships is one way to deciding if a potential corporate travel partner is the right fit for your business.

For example, you may be an organisation with 200 employees who travel regularly, but the business travel services company might have only dealt exclusively with much smaller firms in the past. It’s important that you’re happy with their ability to handle the number of bookings your company makes.

Why should we give you our business?

This question often puts people on the spot, but it can be useful when it comes to selecting a business travel services partner.

The answers to this question should be about you as the customer rather than the corporate travel agency. For example, “We are the best in our field and have been operating the longest” isn’t a very good answer and tells you nothing about the benefits of using them as a supplier.

Author Bio: The Co-operative Travel Management http://www.co-operativetm.co.uk/ provides a full range of online and offline corporate travel services. Hiring the right business travel services partner can make a real difference to your business, so ask the questions above and choose a name you can trust.

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Thomas Cook financial worries concern holidaymakers

Alan — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 15:42:54 +0000

Thomas Cook has recently begun talks with banking institutions so that it can increase the amount it is borrowing as the cash-strapped company tries to survive the Christmas season. On Tuesday morning shares in the company dropped by 50% after an announcement that the company is trading at significantly reduced in the last few months. The company has announced that it won’t be publishing its financial results until talks have concluded with the banks.

The chief executive of Thomas Cook left the company 12 weeks ago and this caused the shares to lose even more value. It is typical for travel operators to have cash flow problems in the winter months that the announcement of further loans for Thomas Cook still rocked the City.

A spokeswoman for the company however has said, “Investors do not need to worry, we still have money on the balance sheet, we are just beginning talks with banks to make sure we’re protected if there are any shocks during the winter season. Trading has deteriorated so we’re just looking for some extra room to manoeuvre; it is the prudent course of action.”

In the last year and a half the company has issued numerous profit warnings and has placed blame on many external factors. Since the start of the year the company’s shares have lost over 80% of their value and the plunge that took place last Tuesday was a significant proportion of this. Investors are further concerned over the fact that Thomas Cook was due to publish its year’s financial report on Tuesday but an announcement has been made that this will be delayed until talks with the banks are completed.

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Surge in bookings to Cape Verde says Voyager Travel Direct

Alan — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 13:56:08 +0000

An increase in bookings for holidays to Cape Verde has been reported by Voyage Travel Direct, and the months proving most popular are in the Autumn and Winter. The surge in popularity of Cape Verde is very significant, and holidays to the islands have accounted for 7% of all of the bookings made through Voyage Travel Direct during the months of September and October.

The group of islands known as Cape Verde are located off the west coast of Africa in the Atlantic Ocean. First colonised in the 15^th century by Portugal, Cape Verde finally gained their independence in 1975. Their culture has a heavy Portuguese influence and well as the African countries it calls its neighbours.

With winter temperatures averaging around 10 degrees warmer than the Canaries, Cape Verde’s warm weather is one of the main draws for sun-seeking winter tourists. With the country’s large and well-established tourism industry, Cape Verde holidays appeal to those who want to relax in a stress-free and hospitable environment.

Many of the Cape Verde bookings through Voyager Travel Direct have been all inclusive holidays, which bundle the costs of accommodation, flights and meals into one holiday package. Voyager Travel Direct reported that all of its holiday bookings to Cape Verde have been Boa Vista holidays or for stays at the resort of Santa Maria on Sal Island.

Verity Eyre, the general manager of Voyager Travel Direct, responded to the increase in Cape Verde bookings, saying: “Last year we didn’t really sell Cape Verde at all, this year we have worked together with a great supplier to negotiate some fantastic all inclusive prices and this has led to a massive increase in Cape Verde sales for us. Cape Verde offers pretty much guaranteed winter sunshine without having to fly long-haul and offers a good alternative to the Canaries for clients looking to try somewhere different this

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eBookers new iPad app

Alan — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 20:50:51 +0000

A new iPad app has been launched by eBookers an online travel agent to inspire travelers that use social media. It is the first social media guide the eBookers Explorer is an app that is destination focused with the feeling of a magazine that is aimed at those that want the best of somewhere using the social web.

The app helps to collate different information from social sites like Facebook and Twitter including photos, videos, blogs to give the most up to date picture of the different places around the world.

This is different from apps from competitors like Priceline and Travelocity because the eBookers app is design to promote the destination and not how to get there although users can use tools on the app to search for a hotel before sharing that information with other friends on Twitter, Facebook or through email.

Expedia also has announced new travel mobile tools by launching an Android app and mobile website. The new app emulates the brand’s iPhone app but the new website is interesting which builds upon the already offered version for mobiles of TripAdvisor. Statistics at Google say the number of searches has sky rocketed for those using the mobile for web searches from only 6% in 2010 to over 20% in 2011.

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Virgin Atlantic’s new travel agents site

Alan — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 07:11:01 +0000

Virgin Atlantic has unveiled its new website that is exclusively travel agents. Their new site, www.vsflyinghub.com, offers lots of information on the policies of the airline, as well as other products and the destination they fly to. There will also be special offers and competition just for travel agents to take advantage of and enter. The GM of Virgin sales, Paul Wait, says that this new site underlines the commitment Virgin has to the trade.

He went onto say that Virgin recognises the fact that the trade is one of the essential elements of the customer’s journey, and they wanted to provide them with as much information as possible to make their job easier, which in turn made the whole booking process better for customers. The agents will be able to tailor the website to their individual needs and create their own scrapbooks of personal content.

To tie in with the website’s launch, Virgin are offering agents the chance to win a great trip to New York, with return upper class tickets, four nights staying at the Gansevoort Hotel and a dinner at Nobu.

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Western & Oriental sell tour group

Alan — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 03:37:31 +0000

Western & Oriental, a luxury holiday group, after being shown interest from many other companies, is finally selling the tour part of its business.

The company released a statement indicating that five offers have been made, which corresponds to “the strategic insight of the former board.” Getting rid of the tour operations will aid in fixing money reserves, after the company posted its £7.8 million loss for 2010.

“After reviewing the offers, we have decided to continue with two of them, based on the value and conditions.”

Pavlos Savvides, the new chairman, who has replaced Andrew Neil, refused to reveal who those companies were, whose bids were accepted. Savvides did tell that they are not unknown companies, though they are small.

Neil left voluntarily after only a stint of two months. The director, Jeremy Goldberg had also left.

After the completion of the sale at the end of February, the brands will be dissolved and any assets from the tour operations will be liquidated, even the forward bookings.

The following brands belong to the tour aspects of Western & Oriental: key2holidays, Regent Holidays, Honeymiles, and Iceland2go. However, yet one more brand of theirs, W&O Events, deals primarily in incentive, conference, and business travel.

They also provide customized travel packages throughout the world.

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TUI see’s a rosie travel future

Alan — Sat, 04 Dec 2010 04:43:39 +0000

TUI, which is Europe’s biggest travel operator, and the only one on the FTSE 100, has reported that it is not worried about current downtrends in the market and bad weather. Stating that the company always deals with these sorts of problems well, representatives touted the fact that, apart from losses due to the volcanic ash problems, TUI’s profit was over £330 million.

The company says that it recovered from last year’s £94 million in losses through increased profits on its products. Summer’s trading was not, however, strong enough to cover winter losses.

TUI blames this on things like the government’s announcements on the economy and better than usual weather, which kept Brits at home instead of travelling. They said that the World Cup played a factor, along with losses in consumer confidence.

Even with the temperatures once again taking a nosedive and Gatwick Airport closing, the company says that it has the infrastructure, the ability, and the experience to adjust.

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Richard Carrick says he would not utilize travel agents

Alan — Thu, 25 Nov 2010 06:22:10 +0000

Richard Carrick has 35 years of experience in the travel industry, most recently as CEO of Hoseasons, the U.K.’s leading holiday travel business. He left that position when Hoseasons was sold to Wyndham Worldwide in March of this year, and speaking at the 2010 Aito Conference in Brussels this past weekend, he had some advice for people starting a new business.

Carrick suggested that new operators should avoid using travel agencies as distributors of specific information. He said the opportunities online are tremendous, as they allow a company to “take control” of a customer. He also stressed that operators’ websites should be used more effectively by making sure that potential customers can contact them easily, and then responding promptly to queries. He said, “If you’re not going to respond to people, don’t invite them to contact you.”

Carrick also suggested that the focus should be on the ‘experience’ a company offers, rather than just a destination.

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Opposition from every corner to Google travel

Alan — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 01:43:56 +0000

When Google announced in July that it was buying ITA Software for 700 million dollars, there were mixed reactions from the agencies that would be directly affected, and quite a bit of opposition to the sale.

ITA specializes in providing information from many different airlines, including flight times and ticket prices, using a tool called QPX to organize the information into a searchable database. Online travel agencies make use of the QPX software and so do many airlines including American, Continental, United, Virgin Atlantic Airways and others.

Several of the leading travel firms have formed a group called FairSearch to oppose the sale, fearing that Google, the Internet giant, will be able to manipulate and take over the air travel marketplace online. Members of FairSearch, including Expedia, TripAdvisor, Kodak, Farelogix Inc. and Sabre Holdings launched a website at FairSearch.org and made a statement to the effect that Google’s ownership of the software might be detrimental to the best interests of consumers.

In arguments against the sale, FairSearch members said that with Google having sole proprietorship of ITA Software, the result might be higher prices and fewer choices. They also feel that Google might limit their access to the software and push all the online traffic to its own sites, for its own profit.

Google argues that the purchase will not jeopardize any rival businesses and is intended to build more tools that customers can use to facilitate travel searches. Senior managers at Google have said that the company will honour all of ITA’s existing contracts and agreements, and that Google will not be selling tickets online.

Thomas Barnett, former head of the Justice Department antitrust division and now counsel for Expedia, agreed that Google’s immense power in the search market could allow it to lead customers in the direction it wants them to go, which could ultimately limit their choices.

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Gill’s Cruise Centre goes viral on Facebook

admin — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 16:12:12 +0000

Gill’s, the UK cruise giant goes viral this week with a ‘Guess the route of the mystery ship’ competition on Facebook. In a move to connect with a greater share of Facebook users, the popular cruise agent asks entrants to guess the order in which a selection of world ports are to be visited by a mystery cruise ship, due to leave Southampton in the near future.

Up for grabs for the lucky winner is an Apple iPod Touch – just perfect for keeping tabs on Gill’s innovative Cruise deals app, that enables cruise fans to keep up to date with ship info, deck plans and the latest cruise deals.

Check out http://www.facebook.com/gillscruise to enter the competition, which closes on Sunday 14 November.

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