Global hotel solutions provider HRS has unveiled its latest report at this year’s Business Travel Show. Focusing on helping procurement professionals understand how they can easily add value to current travel programmes, ‘The Best of Both Worlds’ report identified four areas of the hotel programme where they are most likely to encounter frustrations.
The report also revealed the changing role of the modern day procurement professional and highlighted that whilst procurement professionals’ relationships with travel partners generally work very well, if left unattended or managed poorly, there was a danger that standards could slip in the travel programme. The report found that hotels in particular are an area where there is a risk of this happening.
The research indicated that procurement professionals should be regularly asking themselves four key questions about their hotel programme and of their travel partner to ensure that they are constantly adding value. These include; are they getting the right price, are they getting the right hotels, is their payment solution simple and are they getting the best advice?
Talking about the report, Jon West, Managing Director for HRS in the UK and Ireland, commented: “This report shows that more than ever before, today’s procurement professional possesses a much broader range of skills, and plays a more strategic role within their business. Of course one of their many responsibilities is travel – understandably something that they can often only commit a small amount of their time to.
“Many in procurement therefore outsource travel management to a travel partner such as a TMC. These partnerships generally work well, but the report illustrates that there are four key areas that procurement professionals need to regularly monitor to ensure they are working as smartly as possible.
“This report was commissioned to help procurement professionals understand how they can easily add value to their current travel programme. It also sets out to illustrate that they can get the best of both worlds and alleviate any frustrations by also partnering with a hotel specialist, such as HRS, to ensure that they are truly getting the best possible quality, value, payment solutions and advice when it comes to hotels.”
The report was compiled following 20 in-depth interviews with UK procurement professionals who have responsibility for travel procurement. The study, which was commissioned by HRS, was conducted by Circle Research.
