THE BUSINESS TRAVEL MAGAZINE I 39 The Review ➔ Goodbye to corporate gifts?
BUYERS will have to think differently about what they can accept as corporate gifts and, as a company, what they can give their best customers after new anti- bribery legislation comes into force later this year, potentially as early as the summer. Corporates with large conference
and incentive departments should examine their business content as the law will look closely at excessive corporate jollies in which only a fraction of the time is put aside for business, leaving the recipient in a position of obligation. In the wake of the BAe scandals,
the legislation is designed to cutback on excesses in this area and also aims to tackle bribery which is often indigenous in developing economies around the world. “It is a wide and draconian act,” says Richard Mumford, a partner in ASB Law. The new law, which came onto
our statute books last year, stops short of including a monetary level for such gifts – as legislation in some other European countries has detailed – but requests simply
that they be 'reasonable and proportionate'. The law incorporates a new corporate offence of failing to prevent bribery, and potential offenders will have to prove that there was no intent to bribe by establishing company policies and detailing procedures; if they can't then there is a potential maximum jail sentence of ten years. The law extends to agents and joint venture
CRASHPADDER GETS TO BUSINESS
BTMS NEWS
THERE'S a new accommo- dation option on the horizon,
and it involves sleeping with your colleagues, so to speak. From the founders of the global home-stay portal, Crashpadder, comes WelcomeHome, its new corporate offering. Aimed at companies with over £500,000 annual hotel spend and with high volumes of travel between their locations, WelcomeHome pulls together a database of company employees willing to host their acquaintances as an alternative to a hotel visit. The programme is a closed network version of its successful Crashpadder platform, complete with a company-branded self-booking tool. Employees can refine their accommodation search using a number of parameters, going beyond simple location searches to 'personality matching' criteria such as interests shared by the host and the guest employee. Founder Stephen Rapoport
explains, “The set-up fee is £5,000 regardless of a company's size,
and this buys a branded website that is available only to a company's staff and contractors. “We seek only to cover our
costs with the set-up fee, profiting when we save a client money. This is in the form of an admin fee of £5 to £10 depending on the volume and level of service we are providing the client.“ It is up to the company how staff
are incentivised to use the facility, though Rapoport says, “We recommend that guests and hosts are both paid 25 per cent of the usual cost of a hotel – ie, if a business typically spends £100 on a hotel room for the night, they should offer hosts and guests £25 each. We are able to pay staff directly into their bank accounts in 110 countries so there is no additional work for our clients.“ Rapoport continues, “Having launched in January, we are now in price negotiations with a major blue-chip telecoms company, two of the UK's largest airlines and a major global retailer.“
partners in overseas markets. The prosecuting authorities are the Serious Fraud Squad. The new offence covers the “offering, promising or giving of a financial advantage or other advantage to another person to bring about improper performance of a relevant function or an activity, or to reward a person for the improper performance of a relevant function or an activity.“
SUPPLIERS SETTLING UP
BTMS NEWS
CONFERMA and Sabre have joined together
to create a more efficient hotel settlement process for corporates. It comprises one unique number – like a virtual credit card number – that follows each trip, from booking to reconciliation. “There are no ledger issues
and no change for hotels,” explains Simon Barker, chief executive of Conferma. Sabre is the distributor
and its systems are already integrated into hotels. A full detailed statement is produced for buyers at the end of each month without having to issue a credit card. Travel management comp-
anies Hillgate Travel, based in London, and TD Travel, in Manchester, are the trial customers for the product.
THE LOWDOWN IN BRIEF
• TRAVELPORT is investing both spend and personnel to help simplify and enhance the hotel booking process through the GDS channel. Speaking at The Appointment Group’s annual conference, Travelport’s managing director for Europe and Brazil, Jason Clarke, said, “Having good hotel content is critical for many of our customers and so we have placed a lot of focus on this area as a business lately. We also have exciting plans to invest in our core GDS technology as well as offerings such as our online leisure portal Travelport Leisure which brings new content direct to the desktop of the travel agency.” He added, “A second phase Travelport Leisure development will provide more content aggregation, with single booking paths, single payment paths and committed commissions from multiple hotel suppliers. In a nutshell, it should provide agency users with even more opportunity to earn new revenues, booking hotels as well as cars and tour operator content.” Recent growth in the UK & Ireland has been “superb”, said Clarke, and he added that it remains a priority market with plenty more opportunity for further growth.
• EGENCIA has expanded its traveller security and duty of care facilities with new tools integrated with its booking platform. Egencia also operates a Travel Alert centre which monitors international incidents and generates bulletins with up-to-date, accurate news. “Travel Management Companies have a duty of care to their clients. Egencia fully equips Travel executives to manage crisis scenarios, providing the information and tools necessary to support their travellers no matter the location and circumstance,” says Christophe Peymirat, vice president global marketing, Egencia. “It’s our duty to help our clients conduct a thorough risk analysis, so they can make informed decisions and ensure the safety of their travellers.”
• KDS unveiled what it believes is the next generation of travel and expense management systems at its first annual 'KDS Now' conference in Paris in February. The KDS Executive Suite, an on-screen dashboard, provides companies with an instant graphic overview of their T&E performance and includes a 'Foresight' early warning system that follows and predicts KPI trends to provide advanced warning of forthcoming problems. It also launched KDS Mobile, its first generation mobile phone product.
36 I THE BUSINESS TRAVEL MAGAZINE
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