perspective, it has been great. We wanted the opportunity to get information from our employees, but also to our employees, quickly.” Mayr adds: “Employees are
encouraged to use the blog to supply feedback as it means we can see what is going on from their perspective. We did have some negative feedback from more than one person about a particular supplier, so we showed the supplier and they posted a response, and then they made some changes, so it was a real win-win situation.” Agrega’s Aucamp gets feedback from travellers twice a year by sending out forms for them to fill in. “Having feedback is great, but if it is a global policy and one or two people are complaining then we are not going to change it,” he says. “In principle, online forums are moving in the right direction, and one of the benefits of them is they are internal so you don’t have travellers blogging in open space about your company.” In the past, what the traveller
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thought of their company policy was often found out much later via a disgruntled email to a travel manager about a bad experience with a particular hotel or airline, or a quick discussion in the corridor. Now feedback can be instant and transparent but it can also be managed.
A PROBLEM SHARED BCD Travel vice-president of corporate intelligence, product planning and portfolio management Torsten Kriedt says: “Some travel managers
are scared to connect with the traveller as they are worried they [the travellers] are bashing the properties in their policy, but there are also those who say: ‘I always wanted to know the details from the travellers,’ so now they finally have a chance to get to know what the travellers think, during the trip, or immediately after.” In August HRG launched a facility for reviews on its hotel booking tool HRG Online. Paul Saggar, HRG’s director of technology and product development, explains that the review product has a search facility, so a traveller can search for hotels in a certain city and the results will come up with the top hotel as rated by other travellers in the community. Saggar says: “You are more likely to be influenced by your friends than an independent review – so in this case, who better to trust than another corporate traveller who has the same travelling experience as you?” These preferences can then be used by the buyer to communicate and negotiate with suppliers, but Saggar is keen to point out this does not have to be negative. “If you have three preferred properties in one city in the same price bracket, one of them will be ranked top by the travellers,” he says. “So you’re saying to the suppliers: ‘Look, you can get a better return with people coming to stay if you provide a great service.’ So we are still adhering to policy but giving the properties a chance to improve their service.” Hotels rather than airlines seem to be the main focus for traveller reviews, as typically there is much less choice on certain airline routes, so buyers are limited to two or three carriers for negotiations, whereas in any one city there are numerous chain and independent hotels to choose from. Hotel portal HRS has had an online review option in place for a few years, and has logged around three million reviews. Reviews can only be posted by
people who have stayed at a particular property (they are emailed for their opinions only after their stay). Corporates using HRS can opt for a closed channel so their employees only see each other’s reviews. HRS UK managing director
Jon West says these platforms are helping to shape and improve managed policies.
“Who better to trust than another corporate traveller who has the same travelling experience as you?”
“Reviews clearly tell the travel manager whether a particular hotel is good, so the comments are not necessarily just for the travellers but also picked up by the travel manager,” he says. “They have a huge advantage in