BrainTrust, a consultancy firm specialising in the travel industry, among other sectors, has published the conclusions of its Business Barometer on the current positioning of airlines, hotel chains and car rental companies in business travel bookings and contracts.
Ángel García Butragueño, head of BrainTrust's Tourism and Leisure Division, and Co-Director of the Tourism Barometer, highlighted that, "despite the fact that tourism companies have a large amount of customer data, it is not used or valued when it comes to knowing the user, segmenting them and offering them a Customer Experience according to their needs and their attitudinal profile. We believe that in a growing and sustainable market such as business travel, few suppliers take advantage of their CRM's, and very few offer their clients personalised proposals according to their company profile. There are great opportunities ahead for suppliers to better understand the market, their competitors, their customers, and to act accordingly by making business decisions based on data rather than intuition.
Suppliers take 34% of the business travel market directly.
In a business travel market of 11,500 million euros of total expenditure in Spain in 2017, suppliers through direct sales have a 34% share, while traditional agencies manage 38%, and online agencies 22%, with large companies using agencies the most, and small companies using direct channels the most. The remoteness of the destination also has an impact on the channels used, and the greater the remoteness, the greater the use of agencies, while for trips closer to the destination, companies prefer to use end suppliers directly.
Airlines: Iberia leads in flights to almost all destinations
36% of total business travel expenditure is spent on flights, with Iberia being the most used provider for business travel in both Spain and Europe.
For domestic and European flights, 78% and 70% of companies used the Iberia brand (including Iberia Express), followed by Vueling (61% and 50%) and Ryanair (52% and 44%).
Companies tend to plan their flights in advance, with 43% of companies booking more than two weeks before travel, although 11% still book less than 3 days in advance.
The aspects that companies look at when choosing a supplier for their bookings are price (65%), the possibility of booking direct non-stop flights (58%) and schedules (48%).
Bearing this in mind, it seems normal that the type of fare most frequently contracted by Spanish companies is the cheapest (chosen by 60% of companies). In addition, in 2 out of 5 bookings, the frequent flyer card of the airline is used, with Iberia also being the most used.
Hotel chains: NH, the most in demand
Hotel expenses account for 34% of the total corporate travel budget. Of this expenditure, 22% is spent on conferences or events and the rest on room bookings for day-to-day travel.
For these hotel bookings, 42% of companies used NH Hoteles, followed by independent hotels (37%) and AC Hoteles (29%), immediately followed by Meliá, Accor, Barceló and Vincci Hoteles.
Location outweighs price when choosing a hotel with 88%. As important aspects, beyond value for money or location, cleanliness (62%) and technology (wifi, mobile, etc.) stand out with 52%.
More than 90% of the bookings made by Spanish companies are in 3 and 4 star hotels where loyalty cards are hardly used to make the reservation. Only 17% of companies use them, with NH again leading the way.
Rent a Car: Europcar, Hertz and Avis the most chosen ones
Car hire accounts for 6% of total travel expenditure. By companies, Europcar, Hertz and Avis are the most used by companies to rent a car with 52%, 44% and 37% of companies that have made use of their services respectively.
By type of car, categories B with 44% and C with 40% are the most frequently hired by companies who look mainly at value for money (58%), flexibility in vehicle pick-up/drop-off (55%) and insurance (44%) when choosing a car hire company.
Customer Experience versus price
The BrainTrust Business Barometer data show once again the commoditisation of increasingly standardised services, where suppliers show few differences in terms of their product, and with a Customer Experience that is not very differentiated, which causes companies to be less loyal to brands, opting for much more rational elements such as price. A Customer Experience that suppliers could improve with the personalisation of the service by taking advantage of the data they have in their possession, an unstoppable trend that users are increasingly demanding, but which they still do not perceive.
The future is not in the data, but in applying business intelligence to that data and using it for the benefit of the customer, which would allow tourism companies to increase their profitability.
The average corporate traveller
Finally, BrainTrust has been able to use these findings to create a "robot portrait" of the average Spanish business traveller. This is a traveller who buys the cheapest available fare for their business flights, stays in 3 or 4 star budget hotels close to their meeting location and which have wifi or other technologies, and rents a category B car, provided they have flexibility when it comes to picking up or dropping off the vehicle.
According to José Manuel Brell, co-director of the Tourism Barometer, "price will always be an important decision value, both for leisure and business travel, but the Customer Experience and above all the flexibility and comfort offered to travellers is gaining positions. Companies must change their priorities, shifting their focus from the product to the customer, offering them added value and personalised proposals. In the era of Big Data, it makes no sense to accumulate data without taking advantage of it, or to use business intelligence and insight to gain an advantage over competitors. Data is there to be used, interpreted, and to draw conclusions that lead us to design commercial strategies with guarantees of success for the business".
You can see the news at: https://www.smarttravel.news/2018/03/21/iberia-nh-hoteles-europcar-lideran-ranking-proveedores-viajes-empresa-espana/
