According to research from accommodation and meetings management company, BSI, companies that rely on global distribution systems (GDS) for their hotel needs are only gaining access to 50% of the market in many European countries.
BSI calculates that the major GDS companies cover a mere 39.5% of all hotels in France, 41% in the UK, 44% in Spain, 48.5% in Germany and 52.2% in Belgium.
”This clear lack of choice has a significant negative impact on those corporates looking to consolidate their accommodation business through a single channel,” said BSI commercial director, Trevor Elswood.
”Company ”users” ” bookers and business travellers ” lose confidence, which manifests as general apathy to corporate guidelines and higher rates of policy avoidance as they opt for the DIY approach and make bookings directly,” he said.
As a result, says Elswood, company online booking tools and travel management companies (TMCs) are made redundant and traveller stay and spend patterns cannot be monitored. This prevents the company from maximising potential savings and raises duty of care issues as businesses are unable to track employee travel.
BSI claims to offer the market leading product for business travel accommodation booking in Europe with an extensive database of hotels, of which 63% are not listed in a GDS channel.
”We offer the user immediate information on availability at these hotels, user-friendly geo-coding technology to pinpoint exact locations and distance, and then track and record the bookings made in order to produce detailed reports for management,” said Elswood.
BSI”s management information also includes a number of details that are normally not identified through GDS bookings, such as room type, meal-inclusive terms or whether tax is included in the price.
”There are considerable savings to be gained by integrating the services of a specialist alongside your TMC; following effective procurement practices; and, using specialist accommodation online booking tools within the self-booking offering of your travel portal he said.”