Global TMC BCD Travel has unveiled a dedicated hotel division headed by Advito MD April Bridgeman.
The company claims Stay by BCD Travel will help current and future clients by accelerating their ability to innovate within the corporate travel landscape. Comprised of newly created positions and current staff from the TMC and its consultancy Advito, the hotel division will offer spend management, price assurance, rate availability management, analytics, awareness and adoption campaigns, merchandising and the use of updated market-level rate targets.
Bridgeman has been appointed senior vice president of hotel solutions and will also continue leading Advito. BCD says this will give her the ability to provide a comprehensive view of spend across travel categories including hotel, air, rail, car and ground, among others. She now reports to global chief operating officer and chief commercial officer Mike Janssen.
Janssen commented: “Hotels are the most critical battleground for customers. They represent the second largest spend category in travel and are increasingly the measure by which programmes succeed or fail, whether we’re talking about savings or satisfaction. Our innovative, data-driven hotel approach helps travel and procurement managers win this battle.”
BCD says one of its clients reduced the number of negotiated markets by 55 per cent, instead setting hotel target rates as spending guidelines for travellers. The change achieved 4.9 per cent incremental savings in non-programme markets. Another client saw hotel attachment grow by 139 per cent year over year through an awareness and adoption campaign.
Bridgeman said: “Great hotel programmes are nothing if you don’t drive adoption. When you focus on bringing people into the programme and invest effort into spend management strategies beyond sourcing, you’ll achieve materially better results than traditional approaches. It’s time to shift resources to strategies proven to add more value.”
BCD has implemented a growth plan that has seen the TMC invest 40 per cent of its earnings back into technology and infrastructure. It says this has resulted in growth of its digital platforms, including DecisionSource, TripSource and SolutionSource.
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