Bupa has revealed a surge in the proportion of travel bookings done online since moving its business to travel management company Egencia.
Jason Cloke, Bupa’s procurement manager, revealed that growing the proportion of online bookings had been a key aspect of the healthcare company’s travel management programme.
“Before we moved to Egencia [in December 2009] we were at around 80% online booking, which was extremely good,” he said.
“However, since we have moved to Egencia we have been able to increase that further, and we are now just below 90%.”
Cloke said a rise in online bookings had enabled Bupa to reduce its travel costs: “Online bookings are a more cost-effective way of booking travel.”
Since starting with Egencia, Bupa has also reported a succesful change to its hotel programme.
Before, Egencia would have agreements with four or five hotels in its top 10 destinations around the UK, but this has been reduced.
Now, in Manchester and Brighton for example, there are only two preferred hotels, while in London there are three.
“Bupa rates are now 2% lower than our peers on average across those city locations,” said Cloke.
“We feel this is an exceptionally strong result, especially considering that in London for example hotel rates have risen on average by around 10% in 2011, so we’re really bucking the trend on our hotel programme.”
Further details of Egencia’s work with Bupa can be seen in the video case study below.