The majority of corporate travel buyers are expecting their budgets to be higher or the same in 2013 as during this year.
A survey of 178 buyers from across Europe, carried out by the Business Travel Show, found that 37 per cent were expecting their travel budgets to rise in 2013.
Another 37 per cent said budgets would stay the same as this year, while only 19 per cent of buyers said that their travel spending would be cut next year.
The survey also found that 47 per cent of buyers would be managing more trips in 2013 than this year while 23 per cent thought there would be fewer trips next year and 22 per cent said they would stay at the same level.
The number of buyers who said they would be booking more of their travellers into a lower grade of hotel in 2013 was 17 per cent (the figure was 25 per cent for 2012), while 12 per cent said they would be booking fewer travellers into lower class hotels than during this year.
But getting a grip on hotel costs will remain a key priority for travel buyers throughout 2013.
Mette Christensen, global head of travel for AP Moller-Maersk, advised: “Do not jump between different chains just because someone offers you a small discount.
“Concentrate on your focus destinations where you have sufficient volumes, sign a BAR (best available rate) agreement for the rest and/or buy on your TMC’s corporate rates.”
While Jafles Pacheko, head of global travel and global commodity manager for Oerlikon, stressed the importance of monitoring hotel prices.
“We monitor the availability of hotel rates frequently and challenge the hotels with our findings,” he said. “We also audit the rates in order to check if our so-called hotel partners are offering us competitive prices.
“If our contracted rates in a certain property are continuously showing higher than those on Expedia, for example, we will go to the hotel and challenge the value of our business relationship.”
businesstravelshow.com