Mandating where travellers should eat could prove lucrative for budget conscious travel managers, according to Ron di Leo, executive director of the Association of Corporate Travel Executives (ACTE).
A recent survey by ACTE revealed that nearly half (48.6%) of business travellers consume “more” or “significantly more” food and drink when away on business.
With food and drink spend a significant proportion of the total cost of a trip, there may be the opportunity for travel managers to have a closer eye on where their travellers choose.
“Most travel policies have paremeters on how much you can spend, which is how it’s been controlled in the past,” said di Leo.
But with new technology and social media, travellers could be guided to restaurants near their hotel that are offering deals such as 2 for 1 or 10% off.
Di Leo gave the example of using location-based social media site Foursquare on a recent trip to Paris: “I checked in and it gave me a list of all the restaurants nearby and there were three that had reviews on them.
“Using those as a guide, we tried a restaurant that turned to be a killer place and difficult to get into. The only reason we got in is because we were eating early. Without Foursquare we wouldn’t have known it was there.”
This idea can be expanded, continued di Leo: “Some of the properties had specials, for example buy a cup of coffee at a certain time of day and you get a 10% discount as you’re a foursquare user.
“You could easily take that idea and apply it to restaurants and have a Foursquare site that’s dedicated to a specific company and has deals on it.”
So, the company saves money, and the traveller is happy because they get to eat in a great restaurant, he concluded.