Travel tech specialist Grapevine has introduced a new tool for its TMC customers designed to help them identify the value of client transactions being lost to other booking platforms or intermediaries.
Called TMC Revenue Calculator, the tool draws attention to the potential volume and value of clients' bookings going through non-preferred channels, but also the duty of care shortcomings it presents due to a lack of visibility of those bookings.
The company says that while up to 100 per cent of a corporate's flight bookings are made through TMCs, up to 80 per cent of other aspects of a trip – including hotels, car hire, airport parking and airport lounges – are currently booked through non-compliant channels.
"TMCs often seem happy with a hotel attachment rate of 20 per cent or less, as this has historically been an acceptable benchmark" says Jack Dow, founder and CEO of Grapevine. "We know business travellers are staying somewhere, so the TMC should be better placed to fulfil the demand than anyone else. With a simple integration, TMCs can now capture far more bookings which is good news for both the TMC and their clients."
Dow continued: "Every day that TMCs are not tackling this issue, they are unnecessarily losing bookings and revenues, and travellers don’t get the end to end experience they deserve. Duty of care compliance and employee wellbeing are particularly in-focus for corporates post-Covid, so tools like Grapevine that encourage travellers to book in-platform create value for all stakeholders in travel."