The travel industry's remuneration model is broken, Robert Daykin told the first joint conference of the Institute of Travel Management (ITM) and the Guild of Travel Management Companies (GTMC).
"The model needs a radical re-think. We should be looking at the price we are paying in relation to the value we are getting," Mr Daykin, senior partner with the Corporate Travel Partnership, said.
"We should be using our powers to negotiate and get down to a real business relationship: 'What are you going to do for me and what am I going to pay you for it.'"
He told the 60 delegates at the London event that the industry was a "money go round" with cash "sloshing around until at the end of the day the customer is paying."
There were still commissions, overrides, sales and marketing agreements and a client who expected a rebate could find himself with a bill for £25,000.
Clients were buying two things for the TMCs, Mr Daykin said. The first was bookings, support data, payments which were transactional and the "lower value bit."
The second, the "cerebral bit" was MI and advice on issues like reducing trips, cutting travel and spending less.
But TMCS tied this up together rather than splitting it.
"If there is a real value in something you are getting from a supplier, then pay him handsomely for it,” he said. "The key to this is the return on your investment."
TMCs charge transaction or management fees. But research showed that the current model was one where up to 26% of TMC costs had nothing to do with the client.
"The contribution to overhead and profit should be in relation to the resources applied to providing the service contracted for," Mr Daykin said.
Earlier Jamie Hindhaugh, head of sourcing for BBC Procurement, said that as a buyer he wanted to know "how much – and where were the hidden costs, where we were paying twice and who is paying what to whom."
He said he wanted a situation where buyers got access to all content and rates.
But there were costs in online booking tools, using GDS tools and webscraping.
There was also now a separate charge for using the GDSs.
"This is an interesting development. I can see it commercially but it is completely ripping apart my travel programme," he said.
"All of this makes it very difficult to provide a service corporately. It is all cost."
He said he wanted to see one source, one buyer and one payment.
"I want to feel that bookers are buying travel in the right way. Without this, the programme will start splintering," Mr Hindhaugh said.
He said he was looking to book direct on a supplier's website with lodge cards and MI. This was now being trialled with an airline and a hotel chain.
"We need the one source and the recognition that there is one buyer," he said.
Also from the conference:
Industry has shortage of talent – Strachan
The business travel industry has a shortage of talent, Caroline Strachan, chair of the ITM, told the conference.
"There are not enough good people with the relevant qualifications. There is still no defined route into the industry.
"People fall into it form banking or IT or other industries. There is no proper route into travel.
"Careers advisors tell young people that they can do better than travel and, as someone with 18 years' experience in this industry, that really gets my blood boiling."
Ms Strachan said there was no specific degree level for travel which was a "misunderstood" area of the marketplace.
She sad that the recent GTMC conference in Istanbul showed there was "fantastic expertise" in the industry and there was also the Guild's 20/20 initiative to find the "shining stars of the future."
But Ms Strachan said that any TMC would tell you how hard it was to find good account managers or sales people.
"People who come into the industry have no training in travel. I find it surprising that we as an industry should take that approach," she said.
She said that what corporates wanted from TMCs included robust technology, service excellence "which is a given", expert quality control, motivation and knowledge that constantly evolves.
“As a front line agent you have to work incredibly hard to make sure you are happy about what you are doing and be really motivated to be able to look after your customers,” Ms Strachan said.
Helen Sandman, a training consultant with MG Training which works with the ITM on its training programmes, said that turnover in travel in the UK at 22.3% was higher than the national average of 18%.
But many employers adopted a tactical approach to recruitment where they would only react when something went wrong.
They had no interest in recruitment, an "old school" approach to training and no interest in people's needs.
The better, strategic approach understood these needs and was open to new ideas and methods.