WHEN COST BECOMES THE COSTUME.
Rebates are attractive, but make sure they are in sync with your travel needs.
When choosing which travel company to partner, the entertainment and sporting sectors often have to manage a performance challenge of a different kind.
On appearances, the process of selecting a travel advisory should be simple. Compare the services, compare the geographic reach, compare the technology capabilities, and compare the costs.
All too often, cost is where complexity takes hold. You can be faced with a myriad of pricing options based on different structures, but with no real transparency.
Comparing 'apples with apples' can become impossible, and your ultimate challenge is understanding the TRUE cost of your travel. What are your flights and accommodation really adding up to? Are the best up-front prices masking the lack of savings you will accrue in the long haul? What is essential and non-essential in the amount you are paying for your travel? The many and varied approaches to pricing have reached new levels of creativity, but at what cost to your procurement and overall travel management?
Understanding the 'bait' in rebates
Rebates are commonly offered in entertainment and sports travel, and have the ability to deliver significant value. In some cases, however, you can end up funding the rebate if you do not look carefully at whether it complements your specific needs.
As examples, rebates can apply to special or higher class fares that are not entirely practical for your travel policy or behaviour. They can also include domestic or international airfares with a specific airline, and accommodation rebates with a particular hotel group.
It's important to recognise that by locking in with one airline or hotel company, there is a possibility of spending more on your travel than you have to. Limiting your supplier options can limit your travel flexibility when plans change and you need other options.
Rebates that are offered on your total travel spend can be a smart solution, but you have to ensure the potential savings are not offset by higher fares and rates.
The key is to look beyond the face value of a rebate. You need to fully understand what portion of your travel it applies to, and how it affects your booking patterns and overall costs. If a rebate is of genuine benefit, embrace it. If it doesn't have high relevance to your existing travel behaviour, there's likely to be more clever ways you can achieve better savings.
Fees vs fares - what matters most?
When comparing travel companies, do you focus on the transaction fees rather than the fares? With the current heat on reducing costs, simplified fee structures can appear to offer you the highest value, especially if they are packaged with a rebate.
Whether a travel company is local or multinational, and regardless of how they structure their pricing, their fees are likely to vary only within 10 per cent of each other. And transaction fees will only comprise around five per cent of your total travel spend. Your decisions therefore need to be based on a return-on-investment strategy rather than a fee reduction strategy. By choosing the right travel advisory and taking this approach, the savings can be more than 20 per cent of your total travel spend.
Assessing cost proposals
Transparency in travel pricing is the only way you can ensure that what you see is what you get. If a price appears to be a showstopper, it may be too good to be true. Cheaper is not always better, as it often comes at the sacrifice of experienced service that's in tune with your needs.
You have to delve deeper than the figures and determine whether you have the ultimate team of service, cost and value. The best prices rarely create the best value, as they tend to focus on just one string of your travel - rather than your travel footprint as a whole.
To give you a cost-focused proposal that is right for your needs, a travel company has to fully understand factors that include - but are not limited to:
- your typical behaviour and requirements
- the nature of your travel eg. does it change frequently; is it last-minute or planned in advance where possible?
- your preferences with suppliers and classes of travel
- your financial goals.
Who stands out in the crowd?
For achievers in entertainment and sport, the savviest travel managers are those who bring savings together with travel that is comfortable, problem-free and flexible.
As the largest Australian-owned travel advisory to partner your industry, Stage and Screen Travel Services provides end-to-end travel management that focuses on value in every journey. We work one-on-one with you to identify what's most important when you are gearing up to go on the road. And we'll find the pricing options that will provide the perfect fit with your travel patterns, preferences and cost targets.
In addition to our core service strength, we negotiate exclusively with suppliers for your industry to bring you the best available fares and rates.
As part of the global Flight Centre Limited (FCL) group, Stage and Screen has access to the lowest logical rates and fares across an extensive range of airlines, hotel and car hire companies - worldwide. We tap into global multi-source platforms providing the widest - and most competitive - airfares, which our people will search, compare and book for you. Stage and Screen also has access to a global database of hotels and apartments in key cities, at leading rates. If you have high-volume needs, we can negotiate with specific hotel companies based on those volumes.
In addition to our global negotiating strength, Stage and Screen was the first travel advisory in Australia to offer Tramada technology to the entertainment and sporting industries. We identified a need for such technology in your sector and we fulfilled it with this cutting-edge tool, which puts you in control of your travel booking efficiency and savings. Tramada encompasses an online booking engine, automated travel policy manager and sophisticated travel reporting.
