RAIL: TTCE versus Train-line
 
If you currently have an account setup with Trainline and book directly.  If I based your average rail ticket cost at £100.00 the booking fee comparison is as follows:
 
Fees based on a ticket of £100.00:
 
Train-line = £1.50 booking fee + 2% Credit card fee =£3.53
 = £3.00 flat fee for TOD or delivery and would be billed onto account =£3.00
 
We would be cheaper than the Trainline on all tickets over £75.00.
Anything under £75.00 we would be more expensive by a matter of pence.
 
What other benefits are there of booking rail through TTCE?
 
1.     We process your refunds which can be quite time consuming
2.     All tickets are prepaid including ticket on departures (using the same card to collect the tickets that paid for them is not needed with our bookings)
3.     We save you time reconciling card statements
4.     We are proactive and exchange advance tickets (subject to the T&C’s)
5.     We provide detailed reporting on rail spend (good and bad practice / booking horizons / suggested savings hints and tips)
6.     Our system detects when the lower fare has been missed at the time of booking.
7.     We offer seat only reservations
8.     Flights, rail and hotels can all be booked on one system.
 
 
HOTEL RESERVATIONS:  TTCE versus Online websites
 
I understand you can use a variety of hotel websites to book room nights.  I am unsure of your volume; budget or how you control what is spent.  I would like to say the hotel system we have is the most comprehensive available although I can never guarantee that.
 
We have a mix of hotel rates chosen from reliable sources, these are Expedia, Late Rooms and our live agent feed from the hotels directly.  We choose our rates from reliable sources so we can ensure that costs can be billed back and are priced accurately and clearly state what is included in the rate. 
 
TTCE Fees: Our fees for hotel bookings are below:
 
Pay on departure:          Nil
Bill back to company:    2.5% where the rate is commissionable or 2.5% plus a £5 booking fee where the rate is non-commissionable (95% of hotel bookings are commissionable)   
 
I am aware that no fees apply to the majority of online hotel sites, but do not offer hotel bill-back onto account.
 
What other benefits are there of booking hotels through TTCE?
 
1.     We offer a bill-back service.  This avoids the passenger paying on departure and time consuming expenses and statement reconciliation processes.  We feel 2.5% offers excellent value for this.
2.     If you wish to pay on departure we charge no fee (same as on other websites)
3.     We provide a VAT breakdown on hotels which you are entitled to claim back.  20% of all hotel bills are based on a rough guess on your hotel expenditure a significant amount of money.
Hotel rates booked through sites such as Opodo, Kayak, and Trigavo are classed as leisure bookings rather than business and therefore no VAT breakdown is provided.
4.     Our system can have a built-in travel policy, regional room rate caps and reporting can be very beneficial.
5.     Ease of access.  As with rail hotels are all under one system with one login.
6.     If we are aware of your travel spend we can identify patterns and use our contacts within the industry to setup negotiated rates
7.     Flights, rail and hotels can all be booked on one system.
 
 
TTCE versus Booking Independently
 
In cost terms alone, you have the hidden cost of researching, billing and reconciliation can be both cost and time expensive.
 
Research from Cornell University confirms that it can take 37.5 minutes to complete each Internet search for travel and that it can take up to 12 searches before a booking is made.
 
Factoring in back-office processing per invoice / credit card payment / expenses can cost upwards of £20 per invoice.
 
If we based a very rough guesstimate of the number of hotel bookings you make as 400 that means that your reconciliation costs are 400 x £20 = £8000.
 
If we add in the cost of searching and booking online based on 2 visits (37.5 minutes per visit) to the Internet (75 minutes) then the cost in salary is £15.38 per booking (based an average UK PA salary of £24,000 (source: Payscale). For 400 hotel bookings this costs you £6152.
 
Total hidden cost is £8000 + £6152 = £14152.
 
Rail, air and other ancillary travel will add significantly to this.
 
Once we have detailed travel data for your expenditure and number of transactions we can run a cost comparison of what our fees would total.
 
 
Additional benefits of using TTCE for all your travel requirements?
 
Management Information (Accurate travel reporting for the whole of xxx): The reporting I provide monthly will be more comprehensive.  We can identify travel patterns, areas for savings and give clear info on travel spend.
 
Duty of care – If we book all travel we can identify and locate passengers and help assist should there be any delays, cancellations or problems with their travel plans.
 
Account and Supply-chain Management: we give you an expert travel consultancy that recommends better buying procedures, cost and time analysis, supplier negotiations and long-term procurement strategies, consolidated billing and credit facilities.
 

Have a travel policy that is fit for purpose.
You might already have a travel policy, but is it the best that it can be? Is it a one-size-fits-all document that’s been in place for a long time and therefore it no longer meets your needs? Is it aligned with where your organisation is looking to be in the future? Taking the time to examine your travel policy in a critical way, whilst gathering feedback from those that it affects the most is your first step in crafting a well-constructed, universally understood and adhered to travel policy that will act as your first line of defence when it comes to controlling and reducing travel costs.
 
Improve your lead times
Increasing how far in advance travel is booked is a behaviour that is key to driving travel costs down, however last minute bookings can be a hard habit to shake due to the amount of flexibility that they afford travellers.
Although it’s not always possible to exert a lot of control over meetings with prospects or clients, internal meetings provide a great opportunity to think smart and increase lead times, so it’s worth asking travellers to be mindful when arranging these. Your travel management company (TMC) should have a wealth of experience when it comes to improving lead times and working with your account manager to develop a strategy that best fits your organisation is the best way to kick things into touch.
 
Boost travel policy compliance
The first step to improving compliance with your travel policy is to understand why travellers are resistant to booking within the defined parameters set out in the policy; is it a matter of convenience? Is your current booking system difficult to use or access? Does your travel policy seem inflexible or unrealistic to employees? Do employees feel like they have more choice using online booking sites?
 
Find a travel management approach that’s the right fit
If your organisation’s current approach to travel management isn’t quite working out, or is failing to produce the results that you want then why not find a travel management solution that fits?
Procuring the services of a TMC is no mean feat and, if done properly, it can take a fair amount of time. However, it also provides an often much needed chance to take stock - to evaluate what’s working, what isn’t and where your organisation is heading.
 
Want to find out more, contact me at mike.halliwell@ttce.com or call me on 07841 920752.
 
Alternatively contact the office at edinburgh@ttce.com or call 0131 467 7000

Many people believe that because they are regular travellers this makes them best equipped to make their own travel arrangements and whilst they may have best intentions, by acting in this way it may in actual fact not only be false economy but it could be leaving the company wide open in terms of risk management. Organisations have legal and moral obligations to provide safety and security to their people, as much as possible, as they travel on business; that comes in the form of duty of care and a travel management company (TMC) should offer you access to tools and services that support you in looking after your travellers and help you in holding up your end of the duty of care bargain.
 
So next time you are booking your business trip and you think you can save a couple of pounds by booking your hotel room through some 3rd party website or going on a price comparison site for your flight just think about the following:
 
If you don't book through your TMC, they won't know where you are, which means they can't help you in a crisis.
Let's say you book a hotel on your own, and when you arrive, you are not happy with the condition of your room or worse still, the hotel doesn't have a record of your reservation. Who do you call for help? No one. That's who.
You are probably NOT even saving your company money by finding the deal of the century even if you think you are.  Want to know why? Your company negotiates deals with specific suppliers on an annual basis. These deals frequently include behind-the-scenes incentives based on quantity of bookings. The TMC may well be offering your company a rebate on commissions earned and you also have to factor in time, your time to make the booking and your finance department who then have to spend time cross referencing your expense claim.
 
So you may be an experienced traveller and you may feel that a TMC restricts what you can or can’t book. This is very rarely the case, we work with all of our clients to give the end user a pleasurable experience, give them choices and a high level of personal service all whilst controlling the companies spend, making sure the staff are as safe as possible and streamlining the back office processing.
 
Want to know more about how we can help give me a call on 07841 920752 or email mike.halliwell@ttce.com
 
Alternatively call 0131 467 7000 or email operations@ttce.com
 

Along with the growth of all kinds of internet businesses, online sites selling various travel services have been increasing in popularity in recent years. Hence, one of the first decisions that has to be made when planning a trip is: do I put the trip together myself or use the services of a professional travel consultant to do that?
 
We often hear that online reservation systems are now so efficient that all purchases can be made on the internet, and travel agencies are redundant. People tend to forget that a web page does not function on its own and there is always a travel agency behind every online portal. An IT-system is only a tool. We offer our clients both options: we try to help in making this important decision and we give you the pluses and minuses of both travel planning options.
 
The biggest advantage of an online selling environment is the lower price that is achieved thanks to the low costs of maintaining a portal. Seasoned travellers also value the options offered by the online portals such as a function to compare prices, read the opinions of other travellers and make a reservation quickly.
 
The strongest minus of an online selling environment is the vast amount of information, in which a less experienced client can get lost. A low-cost online environment usually does not give the option of asking for advice and help. On many online environments, there is no simple way to change travel plans or correct them if something goes wrong with a reservation. We often meet clients that do not know where to get help if they have problems with travel services purchased from foreign online portals.
 
The biggest advantage of a traditional travel agency is convenience and saved time: instead of hours spent on searching for information on your own, a professional travel consultant will offer the best travel solutions and help to find the right piece of information from the large array of information. A travel consultant not only assists during the time of reserving a trip and the trip itself but also provides help and support in the event of potential problems. TTCE supports its clients 24/7.
 
The minus of a traditional travel agency is the service charge that is usually a bit higher than the margin of online sales environments. However, this is not always the case because an experienced travel consultant is often able to find cheap travel options that online portals do not automatically offer. We also have access to fares that cannot be published online.
 
In summary: while a traditional travel agency gives a higher sense of security, online sales portals give a small saving. However, this small saving is often lost by the booker not accessing the best fares or rates. Remember, fee will only add up to around 3% possibly 4% of your overall travel spend. An experienced travel consultant can easily save this with the other 96% to work on. A TMC is a management company not just a booking tool, we are here to manage and control your spend as well as add security and convenience to your bookings.
 
Hence, we recommend that you use online travel agencies if
you are a seasoned traveller who is ready to accept higher risks for lower price;
you plan a simple trip from one point to another that does not require using different airlines and means of transport;
you have a good command of foreign languages and you can represent your own interests.
 
We recommend that you use a traditional travel agency if:
you are a client who lacks travel experience and may need advice and help in their mother tongue during the trip;
you plan a more complex trip involving various means of transport or airlines where you may experience unexpected problems;
you prefer comfort and security while travelling over a little saving.


Want to find out more, contact me at mike.halliwell@ttce.com or call me on 07841 920752.

Alternatively contact the office at edinburgh@ttce.com or call 0131 467 7000
 

Motivating your staff is key in any modern business, by rewarding your staff who meet and exceed your performance levels it will help them to strive for similar results in the future as well as motivating those that may be under performing.

But what is the best way to reward your staff who are performing well? Are cash rewards the way to do it? We believe that while paying a bonus may give staff an instant boost it will soon be forgotten once the credit card has been paid off!

We believe that incentive trips create much more impact, firstly there is the anticipation, followed by the enjoyment of the trip and lastly, memories that can last a lifetime.

We have a wealth of experience of creating incentive trips that will capture the imagination, get all of your staff talking and most importantly have your staff striving to raise their games in order to be included on the trip next year.

We can take care of everything, flights, hotels, restaurants and activities for the trip. We have a specialist team who would only be too happy to discuss your requirements and work within your budget in order to add value to your rewards program.

Want to find out more, contact me at mike.halliwell@ttce.com or call me on 07841 920752.

Alternatively contact the office at edinburgh@ttce.com or call 0131 467 7000