22 Questions to add to your corporate travel RFP in order to achieve cost reduction (copy)
Here’s a selection of questions to consider including in your next travel RFP if achieving significant savings is a priority for your organisation.
22 Questions to add to your corporate travel RFP in order to achieve cost reduction
Here’s a selection of questions to consider including in your next travel RFP if achieving significant savings and compliance rate improvements is a priority for your organisation right now...
Travel spend reduction sits highly on most organisations' agendas when tendering for a new travel management service, but working out how to achieve significant results in this area can feel like trying to unravel an enigma wrapped in a riddle. Particularly at a time when there is, understandably, so much focus on duty of care and safety when travelling.
However, there’s no denying that cost reduction will remain important as corporates begin to navigate a dramatically different business landscape, particularly for organisations in sectors heavily impacted by an unstable economy. Fortunately, an RFP can provide your organisation with the perfect chance to clarify how potential travel suppliers will deliver cost-savings and compliance improvements.
Here’s a selection of questions to consider including in your next travel RFP if achieving significant savings and compliance rate improvements is a priority for your organisation right now.
Tackling compliance is one of the most significant ways in which your organisation can gain and retain control of your travel spend, but doing so isn’t as easy as it often appears. It’s a good idea to find out how prospective TMCs will improve your organisation’s compliance rates, as you can then assess which of their strategies will fit best with how your organisation works.
1. What does your organisation think is the most effective way to address compliance issues?
2. Please provide examples of strategies you have used to address compliance previously. Please include results.
3. How can your organisation measure our travel contract compliance? Will we be given the ability to do this ourselves?
4. How can your organisation work with our travellers to improve compliance rates?
5. How do you think the global pandemic has affected compliance rates? How have you incorporated these changes into your approach and strategy?
Although it will take working closely with your organisation to develop tailored cost-saving strategies, an RFP provides you with the chance to gain an overview of how prospective TMCs will approach this.
6. What does your organisation think is the most effective way to create cost savings on corporate travel spend?
7. Please provide examples of strategies you have used to reduce travel spend for clients in a similar industry. Please include results.
8. Please provide an example of where you have been able to support clients in improving their back-office processes
9. Use this space to detail any additional travel services that you provide which can help drive cost down or increase customer satisfaction
10. Please detail a recent example of where a travel consultant has been able to offer a client a solution to a travel booking that has saved cost or time
11. How has the global pandemic changed how your organisation develops corporate travel strategies for customers?
Confirming how prospective TMCs source their content and secure fares will provide an instant indicator of how effective any cost-saving initiatives will be.
You can compare this with the types of content that your organisation requires and your current fares for further insight.
12. Please describe how you ensure that our travellers needs are met in the most economical method for ancillary services such as: booking preferred seating, requesting special meals, baggage fees are advised etc. Please include your ability to track ancillary fees and services.
13. How will you demonstrate that rates booked are best value and benchmarked against the industry to ensure competitiveness?
14. How do you define savings?
15. How do you secure the best available rate? What is the process for this? Is this dependent on a traveller’s location?
16. What is your organisation’s approach to providing NDC content? Is this a tool for cost-saving?
Travel technology might provide a certain wow-factor during the RFP process, but will it achieve the cost-saving results that your organisation requires? Sometimes it can! However it’s worth asking prospective TMCs to clarify how this is possible.
17. What technology or services do you provide that will allow us to track our travel spend and cost reduction?
18. How does your reporting tool allow us to track spend at a granular level? How can results be filtered?
19. Can you provide predictive analytics regarding budget and travel spend? If so, please describe these here.
20. What approvals processes do you offer as a way to control cost? How can these be integrated into the booking process?
21. How can our travel policy be integrated into the booking process?
22. Can you provide reporting on when the lowest logical fare was not selected and what the lost savings was?
