If You’re Budgeting For Travel Costs In 2015, Go For Neutral To Singe Digit Increases Across All Regions

American Express Global Business Travel released its 2015 pricing outlook last week. In the outlook, Amex forecasts worldwide air, hotel and rental car pricing "to be neutral to slightly higher across all regions," with variance across geographic markets and supplier categories. On tap for the United...

Are You Managing Travel or Managing Trips or Both?

“Begin with the end in mind” is one of the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. This should be the mantra for any major initiative. In travel procurement we often run into organizations who focus on managing travel (the line item) because the buyer of travel is driving the decisions. That person...

Why Your Superhero Road Warriors Need a Sidekick

Many travelers feel that they can make travel arrangements on their own outside of the company system just as well as the travel provider. Sure, making travel arrangements isn't difficult but by making these arrangements through a Travel Management Company they receive sidekicks (Batman has Robin and...

5 Advantages Gained by Establishing a Centralized Billing Program with a Credit Card Company

Saving time and money is the key to travel procurement and while other more expensive solutions exist to automate all T&E expenses, this is a very good first step in capturing more travel data with actual spend versus simply booked spend.Gain Efficiencies with a Card-less Solution. Save your ...

What is Ethical when it Comes to Making Travel Arrangements? 7 Tips to Keep Your Organization from Going from DIY to DIFM

What is ethical when it comes to using company paid expenses to enhance personal gains? What is ethical when it comes to taking personal gains when negotiating with suppliers? Company culture, standards, policies, training, HR, and legal responsibilities come into play when establishing policies on...

Six Ways to Determine if You Should Rein in Your Rogue Travelers

Millennials often shun the concept of a centralized managed travel system. They have come to learn that they know a lot more about technology than many of their more senior associates managing line items like this and they think that simply by technology access they can do it better. Most claim they...

Five Places to Secure Data About T&E That Can Uncover Treasures For This Sizeable Line Item

We work with many small and mid sized companies who are ready to get a handle on their T&E spend. Sure their people can book trips a variety of ways but how do you know that you agree with what they have selected and they haven’t left some significant opportunities on the table for the company’s...

25 Transformations in 25 Years: Start Up Student Group Customer Requires Creativity to Make First Event Ever a Major Success

We recently had a customer sign up who had very specific guidelines for their student groups. They needed MacNair to find hotels that could accommodate 200 rooms per night with 3 beds per room (so, we would have to locate a hotel that would have 200 cots). A place that would tolerate a large student...

Change Fees and Buckets of Money Left on the Table with Unused Non Refundable Tickets and What to do About it

Business travelers change their tickets often. We know this. The current airfare structure also incentivizes companies and travelers to purchase non refundable tickets and the change fees to re use them are size able. As a company do you know how much you are leaving on the table by not maximizing the...

25 Transformations in 25 Years: Local Association Needs an Online Travel Solution for Staff and Non Staff Travelers.

A local association customer of MacNair’s needed reporting, itineraries, and traveler information for both staff and repeat travelers (profiled) and one time travelers (non-profiled) who were booking travel on their online booking site. The association wanted to be able to put all travelers booking...

Ebola Issue Brings up the Need for Risk Management

As I watched the plane bring the Ebola effected doctors back to the US I thought about the risks my customers take in sending their travelers abroad for business - and even when their executives travel to unique places for pleasure. I also thought about the risks that occur when traveling in the US...

Improve T&E Program Compliance with These 3 Program Communication Tips.

Getting everyone on board with your Travel and Entertainment (T & E) program can be a challenge. I have found that these three tips make compliance improve significantly.1.   Request compliance with your T&E system not just your suppliers. I often hear at kick off meetings...

25 Transformations in 25 Years: Association Saves Fees and Fares by Implementing Online Booking Tool with MacNair Travel Management

An Arlington telecommunications association wanted a travel program that was high-tech and high-touch that would save on fares and fees. In 2002, they selected MacNair Travel Management to implement a program to provide top-shelf support and quality technology that would drive high online adoption...

Uber and Lyft are cool. Can cool get you in hot water?

I love how technology is revolutionizing the world. I am amazed how bureaucracies like taxi commissions are being challenged by new ideas and products like Uber and Lyft. I even love how being able to book black cars and taxis online are making their way into our capabilities. I personally use Uber...

Do We Deliver Freedom to Our Customers or a Capability or Both?

I was asked recently by a friend of mine, who also happens to be business consultant, if ours is a freedom sale or a capability sale. A freedom sale allows the customer to gain freedom from the supplier by having them do something faster, better, and cheaper.  The capability sale brings...

How Do You Best Survey the Health and Effectiveness of Your Travel Program?

I would like to share that when surveying or measuring your travel program you should consider two best practices we have found to enhance this process. One, collect a net promoters score ("On a scale of 0-10, how likely would you be to recommend our travel program to a friend of colleague and why?")....

Sure, your T&E costs aren’t the Wolf of Wall Street’s but are you managing the threats to this 2nd largest controllable cost?

In the movie The Wolf of Wall Street, Leonardo DiCaprio and Jonah Hill throw hundred-dollar bills in the trash, charter planes, stay in luxury penthouses, and toss cash off a balcony. The movie follows the trajectory of DiCaprio's character, Jordan Belfort, a party-minded stockbroker who spent...

My iPhone was and will be even more my secret weapon on the road. How do you address communications and smartphone tools in your travel policy?

While on my trek to Everest base camp in Nepal my phone was my secret weapon. It was the single most important device that I had with me and I used it often. In thinking about this critical business travel tool, I wondered how companies should direct and advise their road warriors on the use of such...

A Travel Management Company and Travel Agency are NOT the same thing. Clarifying can help your T&E procurement system

At times the challenge with introducing a new travel procurement program is that your staff can think that you have just hired a travel agency to help them with travel. First of all, many don’t think they need help booking their trip. Secondly, they have no idea what a Travel Management Company does...

Travel Management Companies are Not Dead, In Fact They're Thriving

In a recent article by by Marilee Crocker titled Govt. Looks to Travel Agents for Lessons in Resilience , Marilee points out that the government has taken notice of the fact that in the travel agency industry, pointing out, “At the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, economists who study productivity...

What is the Real Problem Regarding Rogue Behavior?

In a recent PhoCusWright survey it stated that 55% of travel is not being managed by a TMC (Travel Management Company). My experience in the marketplace has been that the real reason behind this high percentage is that no one is out there touting the benefits of a managed travel system for the company...

First Class Service to Third World Charm

As many of you know, I left on March 30 for Kathmandu to take the trek up to Mt. Everest Base Camp with my longtime friend and customer John Carney. Flying well makes a big difference. I left the US yesterday on a business class ticket with Etihad Airways and was very well taken care of. Business...