What is Booking Leakage and How Does it Affect Your Travel Program?
As employees book travel for business meetings and events, a lot goes into the process, making it appear complex to some. While organizations often have a corporate travel policy that employees should follow, that doesn’t always happen, leading to “booking leakage.” So, just what is booking leakage, and how does it affect your travel program’s success?
Why Is Booking Leakage Important?
Many organizations use a travel policy that recommends that employees use a specific booking channel as the default booking method; however, employees don’t always follow those guidelines. While there may be situations that warrant a deviation in the status quo process, the fact is, that many people make flight and hotel arrangements outside of the requested policy for various reasons: unfamiliar with the process, having not loaded the app, unaware of the policy or assumed speed and ease with the platform they are most familiar with.
While for some, this could look like work has been lifted from the travel department, the truth is that when this happens, travel managers are unable to track any of the travel plans, making the employees and their expenses invisible to the organization.
Did You Know? Traditionally, 37% of hotel bookings and 15% of flight bookings are made outside corporate channels, creating “booking leakage.”
While this invisible spending makes it more difficult for travel managers to track and capture spending metrics, booking outside of an organization’s preferred travel program makes things much more difficult for travelers and can pose a risk for business traveler tracking and communication.
What are the Cons of Booking Outside of Your Organization?
Travel can be stressful, and to support duty of care initiatives, strong TMCs like Fox World Travel offer peace of mind by leading on travel changes or issues that may arise. The challenge, however, is when hotels or flights are booked outside of the organization’s travel policy. This hurts travelers, as they lose out because contracted discounts and savings programs the TMC has automatically programmed aren’t applied. Just as stressful, travelers are often stuck on their own when issues arise, leaving them to personally call airlines and hotels, wasting their already tight on-the-road schedule and adding significant stress to the trip.
This is exponentially difficult in any emergency. If an emergency were to arise within the organization, at home, or with weather conditions, there would be no standardized way for a travel manager to track and confirm the safety of a single employee, let alone a group of travelers booked on their own.
Thinking of leakage from that angle shines a whole new light on the risks and how they affect your travel program. Encouraging employees to learn your travel policy, effective communication, and leadership buy-in will all play a role in mitigating traveler risk and helping you run a successful travel program.
Need advice on travel policy management or leadership buy-in? Ask us, and we will be glad to help.
