Business travelers who book in-program trips are the lifeblood of corporate travel programs aiming to cut costs. One savvy travel manager at a major U.S. food company is using tech-enabled incentives to keep travelers engaged and reward them for compliance.
The Price to Beat, a core feature of BCD Travel SolutionSource® partner Rocketrip, has yielded impressive results for the company over the last 18 months:
- More than a third of travelers have signed up to save money with Rocketrip’s Price to Beat.
- When travelers use Rocketrip, hotel bookings linked to flights rise 26% and online booking tool compliance goes up 17%, on average.
- The company averages savings of 13% on travel.
Incentivizing savings on every trip
Here’s how it works: Travelers register for Rocketrip through the corporate program. When they search for air, hotel, rail or rental car options within their program’s online booking tool, they’re presented with a Rocketrip Price to Beat. The Price to Beat is calculated using real-time market rates, as well as the company’s travel policy, negotiated rates and historical travel spend data.
Travelers can beat the price by choosing less expensive flights, rooms, rail tickets or rental cars. They select from a list of options that prioritizes the company’s preferred suppliers. Travelers also can generate savings by staying with friends or family during business trips. (The Stay With A Friend option fits with the company’s duty of care requirements because travelers provide details about where they’ll be staying. Rocketrip checks the validity of addresses.)
Travelers who spend under the Price to Beat earn points that can be redeemed for gift cards to shop on Amazon, dine at their favorite restaurants, and more. Travelers “are delighted with the redemption options,” the company’s travel manager said. “Rocketrip rewards are an enhancement to our employee benefits package.”
Gaining insights into travelers’ booking behaviors
The travel team has gained a deeper understanding of travelers’ behavior by seeing how they trim trip expenses. “Nearly 50% of our Rocketrip savings comes from travelers changing airline cabin class from international business to international premium or economy seating. Stay With A Friend is our second-largest contributor to savings,” the travel manager said. “Travelers give positive feedback. The Price to Beat enhances our performance culture.”
BCD’s SolutionSource marketplace helps the travel management company’s clients speed up innovation by letting them shop for new technologies and services with confidence. BCD vets all offerings before adding them to SolutionSource. Travel managers can use technologies from partners like Rocketrip to tailor programs to their goals for improving traveler experiences, increasing savings, and boosting duty of care. The number of SolutionSource partners has doubled since BCD launched the marketplace in February 2018.
