Optimization of Hospitality Spend is 2011’s #1 Corporate Travel Initiative

The results indicate that the primary initiative for travel buyers in 2011 is to optimize their hospitality spend by combining the management and leverage of their transient, meetings, and engagement spend, with 35% of respondents selecting this as their primary focus.

“The results of the study validate the strategic direction we are following at Lanyon, as the suite of new products and services we are deploying to the corporate travel marketplace helps travel buyers manage their entire hospitality spend better, while helping suppliers improve their visibility with those buyers,” said Todd Tyler, President & Chief Executive Officer for Lanyon.

In addition to optimization of hotel spend, the other top categories of focus for 2011 include; “Conduct an RFP for Travel Management Providers” (29%), and to “Implement a Strategic Meetings and Event Spend Management Program (SMMP)” (14%).

Travel buyers also noted specific areas of concern for 2011, including the need to improve their rate accuracy process with only 25% of buyers expressing that they were “Very Confident” that their corporate hotel rates were fully or accurately loaded. Additionally, 84% of respondents were “Somewhat or Very Concerned” to report higher year over year negotiated hotel rates. Related to meetings management, buyers expressed significant concern about the accuracy of their meetings spend data, with only 12% of respondents stating they were “Very Confident” that they had the correct information. As it relates to fully leveraging hotel spend across the enterprise, only 9% stated that they were “Very Confident” that meetings related spend data is being shared with the travel program.

The survey results entitled “2011 Corporate Travel Initiatives” include additional details about how corporations currently manage hotel and meetings spend, what percent of their spend is captured by their Travel Management Company (TMC), and how they are managing traveler compliance. The results of the study can be obtained by contacting Michael Boult at [email protected].



About Lanyon
For 26 years, Lanyon has been delivering exceptional content distribution technologies to the travel industry. Today, Lanyon is the recognized leader in content management solutions for the global hotel industry, and sourcing and procurement solutions for corporate travel buyers. From its early success with GDS publishing and productivity tools to its RFP solutions for hotels, consortia and corporations, Lanyon solutions are used globally to reduce data management costs, effectively manage and distribute hotel content, and efficiently connect corporate travel buyers with hospitality suppliers.

Established in 1984 and headquartered in Dallas, Texas, many car rental companies, travel management companies, agencies, airlines, and over 80,000 hotels worldwide now use Lanyon for their RFP and content management needs.

Contact
For further information please contact:

Michael Boult
Chief Commercial Officer
Lanyon, Inc.
104 Decker Court, Suite 110
Irving, Texas 75062
Phone: +1 (817) 226-5656
Fax: +1 (866) 840-9987
[email protected]

To learn more about Lanyon, visit http://www.lanyon.com