At Work
More workers urged to use online travel booking systems

USA Today

Companies say they are missing huge savings from online booking systems because most employees still make travel reservations the old-fashioned way — by calling a travel agent.

Those systems — which allow employees to make air, hotel and rental car reservations on their companies' Internet system — are supposed to slice 20-30 percent off travel expenses.

Online booking systems have become popular among companies trying to cut travel costs.

According to Business Travel News, 32 percent of the companies it surveyed last fall said they are using online booking, and 60 percent said they plan to use it in 2001. But on average, fewer than 5 percent of traveling employees who are offered the option to make reservations online actually do so, Business Travel News said.

Travel managers say employees continue to call travel agents out of habit and find it difficult to change. Some functions, such as changing reservations or booking complex trips, are cumbersome to do in some systems.

Forced to cut travel expenses in a weaker economy, more companies are pushing employees to use the systems, online travel analysts say.

It seems to be working. Examples:

• Microsoft chief financial officer John Connors e-mailed employees in March that he was mandating use of the company's Highwire online booking tool for all domestic travel. In six weeks, Microsoft saw its adoption rate jump from 18 percent to 63 percent, said Microsoft's travel manager Zoe-Ann Bartlett.

She said online booking saves Microsoft 15-18 percent on its average ticket price and up to 50 percent on transaction costs (travel agency administrative costs)

GetThere, a major vendor of corporate online booking systems, says five of its top 10 customers who spend the most on travel mandated online booking in the first quarter of 2001.

• Oracle recently prohibited its corporate travel agents from assisting employees with domestic travel arrangements unless the employees attempt online first. By mandating the use of its e-Travel online booking system, Oracle expects to save $16 million this year. Since the March mandate, usage soared from 11 percent to 80 percent.

• Cisco is considering making employees wait longer on the phone when they call the corporate travel department in order to encourage them to go online. It aims to raise the adoption level of its GetThere booking system from 36 percent to 60 percent in the next six months.