New research* from Carlson Wagonlit Travel (CWT) has shown that on average 54 percent of travellers book outside of their companies’ recommended hotel booking channels, even in the most carefully managed travel programs.

When travellers book outside of the program they may well reserve hotels with non-negotiated, potentially more expensive rates; in addition, companies cannot easily track travellers for safety and security purposes nor accurately track their overall hotel spend, thus making it difficult to leverage effective sourcing.

With this in mind, CWT continues to reinforce its hotel offering to help customers drive compliance and improve value. As part of this focus, CWT has further enhanced CRS by CWT to encourage travellers to stay at their companies’ preferred properties and reserve through preferred booking channels.

CRS by CWT allows independent hotels that are not represented in a Global Distribution System (GDS) to be loaded and distributed through a client’s established online and offline booking channels. It acts as a central reservation system, aggregating diverse hotel content as if it were a new hotel chain. CWT travel counselors can easily access hotels listed in CRS by CWT, and online booking tools can display non-GDS hotels to travellers making reservations online. Travellers can then book air, rail, car rental and hotels at the same time and at their companies’ negotiated rates through their CWT travel counselor or online booking tool.

Launched in June 2011 on Amadeus, CRS by CWT is now available worldwide for travel counselors and online booking tools using all three major GDSs – Amadeus, Sabre and Travelport.

“CRS by CWT has proven to be a great solution for my client as the hotel that their travellers were using most frequently was not in the GDS. With this system in place, travellers can now book the same hotel, which is convenient and close to their offices, through their online booking tool. This is useful for my client because it gives them a more accurate view of what they’re spending overall on hotels and since reservations are in the system they can find travellers quickly if they need to,” commented Miguel Fernandez, CWT Program Manager for one of Europe’s largest gas companies.  

CWT has a tailor-made and flexible approach to its customers’ hotel programs.  It offers a wide range of business class hotels including global and national chains, independent properties and customers’ own properties, all bookable both online and offline. CWT books 27.7 million room nights each year in 22,600 cities across the world and gives travellers access to best-value negotiated rates including services such as wifi, breakfast and parking facilities and flexible cancellation policies.  

*Figures based on CWT internal research, 2012.