ALEXANDRIA, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Globally, half of company-held meetings are simple meetings, yet roughly half of survey respondents report their organizations do not use a “managed” meetings channel for simple meetings, according to new research released today by the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA), in partnership with HRS.
This first-of-its-kind study focuses exclusively on simple meetings management, which are small meetings with basic, replicable requirements. For the first time, both GBTA and Meeting Professionals International (MPI) members were surveyed for the same study to provide perspectives from both travel buyers and meeting planners.
Highlights of the research include:
- 50 percent of corporate meetings globally (49 percent in the U.S., 58 percent in Europe) are simple meetings
- 52 percent of companies book their simple meetings outside of “managed” meetings channels
- 70 percent of respondents don’t follow a required bidding process for shopping/booking simple meetings
- When companies don’t use a simple meetings solution, 77 percent search for hotels or venues exclusively through consumer channels
- When companies have a solution, 72 percent of planners prefer to use it to plan/book simple meetings
- 52 percent of companies don’t have an e-RFP technology for simple meetings, with no plans to acquire one
- Only 4 percent of U.S.-based travel buyers have corporate KPIs attached to the value created by small meetings, while nearly one-third (31 percent) of meeting planners have KPIs
“This research puts numbers to something the industry has long suspected,” said Jessica Collison, GBTA director of research. “Simple meetings account for significant expenditures within companies – yet they are very loosely managed, potentially costing companies when it comes to the bottom line, meetings satisfaction and duty of care compliance.”
Booking Simple Meetings
When booking simple meetings, a
majority of U.S.-based respondents (84 percent of travel buyers, 73
percent of meetings planners) report using consumer channels, such as
calling a hotel, or visiting a venue’s website and/or a consumer travel
website. Many rely exclusively on consumer channels (38 percent of
travel buyers and 39 percent of meetings planners). Only 30 percent of
respondents say their company has a required bidding process for simple
meetings.
When using consumer channels or following informal polices, it can be difficult to use negotiated group rates, make like-for-like comparisons, vet the safety of venues and ensure compliance with internal policies. Consumer channel usage also essentially eliminates the possibility of getting lower rates and/or other amenities that could be gained via leverage of a company’s transient hotel volume.
“Meeting planners anticipate nearly four percent growth in the next year, so the harsh reality this survey reveals underscores the urgency companies should have when it comes to enhancing simple meeting management,” said Abbie Michaelson, vice president of meetings & groups for HRS. “The out-of-process metrics for shopping, booking and venue comparison would set off alarm bells in other areas of corporate procurement. With these findings, those responsible for meetings now have the ammunition to implement measurable changes in this category.”
Processes & Measurement
Only one out of five (22
percent) respondents use an e-RFP platform for simple meetings. These
platforms allow companies to solicit and compare bids for their
meetings. In the United States, meeting planners (35 percent) are more
likely than travel buyers (19 percent) to use an e-RFP tool for simple
meetings.
Only one-quarter (28 percent) of respondents have KPIs in place when it comes to measuring simple meetings and the value they create – although that number is much higher for Latin America (38 percent) than North America (20 percent) or Europe (21 percent). In the United States, meeting planners (31 percent) are much more likely than travel buyers (4 percent) to have KPIs in place.
Respondents ranked finding the right room/venue (73 percent), maximizing budget/savings (64 percent) and company policy compliance (40 percent) as the most important factors when booking and managing simple meetings.
“For a category representing millions in corporate spend every year, simple meetings typically escape the level of scrutiny given to other expenditures,” said Bernie Schraer, senior vice president of MPI. “This report, with its depth of metrics and process insight, offers procurement managers, event planners and other influencers a true picture of today’s reality. It also shines a light on priorities planners should consider as they enhance their respective simple meetings programs.”
Methodology
An online survey was conducted of corporate
Travel Managers and Meeting Planners. The survey fielded between April
24 and June 7, 2018. An email invitation was sent to GBTA members and
contacts globally, and MPI members in the U.S. Five hundred and
sixty-two recipients completed at least one question. Of these, 408
qualified given (1) they are at least somewhat involved “with planning,
organizing, or overseeing meetings and events at their company” and (2)
they are a travel or meetings professional. Of those who qualified, 260
completed the entire survey, which included: 123 GBTA members, 66 MPI
members, 15 members of both organizations and 56 members of neither
organization.
More Information
Download an infographic here
with key highlights from the research. The report, How Do Companies
Approach Simple Meetings, is available exclusively to GBTA members
by clicking
here and non-members may purchase the report through GBTA by emailing Paul
Yachnes.
To request an interview with a GBTA or HRS expert for a deeper dive and to learn more about trends in simple meetings revealed in the research, please contact Colleen Gallagher.
During GBTA Convention 2018 in San Diego, GBTA will host an education session on simple meetings on August 14 at 9:45 AM.
About the Global Business Travel Association
The Global
Business Travel Association (GBTA) is the world’s premier business
travel and meetings trade organization headquartered in the Washington,
D.C. area with operations on six continents. GBTA’s 9,000-plus members
manage more than $345 billion of global business travel and meetings
expenditures annually. GBTA delivers world-class education, events,
research, advocacy and media to a growing global network of more
than 28,000 travel professionals and 125,000 active contacts. To learn
how business travel drives lasting business growth, visit www.gbta.org.
About HRS
HRS simplifies business travel. Corporate travel
managers and business travelers around the world trust HRS to find the
best hotel accommodation and simplify all processes related to their
business travel. In addition to hotel sourcing and the negotiation of
corporate rates with hotels, HRS optimizes paperless payment of hotel
accommodation and meetings as well as automated invoice processing. More
than 3,000 multinational corporations rely on HRS; customers include
multiple Fortune 500 companies, including Google, Siemens, Alibaba,
China Mobile and Volkswagen. Founded in Germany in 1972, HRS has more
than 1,500 employees in 34 offices worldwide. Further information at corporate.hrs.com.
