‘Overrides will disappear’
Agents should treat supplier overrides as a ‘temporary bonus’ rather than long term income, according to Business Travel Plus managing director Tony Stone.
Speaking yesterday on the first day of the Dublin conference, Mr Stone told delegates that agents had already seen their “erosion in terms of availability and size” and that this trend would continue as suppliers continue to target the “end user rather than ourselves.”
Mr Stone added that it was important for agents to look at their costs and see if there were any unnecessary processes that could be taken out of their business.
He advised drawing up a wall chart, showing all the work that went into processing one sort of booking, such as a hotel reservation. Mr Stone said that by gathering together all the documents in the procedure from enquiry to payment it might be possible to identify where there were redundant procedures or short cuts that could be taken that could save time, and therefore money.
Read other stories from the Advantage Business Travel Conference:
07-Oct-2003 Agents warned they will have to share GDS costs with airlines
08-Oct-2003 Plan for new worldwide independent agency force
08-Oct-2003 ‘Use them or lose them’: Focus members warned on air deals
08-Oct-2003 Advantage admits single GDS plan for business members
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