The Challenge: As a small and medium-sized business (SMB), French association QUALITEL needed a travel management company (TMC) that would save its travel manager time yet deliver a programme that its employees would get on board with.
The Solution: Listening to employee feedback to create a personalised travel policy with travel management experts that worked for both the association and its workforce.
Independent French association, QUALITEL – created almost 50 years ago by the French Secretary of State – certifies housing quality and shares the information publicly. The association comprises five companies located across two sites in Paris and four in the surrounding regions.
Most of QUALITEL’s business travel takes place within France for a group of 50 of its employees – up to 30 of whom are frequent travellers – plus the association holds an annual convention for the majority of its 180-strong workforce. QUALITEL Head of General Services Guillemette Falques manages the association’s business travel programme, working with a budget of approximately €235,000, an increase of 37% over the previous year.
“More than half the budget is split across travel on rail services (60%) and just less than a third on hotels (30%),” Falques explains. “Air travel and car rental make up the final 10% of the budget.”
THE NEED TO CENTRALISE ONLINE BOOKINGS
As is the case for many SMBs, managing business travel forms part of the overall responsibilities of the person looking after the programme – and this is how it works at QUALITEL.
“I’m in charge of a wide range of activities, including travel management,” Falques says. “So when it came to sourcing a TMC, the ideal service provider was not necessarily the lowest bidder, but rather the one that would save me time while guaranteeing high standards.”
QUALITEL was also looking to digitalise its activities, including the way business travel was organised. After consulting France’s Administrative and Financial Department, the aim was to find a travel management solution that would also include the provision of travel expense management software and centralise business travel.
CHOOSING A CORPORATE TRAVEL MANAGEMENT COMPANY
Falques explains why QUALITEL chose Reed & Mackay. “We were looking for a TMC that could support us as the association moved from working with an agency that had local offices, to a single agency, with the aim of switching everything over to digital technology,” she says. “The project wasn’t easy and there was a certain resistance to change as our employees were used to working with their local agencies. However, Reed & Mackay lived up to our expectations.”
Today, online booking accounts for 81% of the association’s transactions. The travel policy is in place and the booking system has been optimised to encourage employees to book travel independently and make maximum use of the online booking tool.
Falques is particularly impressed with how Reed & Mackay is both proactive and reactive, providing robust advice, particularly when choosing suppliers and migrating tools, as well as optimising rates by, for example, introducing subscription cards.
Reed & Mackay monitors QUALITEL’s business travel activity and identifies areas for improvement. “Today, everything’s running smoothly and I’m mainly called in when an employee wants to travel out of the travel policy and needs my validation,” Falques adds. “The online booking process is effective. However, we still need Reed & Mackay’s offline services for booking complex services such as group travel, or for helping frequent travellers who want to change or cancel their trips at the last minute.”
CREATING FUTURE TRAVEL POLICIES
QUALITEL is determined to prioritise the use of rail and other public transport, as part of the association’s commitment to sustainability in its CSR policy, plus it also continues to use video-conferencing as part of its day-to-day business interactions. So while QUALITEL employees travel less than they used to pre-pandemic, there are business trips that are still essential for the association and accommodation needs to be booked.
With Reed & Mackay’s help, Falques is looking to establish a hotel-booking policy to guarantee a choice of preferred hotels, negotiated rates and a comfortable travel experience for employees.
Involving employees and asking for their feedback on business travel is key for Falques. And maintaining regular communication with Reed & Mackay is also a reason why this partnership works well.
“The effectiveness of our association relies on talking to our staff,” she says. “It’s essential to get them involved and not just share information with them without asking for, and acting on, their feedback. We take it all into account to improve our services with the help of our TMC. New policies are more easily applied when they’re personalised and the people travelling know they’re being listened to.”
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