From constant industry changes to travelers migrating to non-corporate sponsored Internet booking sites, travel management is not what it used to be. Hundreds of emerging technologies and even more questions about which to choose leaves business travel planners frazzled. Below are answers to the most frequently asked questions we receive. Should you have others, please contact CorpTrav.
» About CorpTrav
What types of technology does CorpTrav utilize?
CorpTrav is continuously investing in our travel management technology to give business travel planners and travelers the greatest edge in managing their travel arrangements. Some of the tools that we use today include:
- GetThere for online booking
- AutoCOP to ensure that every travel reservation is in total compliance with corporate policy
- AutoTECH for completely customizable and comprehensive report creation
- eMinder which automatically reminds travelers five days prior to their trip that they are holding non-refundable tickets
- E-Track for management of unused refundable tickets so that dollars can be returned to the client/traveler
- Sabre Virtually There electronic itinerary, invoice, and receipt
- ResMAIL Internet which provides travelers and business travel planners with a detailed flight option matrix
- WebTECH for data gathering and reporting from the business travel planner’s desktop
Howlong has CorpTrav beenin business?
Wholly and privately owned since 1976.
Where is CorpTrav located?
CorpTrav has offices strategically located in following cities, along with on-site locations throughout the United States:
Lombard, Illinois
Chicago, Illinois
Dallas, Texas
Silicon Valley, California
Additionally, we have partner locations around the globe, including in:
Argentina
Belgium
Canada
Colombia
France
India
Korea
Netherlands
Peru
Spain
UK
| | Australia
Bolivia
Chili
Czech Republic
Germany
Ireland
Luxembourg
New Zealand
Philippines
Switzerland
Uruguay
| | Austria
Brazil
China
Ecuador
Hong Kong
Japan
Malaysia
Panama
Singapore
Thailand
|
What makes CorpTrav different from other travel management firms?
Response Times – Hold times less than 45 seconds!
Technology – The most powerful online booking tool, GetThere, coupled with state-of-the-art automation that returns the lowest fares available in less than 5 seconds, ensures policy compliance, locates unused tickets, and provides detailed reporting
In-House Programming – All CorpTrav programming is conducted in-house, making changes to the system, such as policy updates, easy and completed within minutes, not days
Agents – Who are corporate travel specialists, in tune with travel requirements and regulations, and who locate cost saving alternatives
Location – Headquartered in Chicago, the home of two major airline hubs, with regional offices strategically placed throughout the United States
En route priority assistance – In the event an emergency arises, travelers can immediately reach an agent without delay, 24/7/365
Merchant Model Hotel Program - Accessing 16,000 super saver rates at hotels worldwide with last minute availability
24/7/365 – CorpTrav wholly owns and operates our 24/7 reservation center, ensuring consistent quality around the clock. Ticket fulfillment is completed 24 hours a day, so that travelers can make reservations when it’s convenient for them
Global Coverage – Our partners are similar in scope to CorpTrav and have a financial investment in the alliance – ensuring consistent quality and service around the world by firms that specialize in business travel
Vendor Clout – CorpTrav, Chicago’s leading business travel solution, is a recognized partner by all major airlines, with dedicated representatives at each who work with us to obtain the most beneficial opportunities for our clients
Tenure – Averaging 8 years compared to the industry average of 2. 50% of our staff holds 10 years tenure at CorpTrav
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» Why CorpTrav?
Why should I use CorpTrav?
- Average agent booking times <3 minutes
- Average hold times <45 seconds
- Corporate travel specialists with a reputation of savings corporations money
- Technology that is proven effective in obtaining the lowest fares every time and GetThere, the easiest online booking tool available
- Negotiation leverage with air, car, and hotel vendors
- Detailed reporting that covers every travel transaction
- Every reservation in compliance with your travel policy
- Post-trip customer service - someone to handle issues such as upgrades, cancellations, refunds, etc.
- Negotiated rates by a company with over $190 million in buying power
- Someone to turn to should an emergency arise (i.e., airline strike, illness, last minute change)
What can CorpTrav do for my company and my travelers?
- Lower your average ticket price
- Increase online adoption rates
- Customize design your online booking tool to mirror corporate branding
- Save your company time and money
- Advise and offer you continual technological enhancements
- Custom design travel related programs that fit your needs
- Negotiate savings opportunities with travel vendors
- Analyze your current spending and offer savings options
- Develop travel policies
- Offer 24-hour support for EVERY travel need
Contact us for further details of how we can serve your company and all of your travelers.
If I use CorpTrav, can we still book online?
Absolutely! CorpTrav's online booking tool, GetThere, is the most powerful booking engine available today.
How can CorpTrav save our company money?
CorpTrav's services revolve around making travel programs more efficient and cost effective for companies. We do this through a number of ways including vendor negotiations, travel pattern analysis, obtaining discounts based on our entire business, investing in technology, and educating travelers and business travel planners. With our assistance, your company can substantially reduce your third most controllable expense, travel and entertainment. Contact our sales team today to learn more.
What kind of vendorpartnerships does CorpTrav have?
CorpTrav is Chicago’s premier corporate travel agency. We have partnerships in place with every major travel partner. In fact, we have weekly meetings with many of our partners to discuss our clients needs and priority access to all travel vendors.
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» CorpTrav's Fees
What do you charge for your services?
Our fees range depending on the services required. Contact CorpTrav today for more information.
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» Service
Do you have 24-hour service?
Yes, CorpTrav provides 24-hour, 365 days a year reservation support for any travel need via email and our toll-free phone line.
What VIP Services do you offer your clients?
CorpTrav specializes in providing VIP services to all of our clients. Only our most senior agents staff our VIP line and provide services such as:
- 24-hour itinerary reviews
- Limousine service to and from airport
- Status upgrades
- Complimentary international upgrades as available
- Ongoing monitoring of flight status & advisement on changes
- Meet & greet services
- Constant monitoring of trip
- Upgrades (air, car & hotel)
- Personal travel
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» Online Technology
Can I book online through CorpTrav ?
Absolutely! If you are a CorpTrav client, you can book online through our preferred booking tool, GetThere. We also manage fulfillment for any other booking tool.
Does CorpTrav offer online reporting?
Yes, CorpTrav offers a customizable reporting tool, WebTECH. With WebTECH, business travel planners have a safe and convenient option to access their travel data any time, day or night, 365 days a year. WebTECH features many enhanced options, including:
- Secure access to all client travel data
- Customizable sort, time, and filter options
- Group or independent report selection options
- Optional batch processing
- Data exporting
- Report storage for historical comparative analyses
Can I obtain lower fares booking my reservations through CorpTrav Online than I can going out to the internet myself?
Yes! In fact, independent audits conducted by third parties have proven time and again that CorpTrav always offers the lowest fare available.
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» Reservations
Why are there so many airline fares (i.e., Yield Management)?
Yield management is a process the airlines use to ensure that every flight leaves the gate as full as possible and that every seat is sold at the highest fare possible. Yield management also is used to make the best seats available to high mileage frequent flyers.
Can CorpTrav get better fares than the Internet?
Yes! In fact, independent studies completed by industry auditors, such as Topaz International, have proven countless times that CorpTrav does beat internet fares - by as much as 25%.
Can you ticket Internet fares?
Yes!
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» RFP Tips
How to Choose a Travel Management Partner
CorpTrav is quite sensitive to the risk involved in choosing any service vendor and our goal is to make the decision as simple as possible for business travel planners. There are many things to consider with a travel program. Our experience of nearly 3 decades in preparing, writing, and responding to RFP's allows us to extend the tools and direction for you to assemble an RFP that is in line with the goals of management, and the demands of your travelers.
Please contact CorpTrav for additional information, or to speak to one of our corporate travel specialists.
Suggestions & Ideas
- Submit your RFP to the corporate travel agencies you really believe are a good fit for your company.
- Don't send your RFP to more than three to five travel management companies.
- Being redundant in your RFP leads to more work and confusion for you and your committee members.
- Be thorough and precise. Find the most important objectives for your company and your travelers and base your questions on and around those objectives.
- Share your objectives with potential vendors so they can design their response around fulfilling them.
- Instructions for respondents should be clear so answers are direct.
- It's to your benefit to keep your RFP organized and as simple as possible.
- Have bidders limit their responses to 10 sentences per question.
RFP Layout & Questions
Corporate Structure
- How long have you been in the business of servicing corporations business travel arrangements?
- How much of your business is corporate, government, leisure, or other? Over the past two years, have you merged with another travel management firm, bought any other travel agencies or similar? If No, Why? If Yes, when, what acquisitions have you had – please provide full details.
- What are your current quality performance levels?
- Do you have a written quality program in place? If yes, briefly describe.
- Please describe your disaster recovery program, and give an instance when it has been tested in a real disaster.
- How much of your business is corporate, government, leisure?
- Where would our company rank in terms of size among your other clients?
- What is your dominant CRS system?
Reservations
- What type of online booking tools do you offer?
- What are the capabilities of the tool?
- Can a business travel planner book for multiple travelers?
- Is the tool customizable?
- Can we incorporate negotiated prices and polices into the tool?
- When is fulfillment conducted? Is it 24/7?
- What en route emergency assistance do you provide with this tool?
- Do you provide dedicated reservationists?
- Do you offer 24-hour reservation services? Is it included in your fee?
- Is your 24-hour reservation center outsourced or staffed by employees of your company?
- Where is your 24-hour reservation center located?
- How do you handle after hours emergencies?
- What travel incentive programs, such as VIP Services, do you offer?
International Services
- Do you have any international offices? If yes, how many and where are they located?
- How do you handle international travelers?
- Does your firm provide passport and visa assistance?
- What type of special services do you provide to international travelers?
- What corporate incentive travel services do you offer to International VIP travelers?
- How do you handle international travel emergencies?
Customer Service / Account Management
- What type of travel reports do you provide?
- Do you offer reports based on the individual needs of the recipient (i.e., Executives, Travel Managers, etc.)?
- How do you handle policy issues? What is the process to elevate them within the organization and within our company?
- How much notice is required to create a new traveler profile?
- Do you have an online traveler profile form?
- What will your company do to help us achieve greater pricing with travel vendors?
- How do you track unused tickets?
- How will you assist our company in managing non-refundable tickets?
- What online services do your offer?
- How will our account be managed by your company?
- Will you provide a dedicated corporate travel specialist to assist us with our travel needs?
- What tools would you use to educate our travelers regarding your services?
Other
- Does your company offer meeting and travel incentive programs? If yes, please describe in two pages or less.
- Does your company offer leisure travel services? If yes, please describe in two pages or less.
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