Amigos e Colegas Leitores,<\/p>\n
Vai chegando ao final o primeiro quarter do nosso ano. Com ele teremos o Account Review de nossas TMCs e outros fornecedores, revis\u00e3o de or\u00e7amento, de caps e corre\u00e7\u00e3o de algumas t\u00e1ticas e estrat\u00e9gias –\u00a0j\u00e1 com um pouco mais de ideia do que ser\u00e1 2017. Mar\u00e7o foi um m\u00eas alucinante, com a sensa\u00e7\u00e3o de que tudo que ficou represado em Janeiro e Fevereiro come\u00e7ou a acontecer nestes 31 dias.<\/p>\n
No prestigiado F\u00f3rum Panrotas, destaco a apresenta\u00e7\u00e3o encantadora , mas ainda incompleta, do AirBnB. Para n\u00f3s, profissionais do Turismo Corporativo, todas<\/strong> as perguntas ficaram em aberto. Encantadora, e com mais sorte de n\u00e3o precisar responder nada, foi a apresenta\u00e7\u00e3o do Rock in Rio (genial).<\/p>\n No Lacte, destaco a brilhante apresenta\u00e7\u00e3o do Max Gehringer e a dica\u00a0de que n\u00f3s homens dever\u00edamos sorrir para as mulheres ao nosso lado na mesa, pois elas seriam nossas chefes amanh\u00e3 – nesta hora fiquei extremamente feliz de n\u00e3o ser a Dilma almo\u00e7ando\u00a0ao meu lado.<\/p>\n E em Abril? Bem, em Abril teremos a 1\u00aa Confer\u00eancia da GBTA em Curitiba, primeira confer\u00eancia desta organiza\u00e7\u00e3o na regi\u00e3o Sul. Mais informa\u00e7\u00f5es em: http:\/\/www.gbta.org\/AmericaLatina\/Brasil\/SobreNos\/Pages\/GBTAConferencia2017Curitiba.aspx<\/p>\n Tamb\u00e9m estaremos com a Academia GBTA em Bras\u00edlia, dia 05\/04<\/strong>, e em Fortaleza em 19\/04<\/strong>. Vejo voc\u00eas l\u00e1!<\/p>\n Sobre a 1\u00aa Confer\u00eancia Nacional dos TMs, alteramos a data para 01\/09\/2017<\/strong> e j\u00e1 comunicamos todos os contatos que temos por email. Haver\u00e1 um evento em S\u00e3o Paulo em 17\/08 que ano passado foi em Setembro, e n\u00e3o quisemos encher a agenda de todos com um evento no dia seguinte, 18\/08.<\/p>\n Sobre o post de hoje…. bem, h\u00e1 algum tempo venho ensaiando escrever o texto abaixo, algo como uma carta de um(a) Travel Manager para um(a) viajante corporativo(a) de sua empresa \u00a0(ou um(a) organizador(a) de viagens)… confesso que quando eu come\u00e7ava a escrever vinham tantos detalhes \u00e0 mente que foi dif\u00edcil expressar tudo e de uma maneira did\u00e1tica, para leigos. Acho que este post de Mar\u00e7o \u00e9 o ideal, at\u00e9 porque com os recentes eventos,\u00a0fica dif\u00edcil trazer novidades t\u00e3o poucos dias depois e com um intervalo t\u00e3o curto entre ambos.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Carta Aberta\u00a0a um Viajante Corporativo (escrita por um Gestor de Viagens e Eventos)<\/strong><\/p>\n *esta carta n\u00e3o \u00e9 real! Apenas uma maneira did\u00e1tica de explicar aos viajantes corporativos os perrengues da vida de um Travel Manager dos dias de hoje.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Caro colega de empresa,<\/p>\n Sou o respons\u00e1vel pela \u00e1rea de Viagens de nossa empresa. Voc\u00ea me questiona bastante por e-mail, no caf\u00e9, no refeit\u00f3rio, no fretado em que nos encontramos, no fum\u00f3dromo – ou atrav\u00e9s de seu chefe mesmo. A maioria de suas queixas s\u00e3o comuns a colegas de outras organiza\u00e7\u00f5es, feitas pelos viajantes deles, pois a maioria de nossos desafios decorre do ambiente externo – ou seja, cada um em seu “quadrado” lida com as seguinte for\u00e7as externas questionadas por voc\u00eas:<\/p>\n Como meu\u00a0cliente interno e colega de organiza\u00e7\u00e3o, deixe-me tentar explicar alguns fatos para ajudar a entender por qu\u00ea estas coisas acontecem (embora n\u00e3o nos exima do fato de que somos respons\u00e1veis em melhor\u00e1-las – mesmo exigindo uma capacidade de coordena\u00e7\u00e3o e persist\u00eancia enorme, al\u00e9m de ajustes herc\u00faleos e alheios \u00e0 nossa capacidade como melhora da infraestrutura do Pa\u00eds, seguran\u00e7a jur\u00eddica, diminui\u00e7\u00e3o do custo-Brasil, etc:<\/p>\n 1- Com a expans\u00e3o do mercado, houve uma prolifera\u00e7\u00e3o, e ainda h\u00e1, de novas solu\u00e7\u00f5es e canais de distribui\u00e7\u00e3o (o que \u00e9 \u00f3timo, o capitalismo sendo o capitalismo). Os mercados da Am\u00e9rica Latina t\u00eam uma gama enorme de hot\u00e9is e a maioria deles \u00e9 independente e com pouca estrutura para bancar a distribui\u00e7\u00e3o de suas tarifas via os tradicionais distribuidores globais, que s\u00e3o caros. Este “monop\u00f3lio” dos distribuidores inclusive \u00e9 um dos entraves que vem sendo alvo das novas solu\u00e7\u00f5es, que buscam distribuir as tarifas dos hot\u00e9is a um custo menor, mas tudo isto leva muito tempo e envolve muitos interesses comerciais e operacionais – s\u00e3o estruturas que regeram o Turismo por 60 anos e est\u00e3o sendo desafiadas\u00a0agora. Estamos no meio do furac\u00e3o, aquela fase do mercado que as for\u00e7as se chocam at\u00e9 que comecem a se acomodar.<\/p>\n Exemplo:<\/strong> quando uma ag\u00eancia reserva para voc\u00ea uma tarifa muito baixa, mas que \u00e9 de uma ag\u00eancia online como Decolar, Booking, Expedia, ou de uma m\u00e1quina\u00a0como a Trend, \u00a0os funcion\u00e1rios do Hotel n\u00e3o sabem de qual empresa voc\u00ea \u00e9 – diferente de quando \u00e9 uma tarifa da pr\u00f3pria ag\u00eancia ou da nossa empresa (que chamamos de “tarifa corporativa” ou “tarifa negociada”). Elas geralmente s\u00e3o mais baratas porque estas empresas tem poder de negocia\u00e7\u00e3o alt\u00edssimo ao congregar volumes, equipes gigantes focadas nisto – mas tamb\u00e9m muitas vezes t\u00eam armadilhas como n\u00e3o ser reembols\u00e1vel, n\u00e3o poder ser cancelada, sem caf\u00e9-da-manh\u00e3 incluso. Nosso grande desafio \u00e9 conectar toda essa rede para chegar at\u00e9 voc\u00ea:<\/p>\n Hotel –> Distribuidor (GDS\/HRS\/Trend\/Decolar\/Booking\/Expedia) –> Ag\u00eancia de Viagens\/Online Booking –> Viajante –> Visibilidade p\u00f3s-venda em relat\u00f3rios<\/p>\n Com uma m\u00e9dia de 200 Hot\u00e9is negociados ao ano pela nossa empresa + todos os outros que n\u00e3o s\u00e3o negociados, mas que utilizamos, imaginem a dificuldade de fazer este sistema funcionar. Tenho que fazer voc\u00ea ter acesso ao mais barato, mas tamb\u00e9m ao mais confort\u00e1vel e seguro. Isso falando de Brasil, mas alguns de n\u00f3s tamb\u00e9m somos gestores regionais e temos exatamente os mesmos problemas na Argentina, Peru, Chile, Paraguai…. mercados muito mais imaturos, muitos Hot\u00e9is sem contatos comerciais ou que n\u00e3o est\u00e3o nem a\u00ed para nosso volume – pois se vendem sozinhos ou simplesmente n\u00e3o tem apetite comercial.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n 2- Embora as viagens de neg\u00f3cios no Brasil, e provavelmente nos demais pa\u00edses, representem de 65 a 70% do volume das Cias. A\u00e9reas, elas ainda pensam muito no usu\u00e1rio que compra no site, a pessoa f\u00edsica, para definirem regras tarif\u00e1rias e formas de distribui\u00e7\u00e3o (chego a dizer em muitos casos que as internacionais tamb\u00e9m n\u00e3o est\u00e3o nem a\u00ed para n\u00f3s – mudam regras de compra de bagagem e marca\u00e7\u00e3o de assentos sem pensar em como isso ser\u00e1 executado no turismo corporativo, sem apoiar em nada a mudan\u00e7a que est\u00e3o provocando). Logo, vendem assentos em bloco para as mesmas ag\u00eancias online que mencionei anteriormente, mas n\u00e3o para as ag\u00eancias corporativas que nos atendem, ou publicam tarifas \u00fanicas para compra via website que n\u00e3o est\u00e3o dispon\u00edveis para voc\u00eas via nossa ag\u00eancia de viagens nem via sistema interno da empresa. Mas da mesma maneira, estas tarifas raramente s\u00e3o remarc\u00e1veis, reembols\u00e1veis, etc. Al\u00e9m disso, ao se avan\u00e7ar da primeira p\u00e1gina das ferramentas mais famosas, percebe-se um aumento do pre\u00e7o inicial devido \u00e0 taxa de servi\u00e7o do site + taxas aeroportu\u00e1rias.<\/p>\n Sim, viagens internacionais (especialmente) se n\u00e3o forem bem cotadas por um consultor experiente podem ser mais baratas no site devido a combina\u00e7\u00e3o de trechos, hor\u00e1rios e “ca\u00e7a” de classes tarif\u00e1rias nos invent\u00e1rios dos transportadores que os algoritmos conseguem fazer mais eficientemente (e isso n\u00e3o \u00e9 privil\u00e9gio apenas dos algoritmos de Viagens, leia qualquer reportagem de Intelig\u00eancia Artificial para notar que isso j\u00e1 vem ocorrendo em outros setores da economia).<\/p>\n At\u00e9 por isso pedimos em nossa Pol\u00edtica que voc\u00ea compre com anteced\u00eancia: h\u00e1 cada vez mais gente viajando no mundo, e menos voos sendo operados. Imaginem a quantidade de grupos sendo bloqueados neste momento que voc\u00ea l\u00ea meu post e pessoas buscando no Skyscanner ou outro metabuscador aquele assento que voc\u00ea quer comprar na classe econ\u00f4mica – \u00e9 quase igual comprar ingressos pro Rock in Rio.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n 3- Geralmente aquilo que reclamamos de nossas ag\u00eancias, de falta de proatividade, retorno r\u00e1pido e pre\u00e7os altos, faz sentido e ocorre em todos os pa\u00edses do mundo, especialmente com as grandes ag\u00eancias que massificaram o atendimento corporativo (e isso n\u00e3o \u00e9 uma cr\u00edtica, \u00e9 a realidade). Por terem massificado elas tem estrutura financeira e operacional para suportarem nossas empresas em diversos Pa\u00edses. Ser\u00e1 que pagamos o justo a elas? \u00c9 verdade que quem deve valorizar o produto \u00e9 o vendedor, pois o comprador quase sempre vai querer pagar menos e ter mais – mas em alguns casos nossas empresas simplesmente esmagam os fornecedores com pre\u00e7os insustent\u00e1veis (e alguns est\u00e3o errados em aceitar e baixar a r\u00e9gua). \u00c9 verdade tamb\u00e9m que durante a contrata\u00e7\u00e3o da ag\u00eancia existem n\u00edveis de servi\u00e7o acordados e b\u00f4nus e penalidades financeiras para eles, mas como querer ter um atendimento excelente pagando por um ruim? N\u00e3o se esque\u00e7am tamb\u00e9m que o n\u00edvel educacional b\u00e1sico do nosso Pa\u00eds\/LATAM ainda \u00e9 baixo e isso se reflete em todo o mercado; com isso, a profiss\u00e3o de consultor de viagens acaba sendo desvalorizada porque os sal\u00e1rios s\u00e3o baixos, bem como a de recepcionista de Hot\u00e9is e outras fun\u00e7\u00f5es operacionais dos nossos fornecedores de Viagens e Eventos. \u00c9 um cen\u00e1rio perverso que gera turnover alto, gastos com treinamento das empresas para que estas pessoas troquem de emprego por R$ 200 a mais em seus vencimentos – e n\u00e3o estou julgando-as,\u00a0cada um sabe das contas que vencem em\u00a0seu m\u00eas.<\/p>\n Ainda falando de atendimento, tamb\u00e9m temos nossa parcela de culpa quando n\u00e3o somos claros em nossas necessidades de clientes, quando mandamos apenas emails e n\u00e3o usamos o velho e ainda \u00fatil telefonema para esclarecer d\u00favidas. Um feedback transparente e construtivo seu, como viajante, tamb\u00e9m ajuda o fornecedor a melhorar e a nos conhecer melhor – e n\u00e3o se esque\u00e7a de elogiar quando for justo!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n 4- As aprova\u00e7\u00f5es s\u00e3o mais que necess\u00e1rias no Pa\u00eds “do jeitinho”. Enquanto n\u00e3o aprendermos a lidar com o dinheiro da empresa como se fosse o nosso, enquanto n\u00e3o pararmos de infringir regras por saber que ningu\u00e9m est\u00e1 acompanhando seu cumprimento (geralmente n\u00f3s Gestores fazemos auditoria\u00a0por amostra), as aprova\u00e7\u00f5es excessivas continuar\u00e3o existindo. Funcion\u00e1rios que extrapolam no cart\u00e3o corporativo em jantares, que fazem a unha, cabelo , que usam t\u00e1xi executivo, alugam carro de luxo ao inv\u00e9s do Econ\u00f4mico 1.4, ficam em Hot\u00e9is 5 estrelas e compram o voo mais caro tornam as aprova\u00e7\u00f5es necess\u00e1rias – isso quando a empresa libera o cart\u00e3o corporativo e n\u00e3o obriga as ag\u00eancias, locadoras e hot\u00e9is a trabalharem com uma coisa ultrapassada chamada faturamento – por qu\u00ea \u00e9 uma das poucas maneiras de n\u00e3o ter que ter uma equipe interna para controle e deixar a responsabilidade na m\u00e3o do fornecedor, que s\u00f3 vai faturar aquilo que foi previamente acordado, correndo o risco de nunca receber se faturar o que n\u00e3o devia. \u00c9 verdade que tamb\u00e9m usamos o faturamento para melhorar a gest\u00e3o do caixa, afinal temos que entregar resultados para a Matriz, mas essa pr\u00e1tica gera muita improdutividade e tira dos fornecedores f\u00f4lego financeiro para investir em aperfei\u00e7oamento tecnol\u00f3gico e humano.<\/p>\n 5- Nossa empresa muitas vezes n\u00e3o v\u00ea valor em gerir Viagens Corporativas estrategicamente\u00a0e me d\u00e1 diversas categorias para negociar\/administrar, como Frota, Restaurantes, Jardinagem, Almoxarifado, Correios, Benef\u00edcios, etc. Tamb\u00e9m n\u00e3o me libera para ir a eventos do setor, acha que vamos apenas bater papo e que n\u00e3o trarei novidades para melhorar o servi\u00e7o dos fornecedores para voc\u00eas, ou os processos e as regras de Viagens. Ou simplesmente n\u00e3o tenho tempo para ir, pois \u00e9 tanto trabalho, tanta emerg\u00eancia, que fica “chato” sair do escrit\u00f3rio enquanto minha equipe ou colegas ficam no olho do furac\u00e3o. E bem naquele dia que resolvo ir, 10 pessoas ligam em minha mesa, n\u00e3o me acham e j\u00e1 perguntam para o chefe onde estou.<\/p>\n P.S: enquanto em outras categorias gerencia-se 10, 20 fornecedores, posso ter at\u00e9 100 (considerando redes de Hot\u00e9is, propriedades independentes, Cias. A\u00e9reas, Ag\u00eancia de Viagens, de Eventos, Locadoras de Ve\u00edculos, Seguro-Viagem, Ferramenta de Reservas, Despachante, Distribuidor de Conte\u00fado de Hot\u00e9is, etc).<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Mesmo com estas dificuldades que te listei (faltam muitas, mas\u00a0claro que todo profissional especializado tem as suas), o fato \u00e9 que comprar tudo de forma centralizada ainda \u00e9 a melhor estrat\u00e9gia ao inv\u00e9s de deix\u00e1-los comprar sozinhos, cada um em sua ag\u00eancia ou site de prefer\u00eancia (ou voc\u00ea tamb\u00e9m quer comprar o gr\u00e3o da m\u00e1quina de caf\u00e9, o papel higi\u00eanico, computador, mesa, cadeira, plano de sa\u00fade, o almo\u00e7o de todo dia?). Preciso ter visibilidade para negociar melhor, para cobrar respostas dos fornecedores e para saber onde voc\u00ea est\u00e1 se ocorrer um atentado terrorista, uma enchente, um furac\u00e3o. Sou respons\u00e1vel por suport\u00e1-lo nestes casos. Sou respons\u00e1vel por diminuir ou no m\u00ednimo manter sob controle os custos de viagens, e n\u00e3o olhar apenas o custo-viagem, mas o ganho que elas trazem aos nossos neg\u00f3cios (uma viagem menos cansativa e mais inteligente logisticamente te torna mais produtivo para fechar novos contratos, para o nosso presidente adquirir um novo neg\u00f3cio, para o advogado da empresa nos representar bem em uma audi\u00eancia, para um trainee sair ainda mais motivado e preparado para logo ser um dos nossos Gerentes e para o Diretor de Rela\u00e7\u00f5es Governamentais conseguir a aprova\u00e7\u00e3o de um projeto, portaria, lei que beneficie nossa ind\u00fastria).<\/p>\n \u00c9 isso meu caro viajante. Queria apenas te contar um pouco como \u00e9 meu dia e por que nem sempre conseguimos (meus fornecedores e eu) atender ou superar suas expectativas, embora nos esforcemos muito. A parte boa \u00e9 que o pessoal dessa ind\u00fastria costuma ser muito apaixonado pelo que faz, se esfor\u00e7am para superar as dificuldades – especialmente o pessoal da Hotelaria.<\/p>\n Um abra\u00e7o,<\/p>\n Seu Gestor de Viagens e Eventos.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n ENGLISH VERSION<\/strong><\/p>\n Dear Friends and Colleagues ,<\/p>\n The first quarter is finishing. With it we will have the Account Review of our TMCs and other suppliers, budget review, caps and correction of some tactics and strategies – with a little more idea of \u200b\u200bwhat 2017 will be. March was an amazing month, with the feeling that everything that was dammed in January and February began to happen in these 31 days.<\/p>\n At the prestigious Panrotas Forum, I highlight the charming but still incomplete presentation of AirBnB. For us, Corporate Travel professionals, all the questions were left open. Lovely, and luckier for not having open questions was the presentation of Rock in Rio (great one!).<\/p>\n At Lacte, I emphasize the brilliant performance of Max Gehringer and the suggestion that we men should smile at the women next to us at the table, as they would be our bosses tomorrow – at this hour I was extremely happy not to be Dilma having lunch at my side.<\/p>\n And in April? Well, in April we will have the 1st GBTA Conference in Curitiba, the first conference of this organization in South Brazil. More information at: http:\/\/www.gbta.org\/AmericaLatina\/Brazil\/SobreNos\/Pages\/GBTAConferencia2017Curitiba.aspx<\/p>\n We will also be attending the GBTA Academy<\/strong> in Brasilia on 05\/04<\/strong> and in Fortaleza on 19\/04<\/strong>. See you there!<\/p>\n About the 1st National Conference of TMs, we changed the date to 01\/09\/2017<\/strong> and we already communicated all the contacts that we have by email. There will be an event in S\u00e3o Paulo on 17\/08\u00a0that last year was in September, and we did not want to fill everyone’s schedule with an event the next day, 08\/18.<\/p>\n About the post today …. well, I’ve been rehearsing for some time writing the text below, something like a Travel Manager’s letter to a corporate traveler or travel organizer … I confess that when I started to write so many details came to mind that it was difficult to express everything and in a didactic way, for lay people. I think this March’s post is ideal, because with the recent events, it is difficult to bring news so few days later and with such a short gap between them both.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n An Open Letter to a Corporate Traveler (written by a Travel and Events Manager)<\/strong><\/p>\n *This letter is not real! It is only a didatic and funny way to illustrate to the general travelers and travel arrangers the overall difficulties of this professional in our region.<\/p>\n Dear colleague,<\/p>\n I am responsible for the travel area of \u200b\u200bour company. You question me a lot by e-mail, in the cafeteria, at the bus\u00a0where we meet, at the smokehouse – or through your boss himself. Most of your grievances are common to my colleagues from other organizations, made by their travelers, because most of our challenges come from the outside environment – that is, everyone in your “square” deals with the following external forces questioned by you:<\/p>\n As my internal client and organizational colleague, let me try to explain a few facts to help understand why these things happen (though it does not exonerate us from the fact that we are responsible for improving them – even requiring enormous coordination and persistence , besides Herculean adjustments and external\u00a0to our capacity as improvement of the country’s infrastructure, legal security, cost-Brazil’s reduction, etc:<\/p>\n 1 – With the expansion of the market, there has been a proliferation, and still, of new solutions and distribution channels (which is great, capitalism being capitalism). Latin American markets have a huge range of hotels and most of them are independent and have little structure to finance the distribution of their rates\u00a0through the traditional, expensive global distributors. This “monopoly” of distributors is one of the obstacles that has been the focus of the new solutions, which seek to distribute hotel rates at a lower cost, but this takes a lot of time and involves many commercial and operational interests. They have been conducting Tourism for 60 years and are being challenged only now. We are in the middle of the hurricane, that phase of the market that forces collide until they begin to settle.<\/p>\n Example:<\/strong> when an agency reserves for you a very low rate, but that is from an online agency like Decolar, Booking, Expedia, or a company\u00a0like Trend, Hotel employees do not know which company you are from – different from when Is a rate of the agency itself or our company (we call it “corporate rate” or “negotiated rate”). They are generally cheaper because these companies have very high bargaining power when assembling volumes, giant teams focused on this – but also often have pitfalls such as not being refundable, can not be canceled, without breakfast included. Our big challenge is to connect the whole network to reach you in the OBT or via the agency:<\/p>\n Hotel -> Distributor (GDS \/ HRS \/ Trend \/ Travel \/ Booking \/ Expedia) -> Travel Agency \/ Online Booking -> Traveler -> Visibility in travel management\/ finance reports<\/p>\n With an average of 200 hotels negotiated a year by our company + all others that are not negotiated, but we use, imagine the difficulty of making this system work. I have to make you have access to the cheapest, but also the most comfortable and safe hotels. That is speaking of Brazil, but some of us are also regional managers and we have exactly the same problems in Argentina, Peru, Chile, Paraguay … much more immature markets, many Hotels without commercial contacts or that do not care for our volume – because they sell alone or simply have no commercial appetite.<\/p>\n 2- Although business trips in Brazil, and probably in other countries, represent 65 to 70% of the volume of airlines, they still think a lot about the user who purchases via their website, the individual, to define fare\u00a0rules and forms of distribution (I have to say in many cases that the international ones do not give a damn about us either – they change baggage rules and seats bookings without thinking about how this will run in corporate travel, without supporting the change they are causing at all). So they sell block seats to the same online agencies I mentioned earlier, but not to the corporate agencies that serve us, or publish unique rates for purchase via website that are not available to you via our travel agency or via the internal company system . But in the same way, these rates are rarely remarkable, reimbursable, etc. In addition, by advancing from the first page of the most famous tools, you\u00a0notice an increase in the initial price due to the service fee of the site + airport taxes.<\/p>\n Yes, international tickets (especially) if not well-priced by an experienced consultant may be cheaper on the site due to the combination of schedules, rules and fares in carrier inventories that the algorithms can do more efficiently (and this Is not only a privilege of Travel algorithms, read any Artificial Intelligence report to note that this has already occurred and is occuring in other sectors of the economy).<\/p>\n That’s why we ask in our Policy that you buy in advance: there are more and more people traveling in the world, and fewer flights being operated. Imagine the number of air groups being blocked at this point that you read my post and people searching on Skyscanner or another metasearcher that seat you want to buy in economy class – it’s almost like buying tickets for Rock in Rio.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n 3- Generally what we complain about from our agencies, lack of proactivity, slow responses and high prices, makes sense and occurs in every country in the world, especially with the big travel agencies that have mass-sized corporate services (and this is not a criticism, it’s reality). By having mass-sized, they have the financial and operational structure to support our companies in different countries. Do we pay the fair\u00a0to them? It is true that the seller is the one who should value the product because the buyer will almost always want to pay less and have more – but in some cases our companies simply crush suppliers with unsustainable prices (and some are wrong to accept and lower the bar) . It is also true that during the hiring of the agency there are agreed levels of service and bonuses and financial penalties for them, but how do you want to have excellent service paying for a bad one? Do not forget also that the basic educational level of our Country \/ LATAM is still low and this is reflected in the whole market. With this, the profession of travel consultant ends up being devalued because the wages are low, as well as the receptionist of Hotels and other operational functions of our suppliers of Travel and Events. It is a perverse scenario that generates high turnover, expenses with training of the companies so after that these people exchange of company\u00a0for $ 200 more in their salaries\u00a0– and I am not judging them, each one knows of the bills that expire in their\u00a0months. <\/p>\n 4- Approvals are more than necessary in our South Hemisphere\u00a0countries. Until we learn to deal with the company’s money as if it was ours, while\u00a0we do not stop breaking rules by knowing that no one is following up on them (usually we do sample audits), excessive approvals will continue to exist. Employees who extrapolate on the corporate card at dinners, who go to the hairdresser, who use executive taxi, rent a luxury car instead of Economical 1.4, stay in 5 Star Hotels and buy the most expensive flight make approvals necessary – this when the the company releases the corporate card and does not oblige agencies, rental car companies and hotels to work with an outdated billing device – because it is one of the few ways to not have to have an internal team to control and leave responsibility to the supplier, who will only bill what was previously agreed, running the risk of never receiving if they\u00a0bill what they\u00a0should not. It is true that we also use the billing to improve cash management, after all we have to deliver results to the HQ, but this practice generates a lot of unproductiveness and draws from the suppliers financial breath to invest in technological and human improvement.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n 5- Our company often does not see value in managing Corporate Travel strategically and gives me several categories to negotiate \/ manage, such as Fleet, Restaurants, Gardening, Warehousing, Post Office, Benefits, etc. It also does not release me to go to travel industry events, think that we will just chat and that I will not bring news to improve the service of suppliers for you, or the processes and rules of Travel. Or I just do not have time to go because it’s so much work, so many emergencies, that it gets “embarassing” to leave the office while my team or colleagues get in the eye of the hurricane. And right on that day that I decide to go, 10 people call my desk, they do not find me and they already asked the boss where I am.<\/p>\n PS: while in other categories 10, 20 suppliers are managed, I can have up to 100 (considering hotel chains, independent properties, Airlines, Travel Agency, Events, Car Rental, Travel Insurance, Reservations Tool, Dispatcher, Hotel Content Distributor, etc.).<\/p>\n Even with these difficulties that I have listed (many are missing, but of course every professional has their\u00a0own ones), the fact is that buying everything centrally is still the best strategy rather than letting\u00a0you\u00a0buy yourselves in your preferred agencies or websites (or do you also want to buy grain from the coffee machine, toilet paper, computer, desk, chair, health plan, the lunch of every day?). I need visibility to negotiate better, to charge responses from suppliers and to know where you are if a terrorist attack, a flood, a hurricane occurs. I am responsible for supporting you in these cases. I am responsible for decreasing or at least keeping travel costs under control, not just looking at the cost-trip, but the gain they bring to our business (a less tiring and logistically smarter journey makes you more productive to close new contracts , for our president to get a new business, for the company attorney to represent us well in an audience, for a trainee to go out even more motivated and prepared to soon be one of our Managers and for the Director of Government Relations to get approval for one Project, ordinance, law that benefits our industry).<\/p>\n That is it my dear traveler. I just wanted to tell you a little bit more about what my day is and why we can not always (my suppliers and myself) meet or exceed your expectations, even though we try hard. The good part is that the people in this industry are very passionate about what they do, they strive to overcome the difficulties – especially the Hotel people.<\/p>\n Yours sincerely,<\/p>\n Your Travel and Events Manager.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\n
\n
\nStill talking about service, we also have our share of guilt when we are not clear in our needs as\u00a0customers, when we send only emails and we do not use the old and still useful phone call to clarify doubts. Transparent and constructive feedback from you, as a traveler, also helps the supplier improve and get to know us better – and do not forget to praise when it’s a good service\/product!<\/p>\n