ABT educational session — the first step towards the business segment

ABT educational session «Corporate policy. New reality of communication with corporate buyers» was held in Holiday Inn Suschevsky on March 18th, 2014.

Speakers of the session were Marina Krechetnikova (JTI) and Irina Bosshard, independent travel consultant in business travel and hotel business.

«Depending on the company type business trip policy may vary», Ms Krechetnikiva started her report. Despite the fact that all commercial companies comply with the legislation of the Russian Federation, they may provide a wider range of services than foreseen by legislation, at the expense of their net profit. At the same time state-funded organizations have special spending patterns that stipulate their staff’s expenditure".

Despite the fact that the maximum sum of daily travel allowance is not stipulated by the Russian legislation, the Tax code states the maximum tax-exempt amount — 700 roubles for business trips in Russia and 2500 roubles for trips abroad.

Travel policy is developed with due regard to the company’s needs, but it can change depending on the current requirements of the company. Actually, travel policy implementation means optimizing all the processes related to business trip arrangement.

There was a lively discussion between the participants after the report. Hotel industry representatives were interested in particular aspects of building relations with corporate buyers. Participants of the educational session paid their attention to the fact that large companies preferred hotel chains and it was a great obstacle for hotels not belonging to any hotel chain. Marina Krechetnikova and Irina Bosshard answered the questions. They stressed that in this situation independent hoteliers had to follow a flexible policy of financial cooperation with corporate customers, in particular, to allow post payment according to the customer’s demands, as well as to exchange experience with each other«.

In the opinion of Alexey Voroshilov, deputy corporate director of Holiday Inn Moscow Lesnaya and Holiday Inn Moscow Suschevsky, a serious problem of interaction between hotels and corporate buyers were half-adjusted tender processes: «The main problem of tenders, as well as that of RFP (request for proposal) is the fact that no one guarantees certain sales volumes. Many hotels develop their policy in the way they think it is right, and when we get a business customer, we sort of lose this connection. When we set certain rates, business customers change these plans. What is more important, even low prices do not guarantee occupancy».

Ms Bosshard was the second speaker of the educational session; she spoke about the fact why hotel industry representatives often find it difficult to come to an understanding with corporate buyers. The main causes were: unpreparedness and lack of knowledge of the business travel segment, focus on their own product, ignorance of commonly accepted communication stages, lack of information on the decision making procedures in large companies. It is important to remember that most companies have established purchase and sales procedures that are often connected to the financial year, and if the hotel is willing to find a new corporate partner, it is necessary to know at what stage it is better to establish contacts.

«It is very important to hold events like that, which allow you to share your experience in working with corporate buyers. ABT educational session has let us take a new look at some things, to be „on the opposite side“ and get to know buyers` opinion», Anastasiya Nescheretova from Peter I Hotel noted.

After the session certificates were handed in to all the participants.