Companies need detailed information about their travel costs in order to successfully negotiate prices with service providers in the business travel sector. Take hotels, for example: to get the best business rates, companies must be able to give their hotel partners the actual number of room nights required. Up to now, companies have been able to provide information only on the total expenditure for hotel overnight stays - something that is irrelevant to the hotels themselves; they are concerned with occupancy rates and need to know the number of room nights to be booked.

AirPlus, leading global provider of business travel payment and billing solutions, and SAP, the leading business software provider worldwide, can now give joint corporate clients this detailed information about their business travel expenditure. The two providers have further developed the communication between their systems so that companies can benefit from an entirely new set of data that can be used for successful price negotiations in the business travel sector. AirPlus clients who use the travel expense accounting system from SAP will have more accurate billing information available to them in the future in the AirPlus Information Manager, the online management information system for all business travel expenses.

With the new interface, information from the travellers themselves can now be analysed in the AirPlus Information Manager following completion of the travel expense report. This includes the length of the stay in the hotel and the rental period for vehicles. Travel managers see significant savings potential especially for these two expenditure categories, but must have a precise account on-hand in order to successfully negotiate prices with service providers. “The more detailed the information a company has when entering into negotiations with providers, the higher the savings to be realised,” says Yael Klein, Managing Director of AirPlus International in the UK.

The business trip billing process remains as simple as ever for the traveller. He calls up the SAP module for the travel expense report in which the transaction data from AirPlus Information Manager has already been entered and only needs to confirm it or fill in missing travel or transaction data. This data is then imported into the AirPlus Information Manager via the new interface and is subsequently available in the analyses.

This information extension is available immediately free of charge to all companies using the AirPlus Company Account or Corporate Cards and the SAP travel expense accounting system. The installation can be carried out by the client in just a few steps. A small effort, according to Klein, that pays off quickly: “Many hotels, car rental agencies and airlines are willing to negotiate rate reductions on the basis of a minimal number of bookings. That leads to an additional savings potential for our clients. Armed with this new detailed information, they are now better equipped for price negotiations – an ideal prerequisite for successfully reducing business travel costs.”