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Expedia study reveals pet peeves of administrative professionals who arrange travel

Expedia declares Travel Arranger Day to encourage travelers to thank their Travel Arranger; Study finds only 23% of Administrative Professionals who book company travel feel they are highly appreciated for their work.

BELLEVUE, WASH. – To recognize Administrative Professionals Day, Expedia gave voice to the often-overlooked and underappreciated individuals who organize office travel with the first of its kind travel study of administrative professionals. The study, which identified employees who commonly arrange business travel for their colleagues, found that while booking travel is typically a small part of these individual’s jobs, it is by far the hardest and least valued by their peers.

The study also found that three out of four (76 %) respondents believe business travel is as important to their company’s success – if not more so – this year than it was in 2013 based on budget. Despite this, of the over 3,000 travel arrangers studied, more than three quarters feel they are not highly appreciated for managing company business travel.

The quirks and perks of booking business travel for colleagues

  • Nearly 80% of those studied report that their companies need to do a better job optimizing their business travel loyalty rewards programs – leaving valuable rewards points on the table. A nice way to reward those hard working travel arrangers would be to share with them, as 63% said they were more interested in receiving travel loyalty rewards points in appreciation of their work than extra vacation days (34%).
  • 54% of administrative professionals claim their biggest pet peeves when making travel arrangements for others include the last minute requests for bookings (31%) and changes to itineraries submitted by their colleagues (23%).
  • These individuals also frequently receive their coworker’s misguided travel complaints when on the road for work, with lack of Wi-Fi while flying or in the hotel, delayed/cancelled flights, and airport security lines topping the list of business travel grievances.
  • The most important features to administrative professionals when booking and managing business travel for others:
    – Good value for the money (75%)
    – Easy booking process (72%)
    – Good customer support (68%) More favorable change/cancellation policies (66%)
    – Online, self-serve itinerary changes or cancellations (63%)

“Booking travel for others can be a complex and difficult thing, and on today of all days we should take a minute to thank those who take on this task,” said Eleanor Bradley, Director of Small Business Travel at Expedia. “We appreciate the hard work administrative professionals put in every day to get their colleagues where they need to go, and are dedicated to making their work a little easier by streamlining the process and rewarding our business travelers as much as possible through exclusive business offers, Expedia Rewards, and partnerships targeted at small companies, like the ones we have with National Purchasing Partners and Ink from Chase.”

As part of Expedia’s push to make Administrative Professionals Day also Travel Arranger Day, and in order to recognize the important, but sometimes thankless task of booking travel for others, Expedia is giving more than 3,000 Expedia Rewards points to select travel arrangers who are enrolled in Expedia Rewards.

This Expedia study of administrative professionals was fielded in March 2014 and features responses from 3,415 individuals that identify as travel arrangers, defined as an employee that books travel for three or more of their colleagues.

Tatiana Rokou
News Editor - TravelDailyNews Media Network | + Posts

Tatiana is the news coordinator for TravelDailyNews Media Network (traveldailynews.gr, traveldailynews.com and traveldailynews.asia). Her role includes monitoring the hundreds of news sources of TravelDailyNews Media Network and skimming the most important according to our strategy.

She holds a Bachelor's degree in Communication & Mass Media from Panteion University of Political & Social Studies of Athens and she has been editor and editor-in-chief in various economic magazines and newspapers.

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