Carlson Wagonlit Travel identifies further savings opportunities in hotel programs

Now available to all clients worldwide, CWT expands its industry-first CRS by CWT hotel booking system to include all major global distribution systems.

SINGAPORE–  New research* from Carlson Wagonlit Travel (CWT) has shown that on average 54 percent of travellers book outside of their companies’ recommended hotel booking channels, even in the most carefully managed travel programs.

When travellers book outside of the program they may well reserve hotels with non-negotiated, potentially more expensive rates; in addition, companies cannot easily track travellers for safety and security purposes nor accurately track their overall hotel spend, thus making it difficult to leverage effective sourcing.

With this in mind, CWT continues to reinforce its hotel offering to help customers drive compliance and improve value. As part of this focus, CWT has further enhanced CRS by CWT to encourage travellers to stay at their companies’ preferred properties and reserve through preferred booking channels.

CRS by CWT allows independent hotels that are not represented in a Global Distribution System (GDS) to be loaded and distributed through a client’s established online and offline booking channels. It acts as a central reservation system, aggregating diverse hotel content as if it were a new hotel chain. CWT travel counsellors can easily access hotels listed in CRS by CWT, and online booking tools can display non-GDS hotels to travellers making reservations online. Travellers can then book air, rail, car rental and hotels at the same time and at their companies’ negotiated rates through their CWT travel counsellor or online booking tool.

Launched in June 2011 on Amadeus, CRS by CWT is now available worldwide for travel counsellors and online booking tools using all three major GDSs – Amadeus, Sabre and Travelport. “We welcome the expansion of CRS by CWT to all major global distribution systems. This is helping our customers, particularly in the Asia Pacific region where we see a large portion of hotels not available on the GDS. CRS by CWT also allows our clients to track travellers for safety and security purposes and provides the ability to accurately track overall hotel spend allowing for effective hotel sourcing,” said Matt Carracher, VP TTS & Product Marketing, Asia Pacific.  

*Figures based on CWT internal research, 2012.

(Source: CTW)