WHY IT RATES: A trial of its price-tracking technology resulted in savings overall. -Janeen Christoff, TravelPulse Senior Writer
Carlson Wagonlit Travel (CWT), the global travel management company, is rolling out Price Tracking worldwide, following a successful trial that delivered savings of up to 2 percent of total travel spend.
The Price Tracking technology continually monitors prices for flights and hotel rooms, checking them against existing bookings. Whenever it identifies savings, CWT cancels and rebooks for less, providing clients with the best possible deals-and delivering significant savings.
"This technology can save our clients up to 2 percent-that's a huge sum of money for any company with a sizable travel program," said Patrice Simon, CWT's CTO, strategy and new product development. "Best of all, it's largely automated, running in the background 24/7, delivering savings every single day."
The service is the result of a partnership between CWT and Yapta, a provider of airfare and hotel price-tracking services. CWT tested offerings from a variety of competing technology providers and found Yapta consistently out-performed all others, in some cases by a wide margin.
CWT's initial trials in the US were very successful, and the scope for savings across the rest of the world is even greater, given the fragmentation of offerings across Latam, Europe, and APAC.
Currently, CWT counselors manually rebook approximately 1 in 20 itineraries with the same flight or hotel at a lower rate. Fully automating the process will further improve that rate. CWT is committed to an ambitious global expansion of Price Tracking, targeting thousands of clients around the world over the next 18 months.
SOURCE: Carlson Wagonlit Travel press release.
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