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How we helped NHBC
The National House Building Council (NHBC) was booking at least 5,000 room nights a year across three key locations. However, spend was fragmented across many different hotels and compliance with the company’s travel policy was challenging. Our challenge was to implement a preferred hotel programme that would improve efficiency and make a positive change.
Our first step was to sit down with key stakeholders to fully understand NHBC’s needs. We also thoroughly analysed their hotel usage and spend to establish the specific requirements for all areas of the company.
With this information in hand, we sourced hotels based on standard, style, location and fit before moving on to one of the most crucial factors that drives use: room rates. This is where our team’s hotel relationships and excellent negotiation skills came into play. We were able to provide NHBC with special discounted rates at 10 hotels in their three key locations. We then made these rates available for bookings on our online booking tool and through our offline team.
Keep our clients in the loop
We’re all about making life easier, which is why we encouraged NHBC to embrace digital. Our online booking system enabled NHBC’s bookers to compare all relevant hotel rates and promotional offers, including our negotiated preferred rates, all in one place. Thanks to our efforts, NHBC achieved an online adoption level of 97%.
It was also important to ensure NHBC’s procurement team and budget holders were kept in the loop with exactly what their bookers and travellers were doing. So as well as monthly Account Management recommendations reports, we provided instant access to detailed management information through our LOGiC Intelligence suite. That way, our client could see in real time just how much of an impact we were having on their bottom line.
Spend down, compliance up
By creating a preferred hotel programme, we helped NHBC achieve overall annual accommodation savings of 11.3%. Plus, by implementing a stricter hotel policy, compliance with their travel policy has risen to 78%. We’ve given NHBC the means to better manage its expenses and be a more efficient business.