The ever-increasing complexity of today’s business environment is reflected in the challenges of business travel. Hotel reservations are a significant part of the total business travel expenditure, so maximizing benefits while minimizing cost is important. For the individual who is actually out on the road, comfort and perks are crucial, as are travel policy compliance and being able to get a room when and where they need it to get the job done. From the corporate perspective, duty of care, cost containment and budgeting are important factors of business travel that warrant attention. Booking your business hotel reservations with Covington meets all of these criteria.

Benefits to the Individual Traveler

As any road warrior knows, business travel can be arduous. Living out of a suitcase and dining in restaurants while trying to maintain a fitness routine and healthy diet is a challenge. The right hotel can make all the difference in your physical comfort, as well as your mental acuity for the business at hand.

When you book your hotel with Covington, often negotiated extras are included as standard. These perks might include a complimentary upgrade to the club level accommodations (upon availability), daily breakfast, or late check out. Plus, when your hotel membership numbers are included in your Covington traveler profile, you are assured that you will always receive your loyalty points. These benefits can make the rigors of business travel a bit more comfortable.

Through our BCD affiliation, Covington can extend discounted rates on thousands of preferred hotels globally. These negotiated rates allow you to get better accommodations for the expenditure while staying within budget. In addition, some hotel agreements provide Last Room Availability, which allows travelers to get the negotiated rate, regardless of the room type left in inventory. We can also assist you with business hotel issues such as no-show or late cancellation charges. If you book outside of Covington, you are on your own to deal with any unforeseen circumstances that may arise.

When booking your business hotel with Covington, we will advise you if the reservation is outside your company’s travel policy compliance and offer alternatives that will keep you in good graces with the corporate travel manager.

Benefits to the Organization

The traveler’s employer has an equal stake in optimizing hotel reservations, so booking your business hotel with Covington has benefits to the organization as well. They are ultimately responsible for the safety of their travelers, in addition to being accountable to the financial balance sheet. Utilizing a managed travel program helps them meet these obligations.

When travelers book hotels through sources outside a managed travel program, the organization loses the ability to locate travelers if an incident occurs and increases corporate liability for duty of care. When you book your hotel with Covington, we are able to quickly advise your company where you are staying and assist in making changes to travel plans as necessary. If you book independently, no one knows where you are and Covington can’t help you or your company in the event of a crisis event.

Another benefit to the organization of consolidating hotel bookings through a managed travel program is that they have greater leverage when negotiating corporate rates. Hotels are motivated to offer better rates to entities who can demonstrate volume, so the company has stronger negotiating power when their travelers consistently book their business hotels with Covington. We monitor the hotels your company uses so we can identify and advise the travel manager of areas where negotiating a corporate rate may make sense.

Lastly, the organization’s budget forecasting is simplified and improved when all company travel data is combined. Consolidating hotel reservations with Covington allows us to provide comprehensive data reporting to company management so that they can more accurately project future travel expenditures and plan accordingly.

Booking your business hotel with Covington doesn’t mean you have to lose autonomy in making your own reservations. We offer online booking tools that allow corporate accounts to make their own reservations, keeping within corporate travel policy directives. Your company can make reservations 24/7 without ever having to make contact with Covington, yet have the security of our full-service support from time of booking until returning home.

Both the individual traveler and the organization stand to benefit from a managed travel program with Covington. You already work hard – let us do the heavy lifting on booking your business hotels.

For more information on negotiated hotel programs, management reporting or online booking tools, contact Covington’s Business Travel Services.