Hotel Attachment

Five reasons why booking your hotel at the same time as your flight is always a good idea.

If you’re arranging a business trip which requires you to book a flight and stay overnight here are five reasons why it’s always a good idea to book your hotel at the same time. It’s what Travel Management Companies (TMCs) call hotel attachment… and it has nothing to do with how you emotionally feel about the property. 

When arranging business travel, booking a hotel at the same time as booking a flight is important for several reasons. Of course, ‘hotel attachment’ represents a revenue generating opportunity for TMCs, but the benefits for the traveller and their business are far greater.

By booking a hotel and flight at the same time, you can save time and avoid the hassle of searching for a hotel separately. This can be especially helpful when traveling to a new city or country, where you may not be familiar with the area or the hotels available. The Travel Consultant will be able to advise on the most suitable hotels for your trip, being able to search and offer suggestions based on location (ie: close to your meeting point or office), price (to ensure the booking stays within travel policy parameters) or requirements (eg: if you need specific features such as business centre services, entertainment or meeting venue facilities).

TMCs can save you money on multiple levels. Adding a hotel reservation and additional trip requirements, such as car hire, lounge access and even rail transfers to the same booking as a flight, all at the same time, results in even greater efficiencies. Of course, bundling a hotel with a flight booking also means you’re able to enjoy the TMC’s exclusive corporate rates and trade discounts, meaning you’ll always get a better deal by booking a flight and hotel together with your TMC than by doing it yourself at a later date. And, again, your TMC will ensure only hotels that are within your travel policy are available to book.

Here at Gray Dawes, we can secure package rates from suppliers such Expedia, where putting flights with the hotel booking can save up to 15% on the cost of accommodation.

By booking a hotel at the same time as booking a flight, you can ensure that you have a place to stay when you arrive at your destination. This may sound a little obvious, but it’s particularly important if you are traveling during peak travel times or to a popular destination where hotel rooms can be in high demand. For example, anyone involved in the fashion industry will tell you that getting to New York for the show isn’t the problem but finding a hotel room, unless you’ve booked well in advance, is a different story. So, don’t delay in securing a hotel; book it at the same time as your flight.

Booking your hotel and flight together can make it a lot easier to manage your expenses for your business trip. It can be difficult to keep track of separate receipts and invoices for flights and hotels, but booking them together can simplify the process and make expense reporting easier. And if you’re working to a specific budget, your TMC can ensure this is all covered in a single transaction.

Of course, attaching a hotel to a flight booking doesn’t just benefit expense reporting, but also data management of your entire corporate travel programme. If hotel bookings go rogue, you can’t manage what you can’t measure!

Accommodation is a vital part of managing travel risk, to the point that the hotel industry was deeply involved in the creation of “ISO 31030 – Risk Travel Management: Guidance for Organisations” – the new travel risk management standard. The guiding principle of ISO 31030 is that a Travel Risk Assessment is fundamental to comply with obligations of Duty of Care. Check out our blog on ISO 31030 to find out more.

The ISO 31030 means international businesses go from a lack of understanding and unpreparedness for risk situations to having a well-thought-out critical travel risk management strategy. The hotel industry was the expert travel industry group, outlining issues of hygiene, fire safety, and general travel safety. The hotel industry helps to ensure that accommodation is fit for business purposes, meaning they are constantly aware of risk avoidance, reduction, and risk-sharing.

Beyond this, of course, is that organisations have a fundamental corporate social responsibility to know where their staff are when travelling for business. By booking the hotel and flight together, a TMC can record, track and monitor the status of the traveller and their location seamlessly. So if an emergency happens – and even if it doesn’t – you can rest assured that your travellers stay safe.