Win-Win for Leading German Consultancy with Digital Payment Solution and Hotel Tool

• “Employees can search for suitable accommodation from a large hotel portfolio, time-consuming admin tasks are no more, and the [HRS] tool is so self-explanatory that training is no longer necessary”.

Executive Summary

• An auditing, tax consultancy and business law consultancy had two significant requirements. It needed a digital payment system to cut overheads, and a hotel partner to offer a ready supply of hotels and special rates for its client-facing business travelers. HRS was chosen for the job, partnering with AirPlus. Adoption of the HRS booking tool was swift, from 0 to 50 percent of staff within a year.

The Company

• One of the leading companies in Germany for auditing, tax consultancy and business law consultancy was on the move. A contingent of its 1,900 employees travel regularly for business, to visit customers and to meet with colleagues across its 26 locations. The prospective partner was to provide not only a wide-ranging supply of hotels for business travelers, with special corporate rates, but also a digital payment solution.

Challenges and Objectives

• According to a study led by the GBTA foundation, it takes 20 minutes on average for an employee to conduct a manual travel expenses report. It’s a process that is prone to errors and as many as every other statement need to be edited after being checked over. The German consultancy’s traditional method of billing travel expenses was just as time consuming and prone to errors. Paper documents and manual steps created unnecessary admin for both travelling employees and the finance department. The first step was to switch to a digital payment solution.

• Because the company’s existing tool for booking travel offered only a small choice of hotels and came with a heavy burden on Travel Management to train employees on its use – the second step was to offer employees the very best hotel offers.

How We Helped:

• Following the implementation of the HRS payment solution – Central Billing and AirPlus – employees at this firm can now book their hotel trips without the time-consuming billing of travel expenses.

• A virtual MasterCard number is created with every booking, which is used to settle the bill without the traveler needing to do a thing. HRS automates the process and supplies the consultancy’s finance department with a digitally collected hotel bill. In this way, Central Billing reduces the number of accounts payable and simplifies the booking processes.

• The consultancy’s Travel Management team stresses that it relieves the burden for business travelers: “Employees can search for suitable accommodation from a large hotel portfolio, time-consuming admin tasks are no more, and the [HRS] tool is so self-explanatory that training is no longer necessary”.

• The conversion to Central Billing happened directly and Travel Management stresses its good cooperation. “Every system implementation presents challenges, but the HRS team was always available, and every obstacle was quickly overcome.”

Speedy On-Boarding

• Booking numbers increased rapidly via the HRS Portal after the implementation of the digital payment solution. Within one year bookings had increased by more than double and one in two hotel reservations come through HRS.

• The degree of detail of the digital billing makes it possible to create a precise analysis of hotel costs, because the tool surfaces not just the total amount payable but also a more accurate statement of expenses detailing additional services. In this way, in any future negotiations over conditions and net rates, the consultancy can accurately determine which services should be taken into account according to the data.

Results

• Quick adoption of the HRS booking Tools: from 0% to 50% within one year.
• Savings of €10,500 in the same time period simply using the HRS business tariffs. Reduce annual travel spend.
• Clear Relief for Travel Management, since staff training has been made obsolete by the intuitive Tool and queries are becoming less frequent.
• Large Choice of Hotels for employees in the HRS Hotel portfolio.