CWT Price Tracking to deliver savings of 2% on travel spend

Carlson Wagonlit Travel, the global travel management company, is rolling out its Price Tracking product worldwide, following a successful trial that the company claims delivered savings of up to 2% of total travel spend. The agency says its Price Tracking technology continually monitors prices for flights and hotel rooms, checking them against existing bookings. Whenever it identifies savings, CWT cancels and re-books for less, delivering significant savings. “This technology can save our clients up to 2% – that’s a huge sum of money for any company with a sizeable travel programme,” 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 trialled the product in the US initially and believes the scope for savings across the rest of the world is even greater, given the fragmentation of offerings across Latin America, Europe and APAC. Currently, CWT advisers manually rebook approximately one in 20 itineraries with the same flight or hotel at a lower rate. Fully automating the process is expected to improve that rate as CWT commits to a global expansion of Price Tracking over the next 18 months. CWT looks after travellers filling 100,000 hotel rooms and handles 105 events. It operates in 140 countries, and in 2017 posted a total transaction volume of more than US$23bn.