Testimonials

As with any company we live and die by our reputation. Our customers' stories demonstrate why Expotel is the right choice for all your business travel requirements.

Comino plc

Technology company Comino, part of the Civica Group, utilises its own Workflow and Electronic Document Management software to provide state-of-the-art computerised solutions adding value to its customers' existing investment in IT systems. When Comino needed to add value to its business travel policy, it turned to Expotel.

With 300 employees an effective business travel policy was essential to ensure best value was achieved. An informal working arrangement had been in place with Expotel but at the beginning of 2006 Comino decided a more permanent agreement was needed.

"We embarked upon a benchmarking exercise," says Adam Turrell, Comino's purchasing manager. "We undertook a price comparison from budget hotels and the major chains. We quantified the benefits of using a service provider with the service criteria we would require and thoroughly researched the market including Expotel's competitors. We then issued an invitation to tender and awarded the contract to the successful candidate, Expotel.

"Comino's greatest service assets as a company are sector expertise, market leadership and large amounts of highly developed software; these are also Expotel's greatest assets. Expotel also provides added extras over and above cost savings that ensure efficiency of the service and time saving for us," continues Adam.

The benefits offered by Expotel for Comino were numerous. With so many personnel on the road for the majority of the week, it was essential that hotel reservations could be made by telephone; this Expotel could accommodate with a dedicated contact centre team and a single telephone number. Equally as important was the nation-wide hotel coverage supplied by Expotel. With a database of 63,000 hotels, Expotel can find hotels in obscure parts of the country with competitive rates.

Through its size and buying power, Expotel can offer specially negotiated rates well below what one individual company could source on a mass scale. Information was also of extreme importance to Comino and Expotel offered effective management information (MI). "The MI was designed whereby we are able to track and identify trends in travel and therefore introduce countermeasures ensuring we have negotiated rates in specific areas so spend is kept to a minimum.

Expotel's Billback product also proved highly successful with Comino. "Consolidated invoicing was essential for us," states Adam. "Having individual people claiming hotel accommodation and travel costs through expenses leads to errors and large amounts of paperwork; Expotel has solved this issue. Billback provides us with one consolidated invoice, simplifying the payment process and dramatically reduces the amount of mistakes made and the effectiveness of our business travel.

"Working with Expotel has increased the efficiency of our business travel management. We have created a policy based on our need criteria and Expotel are able to police it; Expotel works well for our company."

Classic British Hotels working in partnership with Expotel

Recognised as a hallmark for quality independent hotels in Great Britain, Classic British Hotels is a superb collection of over 50 quality, independent three-star, four-star and five-star hotels across the UK from the Channel Islands to the Highlands of Scotland and many key locations in-between. It is committed to offering excellent accommodation and facilities. Exactly the kind of partner preferred by Expotel in the UK.

At Expotel we work with all the major hotel chains plus the quality independent hotels. Part of our commitment to our customers is to ensure that they have all the relevant and correct information regarding hotels before they make a decision regarding their accommodation. We therefore invented HIRUS.

HIRUS stands for Hotels Information Retrieval and Update System. Expotel's partner hotels have the ability to instantly update the information regarding their hotels online. This means all the information our customers see on our website is up-to-date and accurate.

"We have found HIRUS an extremely valuable tool," says Nicola Wilde, Marketing Manager at Classic British Hotels. "Many other companies have long lead times when it comes to their online information which makes the posting of items such as special offers difficult. With HIRUS it is instantaneous and we know that Expotel's customers benefit from this. We can update hotel information, changes to facilities and upload any new photography we have taken anytime we want".

"It also means we can post special offers during our quiet periods. Expotel customers receive great deals and we maximise revenue for our hotels," continues Nicola.

Hotels can also use HIRUS to manage the freesale of their hotel rooms. With freesale rooms, Expotel can keep booking guests into a particular hotel and will know when the hotel is fully booked because the hotel group will close the freesale. Again this can be done online and therefore is almost instantaneous. This means our clients receive instant confirmations for these rooms but is it virtually impossible to overbook a hotel because the closeout happens immediately.

Evolvi working for Beachcroft LLP

As with many companies, law firm and Expotel client, Beachcroft LLP invariably have people on the road throughout the year.

The company handles a broad range of work for major clients across a variety of sectors, helping clients get the best from their business. Expotel works towards the same goal, helping clients to get the best out of our business and therefore their own.

Expotel has been working with Beachcroft since January 2002 undertaking its hotel reservations and business travel needs.

One of the most pressing issues that arose whilst working together was rail travel. "The nature of our industry means that we have to travel to see clients, attend court hearings and consultations," says Lesley Turner Beachcroft's Head of Facilities. "At times we have very little notice for our journey."

In order to circumvent the problems involved with issuing and receiving tickets at very short notice, Expotel introduced Beachcroft to Evolvi. Evolvi is the software and printing machines that allows the user to search for, order and print rail tickets at their office. After examining Beachcroft's travel demand, printers were installed in their Bristol, London and Leeds offices. Expotel's account and rail manager visited the three locations and undertook training sessions for the staff.

"Having the ability to print our own tickets means we can save time and we never run the risk of not having our ticket on time for when we travel," states Lesley. "We can also use the software to ensure we achieve best value when travelling by taking advantage of the best fares available."

Tickets are delivered to Beachcroft in batches of 100 and 200 and inappropriate use of the ticketing facility is prevented by the strict usage of cost centres and cost codes.

"The training to use the system was simple and software has proved popular with staff. Expotel's introduction of Evolvi has proven to be a benefit for our company."