By Shannon Garcia, ALTOUR SVP, Global Sales
Read time: 3 minutes
If your travel management company gets acquired, it’s more than a headline in the trade press, it’s a shift that can directly impact your travelers, your key objectives, and your bottom line. Acquisitions bring changes in service, technology solutions, contacts, pricing, and company culture. The challenge is making sure those changes work for your business, not against it and that you are still at the heart of what drives program success and not just demoted down on a client list.
At ALTOUR, we’ve helped companies through these transitions. Here’s what we recommend if your TMC is about to disappear.
Impact on Your Travel Program
Technology
Check whether any new solutions integrate smoothly with your systems. Assess the usability of booking tools, other traveler facing solutions and reporting dashboards. The systems you are on today, will likely disappear, so now might be a good time to review what works for you or not. What else is out there? (check out our AI Tools).
Service delivery
Acquisitions can mean changes to service levels, your service team (your contacts and where they are based), supported technologies, and even pricing structures. Reduced competition in the market can drive prices up. If you’re at the end of your contract term, it is likely that increases in price are coming and/or levels of service will be under pressure. Now is a good time to test the market with suppliers you’ve built a relationship with to assess capabilities and what alternative TMCs would charge.
Account Management
When you have a big TMC that is buying up the market, the most common change we see is to your account management team, they are often the first to go and risk being swallowed up under a bigger team. For sure, your status (size, value to the acquirer) will mean you fall down in priority on the merged client list. While you may have been a big fish yesterday, you may find you program viewed differently going forward. Biggest isn’t always the best. Ask specifically where your program sits in volume and profit in the new world.
Cultural fit
Different corporate cultures can affect how new processes and systems are adopted internally. A poor cultural fit can lead to slower uptake and reduced satisfaction. Is the new TMC intent on having you fill out support tickets for simple requests – making you conform to how they do business or are they building the solutions that fit your needs. Acquisitions can cause a lot of disruption to the employees, bringing uncertainty and risk associated with change management to adopt new systems and processes, all the while you’re still reliant on their support.
Key Considerations Before You Commit
- Due diligence: Understand the financial stability, retention rates and track record of the acquirer. How have they managed similar acquisitions before, and how can you be sure they’re focused on your business versus their own internal integration challenges?
- Communication: Keep travelers informed about new processes and changes to their booking experience. Assess how that will fit with their travel needs.
- Cost savings vs. service: Look for efficiencies but be alert to any reduction in value, support, or flexibility.
- Contracts: Review existing agreements for clauses that could affect pricing or service levels post-merger, what will new contracts look like when it comes to renewal.
- Training: Make sure your team is confident with any new systems or processes and that change management support is offered.
- Sustainability: Consider whether the merged company aligns with your organisation’s responsible travel commitments
Proactive Steps to Protect Your Program
- Engage stakeholders: Involve key regional and departmental leads early.
- Define objectives: Be clear on what you want from your TMC relationship going forward.
- Monitor performance: Track service quality, traveler satisfaction, and cost control after the acquisition.
You have options. Don’t Wait!
If you have concerns with the acquisition, now is the time to assess your options. Even well-managed integrations can cause short-term disruption and long-term service changes.
If you are looking for a partner that values your business and travelers, ALTOUR is here for you. ALTOUR provides consultative expertise and AI-powered solutions that are built for now and the future of business travel (and not just an off the shelf-solution). We offer you a more agile, outcomes-led approach that could be the best step you make versus sticking it out to see what happens.
Talk to us today and we’ll assess your corporate travel program needs.
