Fare Audit Inc.




Hotel Audit Program Windsor Locks, CT, December 30, 2002 - Fare Audit announced today that it will begin offering a new Hotel Audit program to its' corporate clients. The program has been under development for the past six months and is now ready for market. Fare Audit currently audits corporate airfares for Fortune 500 companies totaling 1.5 billion annually. Martin Morrison, President of Fare Audit said that, with the lack of standardization in the industry, it has been a real challenge to develop such a comprehensive information system that would work across multiple agency platforms and negotiated property programs. The system is designed to answer 3 basic questions every travel manager has asked; 1) Is my agency offering our company preferred properties? 2) Are my employees accepting those properties? 3) Is the agency booking my negotiated rates? The project began last summer in an attempt to look at alternate sources of cost sayings. "It was clear that the airline industry was changing and corporations were looking for newer ways to save money," said Morrison. "The airline industry can't lose 9 billion dollars and expect to continue to offer the same corporate programs as before. The Hotels were an obvious source to save additional money." Previous attempts at a hotel audit took place back in the early 90's, however, because of the lack of standardization and insufficient technology, the process was tedious and labor intensive. The cost was prohibitive to do large amounts of checks. The new system is designed around the company's negotiated programs and identifies records that are not booked at the negotiated property when a negotiated property is available. It also identifies discrepancies between negotiated rates and booked rates when the preferred property is booked. Travel managers have never had programs in place to monitor their hotel activity with any accuracy. Current programs only allow a travel manager to see where their employees have stayed, usually 30-60 days later. By reviewing the reservation prior to travel, the companies have a real opportunity to create positive change. These managers owe it to their companies, their employees and their vendors to insure that the programs put in place are working. By doing so, they will certainly reduce their travel costs. For more information, contact Martin R. Morrison, President, Fare Audit, Inc.at 860-623-0600 or email mmorrison@fareaudit.com. ___________________________________________________ Business intelligence tool Fare Audit announces new on-line reporting system Windsor Locks, CT, 03/20/2002 -- Fare Audit announces a new on-line reporting system designed to help travel managers get a better handle on their day to day travel. The new system is a culmination of a 4 year project that will change the way travel managers do business. This system allows a travel manager to have access to all their travel data on a daily basis. In addition, the system allows for company personnel charged with travel budgets to have access to their employee travel on a daily basis. This is all done prior to travel, so any beneficial change to booked itineraries will result in substantial cost avoidance. Martin Morrison, president of Fare Audit said that until recently the process of collecting data and reporting on this was always after the reservation was booked and ticketed. Most of the time it was too late to make any beneficial changes. Morrison said now we can collect the reservation data the same day it is sent to Fare Audit and post it to its website for clients to review. The advantage of this system is that a company can use the Fare Audit program without investing in expensive hardware or software. There are no platforms to conform to and all data is kept on a secure server. Multiple travel agencies and multiple platforms are no longer a problem. Customers will have access 24 hours a day, 7 days a week from virtually anywhere. If you have access to a browser, you can access your travel data; from an airport, to a hotel, to your home. For more information visit our website at www.fareaudit.com or contact Martin Morrison at 860-623-0600; email mmorrison@fareaudit.com. INTERNET FARES Studies show results of Internet fares Windsor Locks, CT, 03/20/2002 -- A recent study of internet fares showed that almost half of all corporate reservations reviewed could be booked for a lower fare on the internet. However, the majority of these fares were outside the company's travel policy that governs what the corporate travel agent is required to offer. Travel managers are coming under an increasing amount of pressure to allow their travelers to take advantage of internet fares, however, the negative consequences of allowing corporate travelers to book outside the traditional agency system usually outweigh the benefits. Martin Morrison, president of Fare Audit, Inc. says that in order for companies to maintain their current agency system and compete with internet fares, they need to review their existing travel policies and expand the window of opportunity so that agencies can offer lower fares. “Too many companies are operating with policies (pre September 11) that simply don't allow the agent to offer lower fares. Consequently, when your traveler receives a quote it is almost always higher than they can find using internet fare searches”. By opening up the existing booking guidelines, many lower fares become available and travelers do have the opportunity to take advantage of these discounted seats. For more information, call Martin Morrison at 860-623-0600 or email at mmorrison@fareaudit.com.