FAQ

Who is Expotel?

Expotel is one of the UK’s leading independent hotel reservations, business travel and conference and event management service companies.

We have been providing bespoke hotel, travel and business solutions for our customers for over 35 years.  We have 100,000 hotels and venues worldwide on our system and the purchasing power to negotiate cost effective rates for your accommodation and meetings and event requirements.

We are proud to be an Investors in People and a CarbonNeutral™ company.

What’s the benefit of using Expotel instead of booking direct?

We understand the hotel and business travel market.  At Expotel, we can often negotiate cheaper rates than our clients would be able to do.

We can analyse your hotel and travel spend and negotiate specific allocations for your people at the hotels you visit most frequently.  You can book via the telephone or online at www.expotel.com.  Room allocations allow us to give immediate confirmations to clients, otherwise confirmations are given within four hours.

We can provide consolidated invoicing to ensure total billing accuracy and to save you time.

Wherever you are staying we can also get you there.  As an IATA bonded travel agency Expotel can also arrange your air, rail, coach, car or ferry travel.

We don’t have a company travel policy – do we need one?

A travel policy, if monitored and mandated is proven to save you time and money.

We don’t have a company travel policy – can you help?

We can help devise, implement, monitor and give recommendations based on anticipated or known spend, your culture and operational practices.

I also want help organising events.

No problem.  We have a dedicated and highly experienced team whose sole task is to book venues and organise conferences and events for our clients.  Our events team can handle every aspect of your event or just those bits you prefer not to do yourself.

Can you organise all my travel requirements?

Yes we can.  Expotel can organise most methods of transport to get you to where you need to be.  We deal with all airlines (including budget airlines) and our travel consultants’ primary task is to source the most cost-effective method of travel.

How do you help me control my costs?

With each new client we analyse existing spend and travel patterns.  We then negotiate with hotels in areas where you frequently travel to ensure you are receiving the best rates available.  If demand warrants it, we will also work to secure allocations in areas your staff travel to most.

What reporting and MI processes do you use?

We can offer a comprehensive report providing analysis of hotel and travel spend data.

Using the management information, Expotel’s commercial team analyses the trends and booking patterns and negotiates improved rates where possible.

So what would your service cost us?

There are various options for payment.  We earn commission on every hotel room we book and the hotel pays this commission – you pay us nothing.  For hotels that don’t charge commission we apply a transaction fee to cover the cost of processing the reservation.

Clients occasionally also choose either a management or transaction fee option whereby Expotel charges a fee for the service and returns the commission to the client.

What is Billback?

Our Billback system controls and reduces your administrative overheads in processing invoices.  We check all invoices against the original booking to ensure that upgrades etc have not been charged without authority or that duplication has occurred before we settle the bill on the client’s behalf.

We submit one consolidated bill per cost centre, backed up by electronic data to provide detailed analysis of expenditure which allows you to simply ledger one invoice and raise one payment.

How would you communicate your services to our staff?

We will work with you to develop a communications strategy for your company for the first three months of the contract to ensure the new process is communicated to your people.  Your staff will also receive training on how to use Expotel through your bespoke ‘How to Book Guides’ and ‘roadshows’ by our staff.  We will review the process to determine how well the message has been received and finally we will produce a file of procedures to be sent to key client bookers.