Egencia Releases Global Cost Avoidance Study

Global Study Examines Corporate Travel Trends and Best Practices, Uncovering Hidden "Tricks of the Trade" for Avoiding Costs in 2011 Corporate Travel

PARIS, LONDON, MUNICH and BRUSSELS, February 23, 2011 - Egencia(R), an Expedia, Inc. company, today released the results of its
"2011 Global Cost Avoidance Study," uncovering several best practices and
strategies that travel managers can use to circumvent and protect against
growing corporate travel costs related to air and hotel.

"In today's challenging environment, we see the need more than ever to
provide companies with expertise and guidance to optimize and monitor travel
spend," said Christophe Pingard, Senior Vice President, Egencia EMEA and
APAC. "This was the impetus for our global research and recent innovations
such as our proprietary Air Fare Benchmarking and Flexible Dates Search
tools."

The global survey of 348 travel executives revealed that 95 percent of
respondents view travellers compliance as important to extremely important to
the success of their travel programme in 2011. A lack of compliance can mean
missed opportunities for corporations to preserve funds, and can ultimately
affect the bottom line. For example, respondents identified failure to book
air travel far enough in advance (68 percent) as the number one area where
travellers tend not to comply. Respondents identified other areas of
frequently breached compliance, including:

    - Not booking preferred carriers or lowest logical fares (42 percent)
    - Booking more expensive hotel rooms (32 percent)
    - Not booking hotel rooms with preferred hotel partners (30 percent)

To encourage compliance with their travellers, 50 percent of respondents
proactively communicate their corporate travel policy as updates occur;
however, 16 percent communicate quarterly, 11 percent communicate yearly, and
four percent never communicate. Additionally, 77 percent of respondents noted
that they do not use incentives to keep their travellers compliant with their
corporate travel policy.

According to a recent joint Egencia/NBTA Foundation study[1], a carefully
conceived and consistently enforced corporate travel policy allowed companies
to reduce annual travel spend by at least 45 percent or more.

When respondents were asked how they promoted travel spend accountability
within their company, 56 percent noted that they establish a pre-trip
approval system for approving or denying travel before booking, while 37
percent identify rogue travellers and follow-up with them directly, and 36
percent provide department managers with a specific travel budget that they
manage and own.

In addition to strong policy enforcement and compliance, corporations
should actively utilise cost avoidance tactics and best practices to ensure a
successful travel programme. Respondents identified "insisting that
travellers use lowest logical fares" as the most effective cost avoidance
tactic, with 55 percent saying that it is effective to very effective.
Respondents also identified requiring pre-trip approval (51 percent), using
hotels that offer discounted/included amenities (47 percent), using
independent hotels (25 percent), and utilising a last room availability
clause (17 percent) as tactics used to avoid costs.

Corporate travel executives are increasingly focused on negotiating
additional amenities or better terms and conditions into their hotel
contracts, with 49 percent of respondents saying that they are utilising this
tactic to combat anticipated hotel rate increases in the coming year.

"A key strategy of policy and cost control is to proactively identify new
air and hotel opportunities, helping to maximise savings," said Jonny
Shingles, Managing Director, Egencia UK. "For example, our Account Management
works directly with our clients to expand and leverage specific discounts
such as the Egencia Preferred Rate programme which includes amenities
(breakfast, wi-fi) with major hotel partners .Within this programme, we also
offer flexibility by negotiating specific terms such as "same day
cancellation", thus helping companies avoid additional costs while
maintaining the satisfaction and comfort of their travellers."

Respondents focused most prominently on negotiating free breakfast (56
percent) into their hotel contracts, followed by free Wi-Fi (55 percent),
free parking (39 percent), last day cancellation (36 percent), and last room
availability (24 percent).

The majority of respondents (57 percent) noted that they do not include
reminders in their travel policy communications about available hotel
benefits or amenities that have been negotiated into their rates. This is a
substantial missed opportunity, as educating travellers on the availability
of these benefits through targeted communications can dramatically increase
the likelihood of them utilising these rates and included benefits.

Further insights into Egencia's 2011 Global Cost Avoidance Study are
available upon request, as well as European specific figures.

About Egencia, an Expedia, Inc. Company

Egencia is the fifth largest travel management company in the
world. As part of Expedia, Inc., (NASDAQ: EXPE), the world's largest travel
marketplace, Egencia helps businesses get ahead by offering the only truly
integrated corporate travel service. Egencia's industry expertise helps drive
results that matter, delivering meaningful advancements that have a real
impact. By combining a powerful offline and online service, Egencia delivers
a complete corporate travel offering supported by global market expertise and
a best-in-class technology platform.

For more information, go to www.egencia.co.uk

Egencia and the Egencia logo are either registered trademarks
or trademarks of Expedia, Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries. Other
logos or product and company names mentioned herein may be the property of
their respective owners.(c) 2011 Egencia, LLC. All rights reserved. CST #
2083922-50

[1] Corporate Travel Policy: Benchmarking and Insight, Egencia and
National Business Travellers Association (NBTA) Foundation, August 2010.

For more information, press only: Raphaëlle Boissicat, Egencia Corporate Communications Manager, +33-1-73-01-01-47, r.boissicat at egencia.com