More Corporations Clip Wings Of Business Travelers Surveys Show Fewer Frills Allowed For Traveling Workers

Road-weary business travelers are increasingly becoming road warriors, with limited rations when it comes to how much they can pay for flights, car rentals and hotel rooms.

“Prices of business travel have gone up, but companies have struggled to contain business travel expenses,” said Craig Lanza, who edited this year’s business survey for Runzheimer International, a management-consulting firm in Rochester, Wis.

The Runzheimer survey of 218 companies found that although airline seats, hotel rates and car rental prices have increased in the past two years, the average domestic business trip in 1996 cost $958, just $1 more than the 1994 average.

Lanza said Tuesday that companies are controlling costs by negotiating discounted rates with airlines, hotels and rental car agencies and then requiring their employees to use those businesses.

“Other actions taken to control costs were requiring use of the lowest convenient airfare, tightening adherence to travel policies and limiting first-class travel,” he said.

A survey of 1,200 companies by American Express found a similar trend.

The number of companies lacking an air travel policy fell from nearly 20 percent in 1994 to only 4 percent this year, according to the American Express survey released Tuesday.

As part of their policies, 78 percent of firms require employees to take the lowest air fare, up from 69 percent in 1994. More than one-third of the companies require employees to stay over a Saturday night if it will significantly reduce the airfare.