FlyBoeingJets
YES, that's NICE
- Joined
- Mar 20, 2003
- Posts
- 1,802
You'all remember late 2000 or early 2001? I do. This news story and economic indicators remind me of it.
My (post) interview advice---Get your seat before the music stops. Expect a hickup in some growth projections. Don't give up your last job until you are sitting in class at your new job. I wonder if people should be giving up their current jobs for the bottom of a recall list. Growth comes in spurts and this one might be almost over.
If you are basing your job move on time to Captain...I personally would review your options by adding years to the current expection. But that is just me.
http://yahoo.reuters.com/news/articlehybrid.aspx?type=comktNews&storyID=urn:newsml:reuters.com:20060924:MTFH69516_2006-09-24_16-20-13_N24172400&pageNumber=0&imageid=&cap=&sz=13&WTModLoc=HybArt-C1-ArticlePage3
U.S. businesses seek to trim soaring travel costs
Sun Sep 24, 2006 12:22pm ET
By Chris Reiter
NEW YORK, Sept 24 (Reuters) - For some companies, recent increases in air fares and hotel rates have gone too far.
Businesses, large and small, are limiting staff travel and seeking to trim costs in response to rising prices for plane tickets, hotel rooms and rental cars. The corporate cutbacks could be an early indication of weakening demand in the $173 billion U.S. business travel industry. "As new trips come up, instead of sending five, we'll send two. We're avoiding costs," said Kevin Maguire, director of global travel services for Applied Materials Inc. (AMAT.O: Quote, Profile, Research) The leading supplier of equipment for making microchips employs 14,000 people.
Business travel spending makes up about 20 percent of the overall U.S. travel market, but that segment is generally more lucrative because corporate travelers tend to buy tickets at shorter notice and stay at pricier hotels.
A broad falloff in demand could threaten the nascent recovery of the U.S. airline industry, but the more immediate threat may be to the record profits at hotel operators such as Marriott International Inc. (MAR.N: Quote, Profile, Research), Hilton Hotels Corp. (HLT.N: Quote, Profile, Research) and Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. (HOT.N: Quote, Profile, Research) as business travelers opt for cheaper rooms.
"If you want to talk about what are travel managers doing (to address rising travel costs), then as an industry, they are looking at lowering the tiers of hotels being used," said Suzanne Fletcher, president of the National Business Travel Association and director of travel and meetings for wood and box products company Weyerhaeuser Co. (WY.N: Quote, Profile, Research)
Hotel room rates have been rising steadily for the last three years. According to Smith Travel Research, average hotel room rates are expected to rise to over $96 a night this year, about $14 more than in 2003. But the increases for business hotels, known as upper upscale, have been outpacing the overall sector, rising 7.3 percent so far this year compared with an industry average rise of 6.8 percent, said Smith Travel Vice President Jan Freitag.
And there is little prospect that room rates will fall.
Occupancy levels at hotels are among the highest in 40 years and supply will likely not catch up with demand until 2009, said Joe McInerney, president of the American Hotel and Lodging Association.
"PROHIBITIVE COSTS" Like other big companies, Applied Materials has responded to the rising costs of travel by using certain key suppliers from which they can receive discounts of as much as 50 percent.
Big companies are also cutting costs by tightening travel expense limits and directing staff to internal on-line booking sites.
These options, however, are not available to small businesses, who in some cases are being forced to abandon travel altogether.
Jordanna Thigpen, who runs Venetian mask importer Mask Italia, says she has severely cut back on trips to Europe and is considering selling her company, a decision based at least in part on the rising costs of travel.
"The cost of traveling is now so prohibitive that I limit my buying trips to Venice to once a year," she said. "I used to travel to Venice six or eight times a year." The high costs of traveling have also forced San Francisco Consulting Group, an eight-person revenue consulting firm, to conduct most of its business and client meetings via the Web.
"We have several clients that we have never met face-to- face," said the company's president David Ewing. He also is seeing an Arizona-based employee for the first time in a year, because autumn air fare sales made the long- delayed trip reasonable
My (post) interview advice---Get your seat before the music stops. Expect a hickup in some growth projections. Don't give up your last job until you are sitting in class at your new job. I wonder if people should be giving up their current jobs for the bottom of a recall list. Growth comes in spurts and this one might be almost over.
If you are basing your job move on time to Captain...I personally would review your options by adding years to the current expection. But that is just me.
http://yahoo.reuters.com/news/articlehybrid.aspx?type=comktNews&storyID=urn:newsml:reuters.com:20060924:MTFH69516_2006-09-24_16-20-13_N24172400&pageNumber=0&imageid=&cap=&sz=13&WTModLoc=HybArt-C1-ArticlePage3
U.S. businesses seek to trim soaring travel costs
Sun Sep 24, 2006 12:22pm ET
By Chris Reiter
NEW YORK, Sept 24 (Reuters) - For some companies, recent increases in air fares and hotel rates have gone too far.
Businesses, large and small, are limiting staff travel and seeking to trim costs in response to rising prices for plane tickets, hotel rooms and rental cars. The corporate cutbacks could be an early indication of weakening demand in the $173 billion U.S. business travel industry. "As new trips come up, instead of sending five, we'll send two. We're avoiding costs," said Kevin Maguire, director of global travel services for Applied Materials Inc. (AMAT.O: Quote, Profile, Research) The leading supplier of equipment for making microchips employs 14,000 people.
Business travel spending makes up about 20 percent of the overall U.S. travel market, but that segment is generally more lucrative because corporate travelers tend to buy tickets at shorter notice and stay at pricier hotels.
A broad falloff in demand could threaten the nascent recovery of the U.S. airline industry, but the more immediate threat may be to the record profits at hotel operators such as Marriott International Inc. (MAR.N: Quote, Profile, Research), Hilton Hotels Corp. (HLT.N: Quote, Profile, Research) and Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. (HOT.N: Quote, Profile, Research) as business travelers opt for cheaper rooms.
"If you want to talk about what are travel managers doing (to address rising travel costs), then as an industry, they are looking at lowering the tiers of hotels being used," said Suzanne Fletcher, president of the National Business Travel Association and director of travel and meetings for wood and box products company Weyerhaeuser Co. (WY.N: Quote, Profile, Research)
Hotel room rates have been rising steadily for the last three years. According to Smith Travel Research, average hotel room rates are expected to rise to over $96 a night this year, about $14 more than in 2003. But the increases for business hotels, known as upper upscale, have been outpacing the overall sector, rising 7.3 percent so far this year compared with an industry average rise of 6.8 percent, said Smith Travel Vice President Jan Freitag.
And there is little prospect that room rates will fall.
Occupancy levels at hotels are among the highest in 40 years and supply will likely not catch up with demand until 2009, said Joe McInerney, president of the American Hotel and Lodging Association.
"PROHIBITIVE COSTS" Like other big companies, Applied Materials has responded to the rising costs of travel by using certain key suppliers from which they can receive discounts of as much as 50 percent.
Big companies are also cutting costs by tightening travel expense limits and directing staff to internal on-line booking sites.
These options, however, are not available to small businesses, who in some cases are being forced to abandon travel altogether.
Jordanna Thigpen, who runs Venetian mask importer Mask Italia, says she has severely cut back on trips to Europe and is considering selling her company, a decision based at least in part on the rising costs of travel.
"The cost of traveling is now so prohibitive that I limit my buying trips to Venice to once a year," she said. "I used to travel to Venice six or eight times a year." The high costs of traveling have also forced San Francisco Consulting Group, an eight-person revenue consulting firm, to conduct most of its business and client meetings via the Web.
"We have several clients that we have never met face-to- face," said the company's president David Ewing. He also is seeing an Arizona-based employee for the first time in a year, because autumn air fare sales made the long- delayed trip reasonable
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