Travel and Leisure Services Outsourcing

The online industry has been facing a challenge with the advancement of online fraudsters. Airlines across the world pegged losses at approximately USD 5.6 billion in 2010, credit cards being the number one fraud risk factor. Each airline loses an average of over USD 2.4 million a year due to undetected fraud. Fraud prevention for online credit card transactions is of utmost importance and preventive measures are the need-of-the-hour. While large online merchants employ more automation, manual review systems cannot be entirely done away with and BPO firms are helping companies accomplish this more efficiently through process innovations focused on business outcomes. 65 percent of airlines outsource their fraud management to third-party service providers. Leading BPO providers like WNS are combining automated tools with offshore capabilities to prevent fraudulent bookings, minimize loss of revenue to the company and decrease charge-backs and bad debt write-offs.

While major hotel chains continue to grow their global footprint, they also acquire fragmented reservation centers. Though many believe that ‘localization’ of call centers provides benefits of knowing the native language and culture, the fact is that it translates into a significant increase in cost and also affects service delivery.  Increased infrastructure cost, delays in disaster recovery, longer turnaround times to deploy new technologies and processes, lack of standardization, limited labor pools and inconsistency in service delivery and customer experience are some of the issues that hoteliers could face with de-centralized call centers. Read on to find out what consolidation can do for you.

The hospitality industry, which has seen dark times in the past couple of years, is finally seeing a recovery. The U.S. hotel industry reported significant increase in the three key performance measurements during the week of June 20-26, 2010, according to recent trends from Smith Travel Research (STR) Global. In year-on-year measurements, the industry's occupancy increased 6.8 percent to reach 69.7 percent. The Average Daily Rate (ADR) rose 1.1 percent to USD 98.79, and Revenue Per Available Room (RevPAR) rose 7.9 percent to USD 68.88.

In 2010, things are expected to look a lot brighter for the airline industry buffeted by one of the severest economic recessions in 2008-2009. To cope, in the past year, airlines have been forced to respond by cutting back on flights, rescheduling existing routes and searching for new revenue streams such as charging for aisle seats and baggage.

One of the key performance indicators for an airline revenue accountant should undoubtedly be "effective management of processes that positively impact company’s cash flow and profitability". This is even more important given IATA’s 2009 prediction of a 15 percent nosedive in airline industry revenues.

Significantly declining demand. Yo-yo-ing fuel costs. Labor relations issues. Capacity management challenges. Commoditization and lack of pricing transparency. Possible governmentregulated passenger 'bill of rights.' Plummeting revenue per available room night. Intense scrutiny and potential regulation for group and incentive businesses. Sky-rocketing fleet costs. Rate deflation. Failing health of the automobile industry. Is it any surprise the airline, hospitality and car rental industries feel like they’re up the proverbial creek without a paddle as a result of today’s abysmal economic conditions?

Having met the challenges resulting from 9/11 and changing business models, airlines find themselves again under siege, primarily from rising fuel prices.

Spiraling costs and falling demand as the credit crunch bites, has pushed many carriers over the edge. Airlines need to be strategically proactive to weather the storm.