New Christopherson white paper reveals gaps in corporate hotel programs

‍Salt Lake City, UT — [December 11, 2025] — Christopherson, a leading travel management company serving more than 1,000 organizations across the U.S., today announced the release of its new research report, The hotel program wake-up call: Confronting the disconnect between data, policy, and performance. The white paper presents findings from Christopherson’s 2025 hotel program survey, capturing insights from more than 100 U.S. companies and uncovering widespread operational strain, missed savings, and a growing demand for modernized hotel sourcing solutions.  

The report highlights an industry at a breaking point: hotel spend has returned to pre-pandemic levels, but visibility, automation, and program infrastructure have not kept pace. Travel teams are increasingly overwhelmed by manual work, inconsistent rate loading, neglected contracts, and limited data—issues that directly erode savings and traveler confidence.

“Travel teams are doing more with less, often without the technology or support required to keep up with rising hotel costs and traveler expectations,” said Stacie Prusha, Supplier Relations Director at Christopherson.  

Key findings signal systemic pressure on corporate travel teams

Survey results reveal eight major areas of concern. Among the most pressing:

• Manual work is suffocating program capacity. Survey respondents said that hotel reservation changes, accounting issues, and contract management are their top three pain points.  

• Rate integrity is a persistent weak spot. 45% of respondents need support with rate auditing, and 41% say they struggle with rate re-shopping—core functions required to ensure negotiated value is actually realized.  

• Contracts are frequently unmanaged or overlooked. More than one in three organizations have no active hotel agreements, and 20% never review the ones they do have.  

• Negotiation confidence is low. Although 82% of teams participate in hotel sourcing, only 25% feel “very confident” in contract negotiation, citing lack of benchmarking data and utilization visibility.  

• Payment friction is widespread. More than half report traveler payment issues occurring “sometimes” or “frequently.”  

“Hotel programs can no longer rely on annual negotiations and manual oversight,” said Mike Cameron, CEO of Christopherson. “They require continuous management, automation, and strategic expertise.”

Case studies demonstrate what modernized programs can achieve

To illustrate what’s possible when the right structure and support are in place, the white paper includes real-world examples from Christopherson clients:

• Nielsen gained real-time visibility into traveler behavior and rate loading, allowing the team to replace guesswork with data-driven negotiations and correct hidden rate issues globally. “We’re catching things as they’re happening, rather than discovering missed opportunities a year later,” said Nielsen’s global travel manager.  

• Autoliv consolidated fragmented regional contracts, secured a hard-won chainwide Hilton agreement, and saved $372K on negotiated bookings in 12 months. “To have someone handle these kinds of things for us takes a lot off my plate,” said its North America travel manager.  

• Forefront established a scalable sourcing playbook, drove one-third of bookings into negotiated properties, and captured 58% of total hotel savings through contracted rates within nine months.  

These examples showcase the white paper’s core message: when sourced, maintained, and audited continuously, hotel programs deliver not only lower spend but also improved compliance, cleaner data, and a better traveler experience.

A call to action for travel leaders

The white paper concludes with a clear directive: organizations must shift from reactive hotel management to a proactive model supported by automation, ongoing rate audits, integrated data sources, and expert supplier relations.

“Every partnership should be strategic, every contract should be something you actually use, and every rate should be tailored to your program and your travelers,” Prusha added. “Organizations ready to modernize will see a measurable boost in savings.”

Download the white paper here.

► You’ll also like: Christopherson and BTP Automation announce partnership to drive innovation in corporate hotel sourcing