Provision of Travel Agency Services for the Delegation of the European Union to International Organisations in Vienna

Characteristics of the Services to be Provided

The services covered by the contract include all the services normally offered by a travel agency in connection with missions. The contractor must comply with the following requirements which are considered essential for the proper completion of the contract and the required quality of service. The requirements for one type of service apply mutatis mutandis to the other types of service (airplane, train, bus, etc.).

Throughout the period of validity of the contract, the travel agency must demonstrate its ability to satisfactorily meet the needs of the contracting authority as regards to work-related travel, including the assistance service, in the following areas:

a)  accessibility by telephone or e-mail, according to the choice of the person going on mission;

b)  providing a professional, high-quality, proactive and customer-oriented service;

c)  delivering optimum cost-efficient solutions: the most economic travel option while minimising transit/connection and stopovers, if applicable;

d)  initiating and negotiating the best possible discount rates in order to provide a quotation to the contracting authority for the corresponding product at the best available market price;

e)  advising travellers and taking a coordinated approach, in case several people are going on mission to the same destination;

f)  providing an on-line consultation tool to ease communication with the contracting authority and share information to prepare the journey or during the mission is not mandatory but is an asset.

The services and provisions listed above are indicative: each mission may require one or more of these services or provisions.

The contracting authority has the right to verify at any time that the offered price is the cheapest available in the market by using different booking tools.

The contracting authority still reserves the right to order travel services directly from the providers of the services (airline/train/…), or other sub providers, in case the contractor is unable to provide the requested service at the same price.

The contractor shall advise the contracting authority of market practices and trends that could result in further savings for them, including the use of travel booking tools with automated travel policy compliance and enforcement.

The travel agency will provide the contracting authority and persons going on mission, with any topical information (in the style of a travel alert in case of disruptions for example) that may have repercussions on the organisation of the journey, even if it has already started, in accordance with arrangements to be agreed with the contracting authority before the contract comes into force.