The Limitations of Travel Departments
Major Studios operate travel departments handling flights, hotel bookings, and some transportation for productions. That model was originally built for corporate travel and enterprise expense management. However, productions buy way more than just this limited menu, and travel departments often fall short when it comes to providing the full-spectrum travel and living solutions required by physical productions on location. This gap leads to inefficiencies, increased costs, and logistical challenges that impact both the Studio and the production teams. A more comprehensive, production-centric approach is necessary to maximize efficiency and cost-effectiveness.
While studio travel departments have substantial expertise and negotiating power with airlines and major hotel chains, their scope is often too narrow to address the diverse and complex needs of productions on location. Key areas where they fall short include:
1. Limited Housing and Long-Term Living Solutions
Studio travel departments primarily focus on short-term transient and group hotel bookings and airfares, leaving productions struggling to secure long-term housing solutions for cast and crew. Productions often need:
- Fully furnished apartments
- Corporate housing
- Private home rentals for above and below the line
- Localized support for housing sourcing and negotiations
Since major studio travel departments are not structured to handle these needs (for a variety of reasons, but mainly because it is too costly to service), Studios provide a per diem for housing. Individuals must source these services themselves, wading through a multitude of local third-party housing suppliers and landlords, leading to inefficiencies, inconsistent pricing, and greater risk for cast and crew. Sometimes they have the help of a production coordinator, but often they are on their own.
2. Lack of Local Knowledge and Support
Productions filming in diverse locations require a deep understanding of local markets. Studio travel departments typically do not maintain on-the-ground relationships with real estate agents, short-term rental providers, or local service providers. This lack of expertise results in:
- Delays in securing appropriate accommodations
- Higher costs due to last-minute bookings
- Missed opportunities for cost-effective, high-quality housing options
Productions often hire Travel Coordinators or rely on POCs with local knowledge of the rental market because the Studio travel department does not possess local knowledge and networks to match. Local Coordinators may or may not have extensive local supplier networks and relationships and may lean more heavily toward a smaller subset of the wider supplier market or rely on Google searches to find suppliers and inventory.
3. Inflexible Supplier Mandates and Limited Choice
Studio travel departments often have pre-negotiated contracts with specific hotel chains and travel providers. While this is beneficial for corporate travel and the enterprise at large, it limits production flexibility in choosing accommodations that meet their specific needs. Productions often face:
- Higher costs due to a lack of competitive sourcing
- Above-market rate transaction fees
- Limited ability to negotiate local concessions
- Rigid policies that may not align with dynamic production schedules
- Spotty location support outside major production centers
Mandates may also apply to specific jurisdictions and not others, so while the travel department can provide its core services in non-mandated jurisdictions, the limitations of the travel department become magnified (transaction costs, speed, local knowledge).
4. Production Incentives Create Service Gaps
Local production incentives require suppliers to be a registered business in their jurisdiction for productions to qualify that spend for incentives. Studio travel departments are registered in most of these locations to qualify production spend. However, travel companies managing these departments may not have a presence or an incorporated affiliate in every jurisdiction. This situation requires the production to source a local supplier for a service normally provided by the Studio, adding a full procurement cycle to find a reliable local supplier.
5. Gaps in Ancillary Travel Services
Productions require more than flights and hotels—they need a holistic approach to travel coordination, including:
- Ad hoc local ground transportation (car rentals, private drivers, shuttles)
- Per diem and expense management solutions for individual travel and living
- Production concierge for events such as wrap parties, team building, and gifting
- Destination management service networks to bridge mandated and local suppliers
Most studio travel departments do not have dedicated experts to coordinate services comprehensively, driving production teams to hire full-time travel coordinators to manage those items independently, adding administrative burdens on POCs, and increasing costs and hassle.
The Business Case for a More Comprehensive Approach
The traditional Studio travel department model is outdated for modern productions. It centralizes core travel and living but does not address housing on location or destination services gaps. It requires an additional staff position (travel coordinator) to manage the local travel and living it does not. A more comprehensive travel and living approach should leverage:
- Seek partners: By sourcing everything from flights to housing to transportation via partner networks with vetted, supplier-agnostic ecosystems, productions can leverage the combined buying power of the Studio and partners, maximizing savings, improving service, and generating better outcomes for cast and crew.
- Risk mitigation: Extend pre-negotiated global agency contracts to unsupported travel and living categories with risk-reducing industry-standard language, ensuring productions and individuals are protected when using services outside core travel department services.
- Flexible, production-friendly sourcing: A 100% à la carte model allows productions to select only those services needed without being locked into mandated suppliers or service channels. The mandate is the best combination of lowest negotiated rate, most value-added, and reduced risk, so production should have the flexibility to shop for the best overall deal—or the travel department should do it for them.
- Dedicated production travel expertise: Specialists with access to the widest supplier networks possible, with on-the-ground knowledge and local support, to ensure productions get what they need.
- Qualitative improvements: Production-centric sourcing and service delivery across more categories reduce headaches, improve quality, and create a better overall location experience for traveling cast and crew.
The Competitive Advantage
By implementing a production-centric approach to travel and living solutions, Studios and productions can achieve:
- Lower costs with more value-driven sourcing
- Greater efficiency, reducing time spent on travel logistics
- Fewer disruptions, ensuring seamless production execution
- Stronger vendor relationships, leading to better long-term deals
- More productive and happier productions
- Tens of thousands of dollars in savings per production
- Increased preference for top cast and crew to work for Studios that look after their people
Conclusion
Major studio travel departments are very good at what they do but are not designed to provide the full range of travel and living services that productions require. Without a comprehensive solution, productions will continue to face inefficiencies, inflated costs, and logistical headaches. A specialized, production-focused approach—incorporating localized expertise, flexible sourcing, and full-service travel and housing coordination—is essential for studios to remain competitive and maximize production efficiency.
Studios that fail to adapt risk falling behind, while those that embrace a more comprehensive travel and living model will set a new industry standard for efficiency, cost savings, and production success.
For more information and to discuss your travel and living needs whether a single unit or an entire production, contact Andrew Thompson, andrew@locationshousing.com, +1-647-718-5277.
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