Price vs. Cost – In Rental Finding Are They The Same?

A main role of Procurement is to negotiate better rates or advantages for the company. While price is important, it isn’t the only consideration. Downstream effects and ROI also need to be weighed. There’s no sense in getting a great deal if it doesn’t work or do what it’s ultimately supposed to do. And sometimes paying a little more in the beginning, provides greater returns in the end.

The same goes for relocation services and rental-finding. One would assume that adding services or paying a slightly higher price would increase cost, but two Fortune 500 companies have actually found that they are spending less and having better outcomes.

CASE #1 A Retail Company

This retail company began working with PorchLight in the spring of 2015 and provides a generous 2 days of rental finding assistance. They try to eliminate corporate housing, but will authorize up to 30 days when needed. The result? In the last twelve months, their transferees have used an average of 1.5 days out of 2, saving over 27% of their budgeted rental finding costs.

Case #2 A Tech Company

This tech company went against the norm and structured their relocation policy to also provide 2 days of rental finding assistance and eliminated corporate housing except for 1 night in a hotel. The result? Their transferees have found their homes in 1 day which means they have consistently saved over 46% of budgeted rental finding the last 3 years, and that is a significant reduction in their budget when they have over 500 moves a year.

The reduction in overall budgeted relocation costs and success these companies realized is a direct result of their forward thinking on policy and PorchLight. Offering rental assistance while curbing temporary housing had successful downstream effects for both the company and the transferee- a win-win.

Are you hearing that your relocation spend or your client’s, needs to be reduced? Is there grumbling about the money spent on recruitment and the problems the new recruits are having in finding housing, perhaps causing extensions in temporary housing? This may be a good time to review that policy and be the hero in presenting some new, proven solutions.