A service provider is a travel management company (TMC) that arranges and oversees corporate travel. A firm would often designate one or more key contacts at the agency to ensure that all trips adhere to corporate policy and provide travelers with on-the-go assistance.
Effective and well-organized business travel management may save travel costs, simplify expense reporting, improve booking procedures, and make it much simpler for all parties involved to manage the corporate travel experience.
It isn’t easy to condense the range of services business travel firms offer because there are so many distinct kinds of them. Large businesses may provide customer service in a variety of languages but charge for each call.
Smaller businesses may be difficult to reach after hours and may not speak as many languages, but they may price a higher monthly rate that covers all demands.
The following characteristics of corporate Louisville KY travel companies or business travel agencies are shared:
- Plan excursions for the staff
- Offer assistance and solutions for trip cancellations, rescheduling, etc
- Negotiate group and corporate pricing
1 – The advantages of using a business travel agency
There are a lot of motivations and causes for working with a business travel agency. Here are the top advantages of seeking assistance with your company travel program:
1.1 – Remedy for lack of internal resources or knowledge
Perhaps you don’t require a permanent in-house travel manager, and your office employees are burdened with other crucial tasks. With the assistance of a corporate travel agency, you can plan your necessary travel arrangements without having to employ more workers.
1.2 – Discuss group and corporate pricing
Agents can bargain better prices for their customers for continuous, ongoing travel in groups and other large-scale events.
1.3 – Assist in travel
Things become unpleasant when appointed managers requireto assist travelers while they are out on the road. Travelers might not always be able to receive assistance, especially at night or during weekends. Plus, office managers may become stressed from needing to put in extra hours. A company can lighten this load.
1.4 – Cost of travel report
Businesses need to know which departments spend what on travel to maximize their expenditures. Agencies can help you precisely monitor all of your travel expenditures and provide reports on spending for all stakeholders by team, department, or project.
1.5 – Keep up compliance
Every organization’s travel policy is comprised of a variety of restrictions. When booking, a company can put these rules into effect.
2 – Business travel platforms versus customary corporate travel services
If you’re planning a trip to Alaska, do you utilize a travel agency in Louisville, Kentucky? Most likely not. Why is that, then? Because there are many travel-friendly websites in Louisville, KY, travel agencies can accommodate your needs.
Similarly, the business travel market is changing. What distinguishes the evolution of business travel from that of consumer travel is:
- Need for smoother, simpler compliance with travel policies
- No using personal credit cards for cash payments
- Reporting travel expenses for budget analysis
- Automatically reporting expenses
What concerns consumer travelers have in common:
- Autonomy and self-booking are required
- access to all available global travel, hotel, rail, and auto rental choices
- outstanding user experience
- great mobile experience
- Consumers would desire real-time travel assistance, but they seldom receive it. However, business travelers must have it.)
Therefore, it is clear that, although businesses have a variety of demands (travel policy compliance and expenditure reports are two of the most notable), there are many parallels between what companies need and what customers want.
Business travelers want to book for themselves, go over all of their alternatives and have a wonderful experience, whether they’re speaking with customer service or looking at their schedule on a mobile device.
The issue is that the great majority of business travel providers have not changed to meet these new requirements. Employees are still required to phone a hotline to make travel arrangements, and they are being charged for every call. So, you must consider both technology and customer service when choosing a business travel firm. There are a few well-known solutions for business travel management. These programs are sometimes referred to as Louisville KY travel management platforms. Depending on the demands of the organization and its size, they can be suitable solutions.
A business that can only provide the human element won’t be able to assist your organization in automating travel policy compliance in 2020 and beyond. And a business that only offers technology won’t be able to assist your travelers when they are stranded in a foreign city and unable to return home.
Therefore, you require both technology and assistance.
3 – What qualities to seek in a business travel company, and why
You don’t require a blend of human service and technology in addition to these crucial components to provide your travelers with trip assistance and your CFO with financial control. It is a list of the things to look for.
3.1 – Simple booking process
If it’s their desire, travelers should be permitted to make their travel arrangements. Administrators should simultaneously find it extremely simple and pleasurable to make reservations for others. Administrators can keep track of which employees are traveling for work and where by using excellent tracking equipment.
3.2 – High-quality travel inventory
Utilize low-cost airlines like Norwegian and EasyJet to reduce the cost of your trip expenses flights. Give customers access to whichever airline or hotel chain they choose. You should be able to access the entire world’s inventory as a company without using a consumer tool.
3.3 – No extra fees
Before agreeing to a contract with any travel management business, understand the pricing structure. Watch out for warning signs like prices for support calls or regular, easy reservations.
3.4 – Excellent travel assistance
The human factor comes into play in this situation. When your flight is canceled and you need to go to an event, no amount of travel technology can currently make you feel better.
A genuine person can locate a different path for you very fast. Look for travel assistance that meets all your needs, is available around the clock, speaks many languages, and has received excellent evaluations from travelers.
What is the only way to ensure adherence to the travel policy? Encourage all of your guests and administrators to use it by including your travel policy within the website used to book travel.
Finding a platform with built-in travel rules and approval protocols is important, but you also need to check that it meets the other requirements for a great travel experience so that everyone is truly on board. Management of business travel effectively begins right now!
3.6 – Cost of travel reporting
Gaining insight into travel expenses is crucial! Getting all the information when travel is booked on so many different sites is incredibly challenging. Keep in mind that 46% of business travelers have made reservations on consumer websites.
This data is dispersed around the world and cannot be accessed until it has been spent. Find a business or platform that can aid in the reimbursement procedures and provides real-time information for your finance staff.
3.7 – Innovative and readily scaleable
Business travel across borders is still developing. In actuality, it has just begun. It’s a wonderful idea to confirm that the company is creative and future-ready and that the solution can scale as your company grows when evaluating travel management providers and platforms.
Booking policies for business class
An essential item to include is the guidelines for your company’s business class Louisville KY travel policy. It would help if you established the restrictions up front, regardless of whether workers are prohibited from booking business class travel under all circumstances or whether there are particular situations in which they are authorized.
In some situations, choosing business class bookings makes sense, even though they’re often more expensive than coach class tickets. For instance, many businesses include in their corporate travel policies that tickets for business class can be made if the journey segment is longer than a specific number of hours (common benchmarks are between six and ten).
This kind of regulation enables businesses to provide employees with comfort and flexibility during lengthy business trips. It may also have a favorable effect on traveler satisfaction, a crucial KPI for effective travel management.
It would be best to consider including a clause allowing employees to utilize business class reservations when they are less expensive than economy reservations. For instance, there will be instances where tickets in economy cost more than those in business class if expenses like luggage fees and in-flight meals are considered.
Another situation in which employees could be permitted to purchase business class is when making last-minute travel arrangements when economy class reservations might not be readily accessible.
Remember to make it very clear in your company travel policy if there are no situations where workers are allowed to make business class reservations to prevent complications with the reimbursement procedure.
Wrapping up
It’d be best if you properly convey your company travel policy to your staff if you want them to follow it. It’s nearly as helpful to invite illegal trip reservations and inaccurate expense report submissions as it is to bury your business travel policy behind another policy document.
You may want to schedule an appointment with The Travel Authority for further queries or subscribe to their website for regular updates.