Elements of a Strong Corporate Travel Program

To get the most value from your travel budget for business It is essential to ensure that you maximize your program to its fullest is worth. Instructing your guests to choose the most reasonable airfare simply not enough. Here are some of the aspects to be taken into consideration when making plans or reviewing your travel plan.Health travels to Spain 1. Travel policy A well-written and distributed policies on travel is at the pillar of any successful travel program I am constantly surprised by how many businesses have an outdated and poorly-conceived policies on travel, even if they even have one even. It’s not difficult to locate a properly written policy. It can be found online with ease. The only thing that is left to do is it’s edited to reflect the corporate culture and distributed within the company to ensure that everyone is aware of and is willing to adhere to the policy. It is beneficial to require everyone to sign an official copy of the travel policy in order to ensure that it is read accepted and understood by everyone in the company. I recommend that everyone within the organization signs an acknowledgement of the policy, regardless of whether they are traveling or not. They could change their positions within the company and later be forced to travel. The travel policy should not be complicated or long. Some of the most effective travel policies I’ve ever encountered were just two pages long. 2. Centralized travel both internally and outwardly A lot of companies don’t centralize their travel programs and pay for it in the form of cost savings and internal efficiency. Many businesses that do not centralize their travel program are scared of having travelers take on a task that they might not would like to do, with the belief that centralizing travel will mean the hiring of an experienced Travel Manager. Both are legitimate concerns, but they don’t have to be the norm in all instances. If you require travelers to book through central booking however, you’re not restricting their the flexibility they require. You can streamline travel yet allow travellers to book their own with an agent of choice or via a website who you have partnered and trust. If you assign someone to the responsibility of managing travel, you’ll have one source of communication both at the internal level and with external sources for concerns related to travel. If your business spends more than one million dollars for flights, you aren’t in need of an entire time travel manager. In these instances the responsibility for managing travel can be assigned to finance or human resources department, and even an executive assistant. Here’s a look at the benefits that can be derived through centralizing travel oversight. If you consolidate travel through an agency that is a single one it will benefit you numerous significant ways. There will be a single source of assistance when you are traveling as well as one place to turn to for all your travel-related needs. This solves the issue of combining a travel report by combining information from several sources. In combining travel information it will benefit by gaining the economies of scale. If you are able to measure the total amount of travel across different regions or divisions and locations, you will benefit from a better value from travel companies. This allows you to get more value from soft dollar programs offered by airlines that means you will get you will receive more tickets for free and upgrades and a greater percentage discount on our preferred airline and also get lower rates from hotels and car leases. The cost of fulfillment will be reduced too, since the travel agency you use will usually reduce their costs for more overall travel. 3. Mix of booking online with personal assistance This is an additional element to the first element, that calls for centralizing travel through one travel agency. It is essential but, to achieve this it is not necessary to require users to use an online booking platform, or make it mandatory for travelers to contact an agency on their own. In offering travelers the choice of either option you will be achieving a variety of objectives. You can reduce the cost of fulfillment, since online booking is less expensive as a service charge. When you offer travelers the option to book online, you give them an element of control which will boost morale and ensuring a higher chance of a higher rate of acceptance. Thirdly, you are leaving open the possibility of making use of your booking engine online for simpler itineraries, as well as giving frequent travelers, senior executives and lengthy itinerary to be booked directly with a travel agency who can provide a superior quality of service and greater overall experience for travelers where it is needed. 4. Check beneath every stone The majority of travel plans revolve around budgets for travel but there are a variety of other places one could look for savings opportunities. There are some areas that are more obvious to investigate for, like negotiated prices for hotels in your preferred hotels and car rental discount by a trusted supplier. The majority of travel agencies already have discounts through consortium affiliations or contract car rentals with agencies. There are a few more obscure areas that must be explored. For instance in the event that ground transportation is a problem it is likely that the supplier will offer reduced rates and direct billing options. Direct billing agreements with car rental and hotels agencies is also a good method to improve efficiency and make the work that the department of accounting less difficult. 5. Leverage soft and hard dollar contracts Major airlines nowadays offer discounts on hard dollars and soft dollar incentives as a way to reward customers for loyalty to the company’s products. If your travel plan is greater than $1 million in airfare expenditure, you may be able to secure discounts on the cheapest fares offered by your preferred carrier as a condition of an obligation to market share. If you have other carriers or if the volume of your business is lower than the minimum amount required by your airline company, then you are able to enroll in soft dollar programs that offer discounted tickets and upgrade, along with upgrades to your traveler status and airport membership passes. These programs need little to do with quantity, however they are not widely advertised, so you’ll need to search for them or contact Baker Travel or your current agency to direct you to the right place. 6. Do not neglect hotel volume The hotel volume is sometimes neglected, but it shouldn’t be. The best rates are negotiated by contacting your travel agent and directly through the hotel establishments you prefer. Hotels that are located near corporate sites offer discounted rates to customers with a minimum of a room/night commitment. If you work with a travel agency you can get discounts of up to 50% on a variety of hotels around the world. 7. You must have at minimum one rental car contract Car rental contracts are simple to sign up for and require very little in terms of commitment from the business. Select a company that has airports and has a good reputation for providing excellent customer service. You can save between 5 and 10 percent easily. You can even negotiate frequent renter agreements for all of your employees. This can make them more productive and boost morale. Additionally, you can sign in direct billing agreements which will make the job of your accounting and travel staff less stress-inducing.