Don’t Shy Away from Business Travel, Be Smart About It!

If you are a company on a tight budget, travelling for business may seem like a luxury you ill afford. As inclined as you might be to do away with this seemingly expensive affair of business travel, it is in the best interest of your business to invest your focus on getting the most out of business travel, rather than avoiding it completely

After all, who can refute the benefits of a face-to-face meeting with the key decision makers impacting the success of your business.

In this article, our UNIGLOBE experts, share tips to make business travel an asset rather than a burden for your business.

1. Centralize your travel policy

Create a travel policy that covers all aspects of business travel, including spending limits on lodging, meals, entertainment, transportation, etc. Circulate necessary guidelines so everyone knows the rules and procedures upfront besides setting and articulating your expectations clearly to avoid unnecessary costs.

2. Utilize managed travel

Managed travel is much more than having a travel policy. It’s about having a professional partner who you can depend on for assistance and ideas for cost containment. Work with a travel expert who understands your company’s unique travel patterns, needs and cost parameters, from bookings, to insurance and visas, to formulate a customized travel management program for your company. This will ensure greater consistency in your company’s booking processes and streamline your bookings and travel patterns, in turn delivering long-term savings. Also, working with an experience TMC like UNIGLOBE Travel, will offer a host of other incentives ranging from negotiated booking rates, guaranteed upgrades, significant discounts, etc., thanks to their marketing and consortium affiliations on account of their cumulative booking volume.

3. Educate and motivate your people to save

Ensure everyone in your organization is aware of the corporate travel policy and complies with it. Educating and motivating employees by making them understand how complying with the policy will benefit them as individuals and as a company, will achieve vast savings for your company.

4. Spend efficiently

Learn when to spend and how to save to get the most mileage from your money.  Optimise air travel, hotel booking and car rental costs

Air Travel

Air travel continues to account for the vast majority of all corporate travel related expenses. Needless to say, every aspect of air travel must be subjected to a microscopic view. This means, in addition to the obvious measures such as sourcing the lowest airfares and booking tickets in advance, also play close heed to the often neglected measures of air travel cost optimization. These include, utilizing the frequent-flier points, redeeming the often neglected unused tickets values, avoiding making or changing travel plans at the last minute and ensuring ramifications for employees making bookings outside the parameters of the corporate travel policy.

Hotel

Negotiate corporate rates with hotel chains common to your destinations. Look for hotels that offer amenities such as a complimentary breakfast, refrigerators and coffee makers in the rooms. Require employees to use these hotels and amenities when they are available.

Car Rentals

As with other aspects of business travel, advance planning in securing car rentals can help reduce costs, sometimes by significant amounts. In addition to making advance reservations, use discount coupons from membership organizations, or airline frequent-flyer clubs when securing a rental car.

5. Know what you’re getting

If you fly out to have a face-to-face meeting, make sure that’s exactly what you’ll get when you arrive. Communicate clearly with your client so everyone knows what to expect.  After all, you haven’t flown all those miles only to learn that a telecon is all your client can manage.

With a little forethought, planning and these tips from our UNIGLOBE experts, you are ready to reap the benefits of business travel for your business.