What IS Corporate Travel? What ARE the benefits of a Corporate Travel program? Does your company NEED a Corporate Travel program? These might be questions you are asking yourself. Let me answer those questions for you in the next few paragraphs.

What is Corporate Travel? If you own or work for a business that has employees traveling for the company, that is Corporate Travel. No matter how often they travel or where they travel, if it is on behalf of your company it is Corporate Travel.

What are the benefits of a Corporate Travel program? If your employees are traveling on behalf of the company, it would be assumed they are meeting with people to build your business. Traveling to destinations to sell your products or train people on how to use your products. Whatever the reason they are traveling, if there are no guidelines in place, it can cost your company more money than it should.

What do I mean by quidelines? A Travel Policy. Set rules, if you will, regarding what airline to use, which hotels to stay in and what car rental company to use. How does this help the company save money? By using the preferred airline you are giving that airline repeat business. By giving them repeat business you can negotiate a contract were they will give you a discount off the cost of an airline ticket, encouraging more volume from your company. You benefit because you pay less for the same roundtrip ticket, and the more trips that are taken on this airline, the more money is saved.

This works with hotels and car rental companies as well. Within the areas you travel to frequently, you will usually find the same hotel chains by the airports or close to the businesses you visit. By picking one or two common hotel chains to work with, you begin to give them volume and build a relationship. The hotels in turn will negotiate discounts to keep you coming back, saving your company money. With car rentals, this principle works best with choosing one rental company and using that rental agency everywhere.

You can see there is a nice benefit in having preferred supplier partners. You give them volume and they give you discounts. They get more business and you save money on travel spend. Your employees will make the same trip regardless of the cost, so why not save the company money? But how do you go about achieving this?

If you have travelers and you want to save money on travel spending, you NEED a Corporate Travel Program. If your company is huge with thousands of travelers, you more than likely are already programed with one of the major Travel Agencys. But if you’re a smaller company with only a few hundred travelers, you might not think you need a program. Your travelers book the lowest airfare, stay in the cheapest hotels and rent the cheapest cars. Business travel changes constantly for whatever reasons and you need flexibility. Cheap does not always allow you to have that flexibility, so are you doing the right thing for your company?

Another benefit of having preferred suppliers besides getting discounts is because you are loyal to them, they will be willing to work with you when your business needs change. This can be built into your airline contracts in the way of ‘flex funds’ or ‘soft dollars’, and less stringent cancellation policies with the hotels. One thing with hotels that is becoming more and more prevalent is pre-paid, non cancellable rooms for less money. These are not really good options for business travelers, because of changing business needs. BUT – if you have a contract with the hotels and give them lots of room nights (volume), you can get close to the same low rates that will allow for cancellations within a certain time period. Car rentals can be extended if you need to stay longer and are generally cancellable up to time of scheduled rental.

Corporate Travel Programs go beyond the obvious- air, hotel and car discounts. You need someone to monitor what your employees are booking and ensuring your policy is followed. That can be accomplished by either contacting a Travel Agent to do the booking for your employees OR by bringing in an online booking tool and letting your employees book their travel on their own. Either way, your travel policy is enforced and if it is not followed, you will know who and what by your monthly reports.

Booking with an agent is a good option because they have the policy in front of them and they know the best flights and hotels for the trip. 10 minutes and done! International itineraries may take a bit longer and are definately better left in the hands of someone that knows what they are doing. Over the years I have had many clients give me city codes instead of the city names for where they are going. Trust me when I say not that many know the correct airline city codes. If it were left to them, they would be in the wrong country – I have seen it happen! Travel Agents have the training to book your trip efficiently and correctly – it is what we do! The down side is there are set business hours and if the need arises to contact our after hours service, there is an extra charge.

Online booking tools are more cost effective to a company as your employees can book whenever and wherever they are at the moment, as long as they have internet connection. The travel policy is built into the system and if the employee chooses the wrong airline, hotel or car company, a pop-up window comes up with ‘out of policy’ on it. The down side can be the time it takes to look at all the options and make choices – with the day to day interruptions that happen in business life. Often times booking the trips have to be started over again, and then there are more interruptions – it can become a viscous circle. And very frustrating to the employee.

The good thing about all of this is our Travel Management Programs can be completely customized to fit YOUR business needs. The writing of the policy, the negotiations of preferred suppliers, having dedicated agents or an online booking site and choosing the right reporting tools for your company. Infinity Travelaz has the expertise to put it all together for you and make it as painless as possible. We offer service, savings and solutions so you can save your company money. Let our experience help you be successful.

I invite you to take a tour of our website to see a glimpse of what we can offer your company. Or contact us to set up an appointment to talk about what your needs are and how we can help you. I have a sample Travel Policy we can go over and a great Power Point presentation of what we can offer and how the reporting can work best for you. We are excited to work with and for your business!