Corporate travel can be a costly affair, especially for businesses who may not know where to begin when dealing with an ever-tightening budget. Whether arrangements are being made for a group of employees travelling to the same location, or for individual employees travelling around the world throughout the business year, ensuring that the right processes are in place can help businesses to cut costs and promote smarter travel. With a corporate travel management service, the stress of organising any number of business trips can be reduced considerably. Here, we’re exploring just how corporate travel costs for your business can be cut in the most efficient manner.
Top ways to reduce business travel costs
Plan Ahead
Planning is everything when it comes to any kind of travel, but for corporate travel planning ahead is even more important. Booking well in advance or organising your corporate travel management service with plenty of time to spare can not only help you to save on expenditure, but it could also give you much more choice on things like seats and accommodation. The further in advance that you begin to book, the better the seats on the plane, rooms in a hotel, or even meeting rooms to hire are likely to be. Additionally, forward planning gives you plenty of time to change things around and find more cost-effective options along the way, in order to keep in line with the planned schedule.
Cut The Cost Of Flights
Advance booking or flexibility with seating are both great ways to cut costs on your air fare. Promotions and discounts can be picked up and utilised through the use of travel management software, or simply through word of mouth in some cases. Flights take up a good chunk of our total travel costs and this is no different for corporate travel. Whether you opt for economy seating or flexibility with the dates chosen for flying, or even decide on a fixed travel package, this is an ideal way to cut costs. You should also try to capitalise on Frequent Flyer points in order to obtain the best discounts.
Be Smart With Hotels
The price you’ll pay on a room will ultimately depend on the hotel that the employee/s will be staying in. If you’re allowing employees to choose their accommodation, then make sure to set a reasonable budget threshold so they can plan accordingly. However, if you’re booking on their behalf, you need to make sure that you’re smart with the hotels that you choose, while also ensuring location from the meeting/office destination is taken into consideration, as well as transfer time from the airport. Ensuring that travelling employees have everything from WiFi to easy transport access is a must in order to ensure the trip remains business-focused. Here at Uniglobe Gemini, we have access to a whole host of hotels around the world, and with our travel management services, we can give you access to exclusive deals and discounts where applicable.
Set Realistic Allowances
With corporate travel comes expenses, and with expenses comes the potential for a very expensive trip on the business’ bank account. However, setting a realistic budget-friendly allowance for your employees while they’re travelling will encourage them to spend wisely as they travel. Transport within their destination and food costs can add up, but encouraging ‘savvy spending’ amongst the travelling employees will ensure a cost-effective and budget-friendly trip for them, and for the business.
Encourage Productivity On The Road
Making the most of your expenditure doesn’t necessarily mean cutting costs. Alternatively, you can promote further productivity from your employees while they travel to make up for costs or simply to make the most of those that are necessary. The best way to encourage productivity is to provide smooth travel throughout the entirety of the trip – a travel management service can ensure that things run smoothly and that you have 24-hour support should the unexpected happen, giving employees a better chance to relax and work while they travel.
Corporate travel management through Uniglobe Gemini will help you to reduce the time spent organising your trip, the stress involved and the costs that you might incur. Through exclusive deals and discounts and in-depth comparisons of travel and accommodation alternatives that suit your budget and 24/7 support, corporate travel can be both seamless and stress-free. Please get in touch if you’d like to know about the services we offer, or to book your corporate travel today.
