In order to make the most of your corporate travel budget, it is critical to plan for leveraging your program for all it is worth. Telling travelers to select the lowest logical airfare is simply not enough. Here are the elements that should be considered when preparation or evaluating your traveling program.
1. Travel policy
A well written and disseminated traveling policy is the foundation of any good travel program, and I am consistently amazed that so many corporations have such an outdated and poorly conceived travel policy, if they have one from all. It is not difficult to find a well written policy. One can be found online without difficulty. All that remains is that it is edited to reflect corporate lifestyle, and disseminated within the company so that everyone understands and agrees to follow it. For this reason, it is a good idea to have everyone sign a copy of the traveling policy to ensure that it is study, understood and possessed by all company employees. I suggest that everyone in the company signs a copy of the traveling policy, whether they travel or not. They may change opportunities in the company and be required to travel later. A travel policy need not be long or complex. Among the best travel policies I have ever seen were only a few pages long.For more info, you can visit to Northern Lights Trips From India and Northern Lights Expert.
2. Centralized traveling internally and externally
Many companies do not centralize their travel program, plus they pay a price with regards to a loss of expense reduction opportunities and internal efficiencies. Many companies that do not centralize traveling have a fear of requiring travelers to do something they may not want to do, along with the idea that centralizing travel will require hiring a Travel Supervisor. Both of these may be legitimate concerns but they do not have to be in most cases. By requiring travelers to publication centrally, you are not always causing them to lose flexibility. You can centralize travel while still allowing travelers to publication on their own, either with a traveling agency of your choice, or online through a provider which you have partnered with and have confidence in. By assigning someone with the responsibility of overseeing travel, you are getting a single point of contact both internally and externally for travel issues. If your company spends less than $1 million in air travel, you probably do not need a full time travel manager. In these cases, travel oversight can be given to the finance department, human resources, as well as an executive level assistant. Here is a look at the advantages to be obtained by centralizing travel.
When you centralize traveling with a single agency, you gain in a number of important ways. You shall have a single point of contact for problems while travelers are on the road, and you will have one entity to go to for all your travel needs. This eliminates the problem of consolidating a traveling report from among various sources. By bringing travel jointly, you will gain from economies of scale significantly. If you can measure overall travel among numerous divisions or locations, you can get more for your money from traveling suppliers. This will permit you to gain more from airline gentle dollar programs, which means more free tickets and upgrades, get a higher percentage lower price from our desired airline, and get better negotiated rates from your hotel and car contracts. Your fulfillment costs will decrease as well, as your travel agency will often discount their costs for a higher overall volume of travel.
3. Mix of online booking and personal service
This is an addendum to the previous element, which calls for centralizing travel with one travel agency. This is important, but in doing so, you need not require travelers to use an online booking system, and you need not require travelers to call the agency directly. By offering travelers the option of doing either, you are accomplishing several goals. You shall reduce your fulfillment costs, as on-line booking is cheaper with regards to a service fee. By giving travelers the option, you are providing them with a sense of control, thus increasing morale and position a better chance of a high adoption rate. Thirdly, you depart open a best practice of using your on-line booking engine for less complex itineraries, and enabling senior executives, frequent travelers, and complex itineraries to end up being booked directly with a travel broker that can offer a higher level of service and a better overall travel knowledge where it is most warranted.
4. Look under every stone
While the bulk of most travel courses revolve around the air budget, there are several other areas one can investigate to find financial savings opportunities. There are always a couple of more obvious locations to look, such as negotiated hotel rates at your favorite hotels, or car rental special discounts with a favored supplier. Often your travel agency will have reduced rates through consortia affiliations and agency car contracts already. There are also some less common locations that should be investigated. For example, if ground transportation is a concern, most suppliers will offer you discounted rates and a direct billing option. Direct billing arrangements with hotels and car rental agencies are also the best way to raise efficiencies and make the job of the accounting section easier.
5. Leverage tough dollar and gentle dollar contracts
Most major airlines today offer hard dollar special discounts along with soft dollar incentives in exchange for business loyalty to their product. If your travel system is over $1 million in atmosphere spend, you can secure a discount off of the lowest fares of your carrier of choice in return for a market share commitment. For your secondary carriers, or if your volume is less than the minimum required by the airline, you can enter in to gentle dollar programs for free tickets and free upgrades, as well as traveler position enhancements or airport club passes. These programs require small in the way of volume, but they are not properly publicized so you may need to hunt for them or request Baker Traveling or your current agency to point you in the right direction.
6. Do not neglect hotel volume
Hotel volume is overlooked but it should not be sometimes. Negotiated rates can be had through your travel agency or with the hotel properties of your choice directly. Individual hotels near corporate places shall negotiate discounted rates for you in exchange for a minimum room/night commitment. By utilizing a travel agency, you are likely to receive discounts of 5% to 50% on thousands of hotels worldwide.
7. Have at least one car rental contract
Rental car contracts are easy to enter into and require little in the real way of commitment from the corporation. Choose a partner that has airport places and a popularity for excellent customer service. You can save 5-10% very easily and will also negotiate frequent renter membership for all your employees. This will make them more efficient and enhance morale. You can even enter in to direct billing agreements at the same time that can make the careers of your travelers and accounting employees much less stressful.
8. Understand group and meeting contracts
Airlines and hotels can lower price your fares and rates when you have groups travelling together or meeting at a single destination from multiple points of origin. These meeting contracts can bring you airfare special discounts of 2-10%, and if you have enough travelers on a single airline, you may be able to negotiate for free tickets to end up being awarded at contract completion. The minimum necessity is usually 10 travelers going to the same place at the same time. Some airlines have higher minimums so be sure to request before a contract is generated. Hotels shall discount their rates in a similar way with a minimum of 10 room nights. These special discounts can range from 10% to a much higher discount depending upon occupancy rate and seasonal variances.
9. Use reporting to consistently improve metrics
Well managed travel programs require constant monitoring and financial handles to be properly leveraged. Insist on timely and customized reports that can be designed to bring you the given information you need most. By receiving regular reporting on traveler conduct and provider contract efficiency, you shall be in a better position to fulfill contract obligations, achieve cost reduction goals and see where possibilities for future cost savings may lie.
10. Use all avenues to enhance traveler comfort and effectiveness
Lastly, any properly managed travel program will take in to account the comfort and productivity of their travelers. When travelers are comfortable, they can focus on their major priorities that help propel your business forward. If travelers are joyful, they perform at a higher level. Ask if your traveling agency can upgrade traveler position on a desired airline. Look in to purchasing blocks of airport club passes so they can be used strategically during longer and complex itineraries. There are several ways to reward travelers for the challenging and often grueling chore of traveling. These kinds of rewards generate emotions of loyalty and improved productivity and efficiency.
1. Travel policy
A well written and disseminated traveling policy is the foundation of any good travel program, and I am consistently amazed that so many corporations have such an outdated and poorly conceived travel policy, if they have one from all. It is not difficult to find a well written policy. One can be found online without difficulty. All that remains is that it is edited to reflect corporate lifestyle, and disseminated within the company so that everyone understands and agrees to follow it. For this reason, it is a good idea to have everyone sign a copy of the traveling policy to ensure that it is study, understood and possessed by all company employees. I suggest that everyone in the company signs a copy of the traveling policy, whether they travel or not. They may change opportunities in the company and be required to travel later. A travel policy need not be long or complex. Among the best travel policies I have ever seen were only a few pages long.For more info, you can visit to Northern Lights Trips From India and Northern Lights Expert.
2. Centralized traveling internally and externally
Many companies do not centralize their travel program, plus they pay a price with regards to a loss of expense reduction opportunities and internal efficiencies. Many companies that do not centralize traveling have a fear of requiring travelers to do something they may not want to do, along with the idea that centralizing travel will require hiring a Travel Supervisor. Both of these may be legitimate concerns but they do not have to be in most cases. By requiring travelers to publication centrally, you are not always causing them to lose flexibility. You can centralize travel while still allowing travelers to publication on their own, either with a traveling agency of your choice, or online through a provider which you have partnered with and have confidence in. By assigning someone with the responsibility of overseeing travel, you are getting a single point of contact both internally and externally for travel issues. If your company spends less than $1 million in air travel, you probably do not need a full time travel manager. In these cases, travel oversight can be given to the finance department, human resources, as well as an executive level assistant. Here is a look at the advantages to be obtained by centralizing travel.
When you centralize traveling with a single agency, you gain in a number of important ways. You shall have a single point of contact for problems while travelers are on the road, and you will have one entity to go to for all your travel needs. This eliminates the problem of consolidating a traveling report from among various sources. By bringing travel jointly, you will gain from economies of scale significantly. If you can measure overall travel among numerous divisions or locations, you can get more for your money from traveling suppliers. This will permit you to gain more from airline gentle dollar programs, which means more free tickets and upgrades, get a higher percentage lower price from our desired airline, and get better negotiated rates from your hotel and car contracts. Your fulfillment costs will decrease as well, as your travel agency will often discount their costs for a higher overall volume of travel.
3. Mix of online booking and personal service
This is an addendum to the previous element, which calls for centralizing travel with one travel agency. This is important, but in doing so, you need not require travelers to use an online booking system, and you need not require travelers to call the agency directly. By offering travelers the option of doing either, you are accomplishing several goals. You shall reduce your fulfillment costs, as on-line booking is cheaper with regards to a service fee. By giving travelers the option, you are providing them with a sense of control, thus increasing morale and position a better chance of a high adoption rate. Thirdly, you depart open a best practice of using your on-line booking engine for less complex itineraries, and enabling senior executives, frequent travelers, and complex itineraries to end up being booked directly with a travel broker that can offer a higher level of service and a better overall travel knowledge where it is most warranted.
4. Look under every stone
While the bulk of most travel courses revolve around the air budget, there are several other areas one can investigate to find financial savings opportunities. There are always a couple of more obvious locations to look, such as negotiated hotel rates at your favorite hotels, or car rental special discounts with a favored supplier. Often your travel agency will have reduced rates through consortia affiliations and agency car contracts already. There are also some less common locations that should be investigated. For example, if ground transportation is a concern, most suppliers will offer you discounted rates and a direct billing option. Direct billing arrangements with hotels and car rental agencies are also the best way to raise efficiencies and make the job of the accounting section easier.
5. Leverage tough dollar and gentle dollar contracts
Most major airlines today offer hard dollar special discounts along with soft dollar incentives in exchange for business loyalty to their product. If your travel system is over $1 million in atmosphere spend, you can secure a discount off of the lowest fares of your carrier of choice in return for a market share commitment. For your secondary carriers, or if your volume is less than the minimum required by the airline, you can enter in to gentle dollar programs for free tickets and free upgrades, as well as traveler position enhancements or airport club passes. These programs require small in the way of volume, but they are not properly publicized so you may need to hunt for them or request Baker Traveling or your current agency to point you in the right direction.
6. Do not neglect hotel volume
Hotel volume is overlooked but it should not be sometimes. Negotiated rates can be had through your travel agency or with the hotel properties of your choice directly. Individual hotels near corporate places shall negotiate discounted rates for you in exchange for a minimum room/night commitment. By utilizing a travel agency, you are likely to receive discounts of 5% to 50% on thousands of hotels worldwide.
7. Have at least one car rental contract
Rental car contracts are easy to enter into and require little in the real way of commitment from the corporation. Choose a partner that has airport places and a popularity for excellent customer service. You can save 5-10% very easily and will also negotiate frequent renter membership for all your employees. This will make them more efficient and enhance morale. You can even enter in to direct billing agreements at the same time that can make the careers of your travelers and accounting employees much less stressful.
8. Understand group and meeting contracts
Airlines and hotels can lower price your fares and rates when you have groups travelling together or meeting at a single destination from multiple points of origin. These meeting contracts can bring you airfare special discounts of 2-10%, and if you have enough travelers on a single airline, you may be able to negotiate for free tickets to end up being awarded at contract completion. The minimum necessity is usually 10 travelers going to the same place at the same time. Some airlines have higher minimums so be sure to request before a contract is generated. Hotels shall discount their rates in a similar way with a minimum of 10 room nights. These special discounts can range from 10% to a much higher discount depending upon occupancy rate and seasonal variances.
9. Use reporting to consistently improve metrics
Well managed travel programs require constant monitoring and financial handles to be properly leveraged. Insist on timely and customized reports that can be designed to bring you the given information you need most. By receiving regular reporting on traveler conduct and provider contract efficiency, you shall be in a better position to fulfill contract obligations, achieve cost reduction goals and see where possibilities for future cost savings may lie.
10. Use all avenues to enhance traveler comfort and effectiveness
Lastly, any properly managed travel program will take in to account the comfort and productivity of their travelers. When travelers are comfortable, they can focus on their major priorities that help propel your business forward. If travelers are joyful, they perform at a higher level. Ask if your traveling agency can upgrade traveler position on a desired airline. Look in to purchasing blocks of airport club passes so they can be used strategically during longer and complex itineraries. There are several ways to reward travelers for the challenging and often grueling chore of traveling. These kinds of rewards generate emotions of loyalty and improved productivity and efficiency.