If you ask most small business owners “what’s the one thing you want more of?” you’re likely to find that most people give the same answer – time. No matter how long you choose to spend at work, with your family, or even sleeping there are still only 24 hours in each day.

It’s issues regarding time, or lack thereof, that also present the most significant concerns for SME business owners when it comes to business travel activity. Not only do you need to spend days, weeks or maybe even months in a different physical location to your business, but you also need to take time before departing to prepare yourself for your trip and prepare your business for your absence. And to think that we haven’t even mentioned the time you’ll need to book your transport and accommodation or organise your itinerary yet.

Luckily, when it comes to preparing for your business trip and making your travel arrangements, engaging a corporate travel management firm can play a vital role in helping you use your time as efficiently as possible so that your time is spent preparing yourself and your staff for your trip, not preparing your itinerary.

Here are some of the ways your corporate travel manager can help you ‘wind back the clock’ and maximise the efficiency of your business travel prep:

Single point of contact

Whether it be through a customized online booking system or a dedicated account manager, having a single point of contact for all your corporate travel needs ensures that you don’t need to waste time dealing with multiple different companies to arrange your ground transport, flights, accommodation and car hire bookings.

Furthermore, if you experience a setback or require assistance once you’ve begun your travels, having a single point of contact eliminates the possibility of you having to spend hours on hold with different airlines, hotels and car hire companies in the event that you need to change your travel plans.

Knowledge and expertise

We all know how easy it can be to get lost in a sea of ‘deals’, ‘savings’ and ‘coupon codes’ when using online comparison sights to search for the best airfare or accommodation deals. You begin your journey on one webpage, then before you know it you’ve lost 3 hours of your afternoon and are on a completely different website to the one where you began. And you have even booked your hotel rooms yet.

The great thing about corporate travel managers is that they already know where to look to get the best deals for you based on your preferences, where you need to go and how long you’re staying for. Even if they need to spend a little time searching themselves, that’s their job and they’re great at what they do, so chances are good that they’ll be able to do it a lot faster than you could. Having the knowledge and expertise that comes with years of experience can make the travel booking process faster, more efficient and more cost effective for you and your organisation.

 Holding tickets and handling charge backs

Due to the nature of their work, corporate travel managers often have relationships with industry partners that have been built over years and countless phone calls and meetings. Whether they be with certain hotel chains, airlines or even credit card companies, taking advantage of the professional relationships that your corporate travel manager has taken years to establish can save you huge amounts of time when it comes to doing things like putting paid travel tickets on hold or handling a credit card charge-back.

Saving time when it comes to business travel preparation comes down to recognising what is important that you do yourself and what can be handled by an extra set of hands. If you find that you’re constantly short of time when you’re preparing to embark on a business trip, consider sitting down for a coffee with a corporate travel manager to discuss ways that you can boost the efficiency of your corporate travel activity. If you’d like to know more, or simply to arrange a chat, contact us today!

When it comes to organising and booking corporate travel with the aim of minimising overall costs, many SMEs take the ‘why pay someone to do something that I can easily do myself’ approach. This of course seems like that natural attitude to take, especially given the myriad of self-booking and product comparison websites that are available on the internet today.

But did you know that companies who engage a corporate travel management firm spend on average 10% less on their business travel activity than companies who choose to do it alone? That’s right, for every $1000 your company spends on travel, you could be spending $100 too much just by trying to save money through ‘cutting out the middle man’. How, we hear you ask, can corporate travel managers achieve such favourable outcomes for their clients?

Corporate travel agencies consistently achieve such cost savings in 2 main ways:

Upfront cost savings

Firstly, agencies can save their clients huge amounts of time by taking care of the whole travel booking process from search to purchase and making amendments. This begins the journey towards cost reduction since for most SMEs the old ‘time = money’ adage rings painfully true.

Next, the timing and methodology used to book your business travel arrangements is another area where an agency can make significant cost reductions for you and your business. Whereas you or your PA may not get around to booking your flights and accommodation until only a couple of days before you’re due to leave, an agency will work with you to reserve your bookings as soon as you know where you need to go and when. This can save you significant amounts of money as products like airfares and hotel rooms, when booked in advance, are significantly cheaper than when booked on short notice.

Moreover, agencies use their experience to undertake a much more efficient booking process than your average SME owner who occasionally travels for work. They’re also on the lookout for things like hidden luggage fees or exorbitant charges should you need to alter your travel dates.

Data-driven decision making

The other way that corporate travel agencies help their clients to achieve sustained cost savings in the area of travel expenditure is by providing detailed and data-driven travel spend reporting.

An accurate reporting process allows you and your business to see the areas where you’re already achieving great cost savings as well as the areas where you can alter your travel policy in order to make even larger savings on future travel activities. Once you’ve used your post-travel expense reports to find the right balance of spending vs. saving in different elements of your travel mix, you and your travel account manager can work these elements into your organisation’s Travel Policy.

We hope you’ve enjoyed learning a little bit more about the ways a corporate travel agency can save your business money both right now and for many years to come! If you’d like to discuss how to start a more cost-effective solution to manage your business travel, contact us today.