Travel managers and travelers face these issues a lot. They have to manage their expenses and live up to their expectations. Therefore, budget management is a difficult thing there. So what is the solution to that? Should the companies stop traveling? This is not a solution because it is a necessary thing for the success of your business. A lot of people working in multinational companies stated that business travel is necessary for their successful performance in their role.
So companies who are competitive and perform really well also spend a lot. Therefore, if they want to keep their competitive edge, they will also need to put their teams on the road to success.
Because of the lockdown, things changed a lot. Instead of business travels, there were more online meetings. Therefore, as compared to 2024, the year 2024 experienced a great number of corporate travels.
So how will a company manage its travel expenses? Let’s look at some of the ways to do so;
1. Use Travel Management Software
One of the ways to reduce your cost is by managing your work in a better way. You will be able to do so with the help of travel management software. You can get one such software at happay.com. They have a lot of some of the best travel software that you can use for your company. So it will help you become a successful travel manager.
This software will let you relieve stress. You won’t need to settle the claims and spend a lot of effort on planning the next trips. With the help of this software, you will be able to automate your travels and plan your trips without manual work.
The software will be responsible for managing the travel activities and will also automate the process. Thus, it will save a lot of manual effort and the work will be done in no time, especially with the integration of this software for expense management. In addition to this, this software will also integrate different approval workflows on a single platform. So you will have the pre-book, pre-trip and post-trip data all in one place.
Moreover, it will also make the analysis and reporting robust and insightful. With all the information and data available online, there will be greater visibility. So if there are any missed savings, you will know about it. As a result of this, not only will the company save a lot of money but the employee experience will also improve significantly.
2. Get access to better flight inventory
If you are looking for ways to reduce costs and improve your budget, you should work on flight inventory. This is a step that will immediately slash your travel costs. So if your company is working with corporate travel agents or does the bookings through websites, you are missing out a big time.
If your company plans business trips too often, you do not need a travel agent. Instead, it will be better to hire a travel manager. He will be responsible for all the travel. Furthermore, frequent trips mean you will have an idea of when your next trip is going to be.
So if you are looking for ways to reduce the cost, you should make bookings in advance. Advance flight bookings cost very less. Therefore, you will be able to save a lot of your money through this simple trick.
If you are unable to book in advance, you should look for last-minute bookings. If there is an empty seat on the flight and there is no more time left for the bookings, the airlines will make the seat less expensive. Therefore, if you make last-minute bookings, you will be able to save some amount from that. But if you are booking multiple seats, this trick won’t be of much help because you cannot find 10 or 20 seats at the last minute.
Therefore, you need to look into flight inventory and find seats at the last minute.
3. Create a travel policy
Making policies will help you a lot in business. Whether it’s your daily day-to-day tasks or your corporate travels, you will need a concrete policy for that.
To create such a concrete policy, you will need to know about the complete scope. You should know what should be included in the policy and what not. A successful policy will be one that includes the following;
- You should get approval for the amount that you will spend on business travel. And the traveling cost should also include the cost of accommodation, transportation, and car rentals. If the costs are already approved, you will be able to get the amount quickly.
- There should be a set of rules designed for the distribution of employees. Not all the employees will travel in business class. Therefore, they should know how many employees will be in economy class and how many in business.
- The approval process should be simple and quick for corporate travel.
- If the manager is going to report the expenses and reimbursement, the process for that should also be explained.
- Explain the cash slips that are not valid so that the manager can bring authentic and clear slips.
A clear policy will save a lot of time for both the person reporting and the financial department.
4. Select your airline and hotel
If you have a medium-sized enterprise, it won’t be easy for you to make a deal with an airline or a hotel. Because you won’t be traveling too much. However, if you always choose one airline or one hotel for all the bookings, you will become a loyal customer. Thus, they will offer different benefits to you. And of course, such benefits are cost-effective. Whenever they are offering a deal or a discount, you will get information about that. So you are going to save a lot of money.
