Business travel has changed, the pandemic has seen to that. How you buy your travel, has that changed? does it need to?
Booking business travel has always been about control, compliance and cost. That in all probability will never change. Todays trend is also about trust, care, sustainability, simplicity, and visibility. How you achieve that in your company going forward in 2022 is worth thinking about.
Modern tools and systems can help automate booking and administering your company business travel, to a level that negates the need for travel to be micro managed. How?
Travellers or their bookers can be empowered with the option of using easy booking tools that have controls built in and encourage compliance yet with flexibility to ensure common sense can prevail when it needs to. That capability has been around a long time and can be considered a standard of corporate travel booking tools, the tool needs more.
Travellers demand choice and value. Many business travel booking tools rely on a minimal number of content suppliers and predominantly a GDS . That is no longer good enough.
Nowadays we can all use Auntie Google to search for travel but businesses already know this is hugely inefficient because looking, booking and paying in numerous places is painful, causes more unwanted administration, lacks control, zero support and flies in the face of simplicity - especially when things change or go wrong and your travellers need a bit of care. Using a travel management company (TMC) solves the problem, even so, Google is occasionally hard to resist so have the best of both. Here's how:
Technology moves on and the travel Industry evolves and finds new ways to gather, simplify and distribute content from a multitude of systems using direct API's and NDC channels bringing content and market prices from Googles most searched travel sites In to the corporate booking tool with additional capabilities to combine content from different sources, test and improve prices using fare breaker technology, offer sustainable options and simplify the whole process with a user interface that brings the joy factor to booking travel. Is this an improvement on how you buy travel? it probably is but you need more to ensure the buying process is as good as it can be:
With many companies embracing remote working and flexible working hours how travel is discussed, agreed to, communicated and finalised matters. It's helpful to have collaboration tools and once everything has been done to book that business trip as efficiently as possible and at the right cost. Then you need to leverage the power of data and reports to measure the companies travel. Identify trends and possible improvements, modify behaviour and aid better decisions. An analytical real time reporting tool will track your company travel, provide data to all those that need it to manage financials, budgets, policies and more. All instantly available on line, visible to those that need it.
Travelling for business has changed so have the businesses that supply and fulfil it. When buying corporate travel you will need a TMC that can respond and adapt to what you now need, has invested in technology and support to meet the challenges and opportunities that the year in travel will bring.
Here's what you should be thinking about when booking business travel:
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