10 Biggest challenges when choosing a corporate travel company
When you have access to limited travel inventory options, your employees are likely booking flights, hotels, car rentals and more on third-party booking websites. Not only does this mean that you need to manage each booking separately and struggle to understand whether those bookings are within policy, but you also aren’t getting access to the best travel options and rates. Having access to a wide-ranging inventory ensures that business travelers have more options for booking accommodation, flights, and other travel arrangements, and also ensures that you can secure better rates and substantial cost savings. In short, a bigger, better inventory leads to more cost-effective bookings that also meet your traveler’s needs and preferences.
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Fully understanding the fee structure, pricing options, and additional expenses tied to a travel management company is essential. Often, you might not realize that some travel solutions charge extra implementation, management, and concierge fees until you're charged for them.These “hidden” and unexpected fees can quickly add up and take chunks out of your travel budget, so it’s vital that you do your research before selecting a travel management company. The best travel management companies make their fees and costs easy to understand. Take TravelPerk, for example, which operates on a pay-per-trip model. Users are charged a single, low fee for each trip, ensuring they only pay when they're actually traveling.
Picture this: Your employee, on a business trip abroad, discovers their late-night return flight is canceled. They don’t panic, figuring the travel support team can easily adjust their travel itinerary and book them a new flight. However, they quickly discover that the company only provides support during regular 9-5 business hours.This example highlights the importance of having fast, reliable, 24-7 customer support available to you and your traveling employees — especially when problems occur outside of business hours. Plus, you’ll also need to consider the average response time for receiving customer support. While most travel management companies offer an emergency contact service, some may keep you waiting on hold for 30-40 minutes before responding. In contrast, TravelPerk aims for a response time of just 15 seconds.Not only does the availability of 24-7 customer support limit disruptions and provide better travel experiences, it also helps you fulfill your duty of care and traveler safety obligations.
Traditional travel agencies often rely on emails and phone calls, not only to make travel bookings but to communicate information to your business. This means that you lack centralized and real-time visibility into your employees’ travel arrangements. Plus, you’re left dealing with time-consuming back-and-forth communication for both minor notifications and critical matters such as cancellations and changes.Instead of this fragmented approach — which wastes valuable time and resources — look for a company that streamlines the travel management process (including handling cancellations and changes) with an all-in-one centralized platform.
Unlike with TravelPerk — where implementation of the travel management platform is instant — standard processes for implementing and integrating travel management companies can be complex.As well as integrating the company with your existing corporate structures and workflows, you’ll also need to align users and stakeholders and train them to use the service. The success of the implementation process hinges on meticulous planning, communication, and training, factors that often require significant time investment to ensure seamless integration and effectiveness.
One of the biggest challenges when choosing a travel management company is finding one that can integrate with your current tech stack, including travel and expense management tools and HR platforms. Siloed systems lead to inefficiencies, data inaccuracies, and increased admin work. When you choose a travel management company that integrates with your tools, tedious tasks like expense management and reimbursement processes become quick and effortless. TravelPerk, for example, integrates with a myriad of expense management and HR tools and more — and if you can’t find the integration you need, you can build your own with its open-API platform.
Overly rigid corporate travel policies can limit the effectiveness of a travel management company. For example, strict, inflexible policies can make it difficult to adapt to changing travel needs and market conditions which prevents you from accessing the best rates at the right time. With TravelPerk’s dynamic budgets feature, you can customize your company’s travel policy to each use case and ensure policy compliance. As well as giving you the option to set flexible budgets within your travel policies (enabling you to easily navigate fluctuating service costs, seasonal price variations, and different provider rates), you can also maintain flexibility by implementing a percentage cap tied to either the cheapest or median price.
A lack of payment options restricts booking processes and the ability to efficiently manage your business’s finances. For example, some travel management companies will only allow you to pay for trips and expenses using a business credit card. A wide range of payment methods accommodates the needs of each traveler and company to help ensure smoother transactions with increased flexibility. TravelPerk, for example, provides options for paying with company credit/debit cards, personal cards, direct debit, and ACH debit payments.
Comprehensive travel and expense reports are essential for monitoring travel spend, compliance, and traveler behavior. When you work with a company that has limited reporting capabilities, you can’t track spending by team, department, or project to help you accurately track all your business travel expenses and optimize your travel program.
Each company has its own unique travel needs and preferences. When you can’t customize the offerings to fit your needs, you’re not getting the most out of a service you’re paying for. The ability to customize a travel management company’s features, including reporting tools and special accommodations, helps you adapt the services to your needs. This is contingent on clear communication and negotiation to ensure that the services fit your requirements perfectly.
If you’re looking for a corporate travel management solution — and want to avoid facing the challenges above — TravelPerk can help. With TravelPerk, you have access to an extensive global business travel inventory, an end-to-end self-booking platform (with no hidden fees), 24/7 customer support with a target 15-second response rate, and automated expense management and reporting. Plus, you can integrate the system with plenty of third-party apps, customize your travel policy, and enjoy an instant, smooth, and stress-free implementation.To find out more about how TravelPerk’s travel management software can help solve even the most complex challenges and help you save on travel costs, reach out to us today.
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