{"id":6900,"date":"2022-07-28T07:05:00","date_gmt":"2022-07-28T07:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.itilite.com\/?p=6900"},"modified":"2024-01-11T10:27:37","modified_gmt":"2024-01-11T10:27:37","slug":"business-travel-program-benefits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.itilite.com\/in\/blog\/business-travel-program-benefits\/","title":{"rendered":"Why do you Need a Business Travel Program?"},"content":{"rendered":"
As your organization grows, your employees take more business trips to meet with clients, visit suppliers, and attend conferences. To accommodate the increasing number of travel requests, you need to define a framework that optimizes your business travel process by reducing travel costs and increasing policy compliance. You can do that with business travel programs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A business travel program is a system of policies and procedures that a company implements to manage business travel efficiently. The primary objective of a travel program is to optimize the company\u2019s travel costs while enhancing employees\u2019 travel experience. It includes booking flights and hotels, approving trips, creating itineraries, managing corporate travel expenses, and ensuring traveler safety. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
You can manage your organization\u2019s business travel program with the help of an external travel agency or by purchasing travel management software.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So, whether you own a startup or a well-established company, here are 6 reasons you need a business travel program:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Making travel and stay arrangements can be a hassle for your employees. They must go through multiple third-party websites and look through a long list of flight and hotel options to find the right one. Hence, you should have a solution to simplify the booking process. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In your business travel program, you can provide an overview of all the steps you will take to ensure easier booking. You can employ an external travel agency to make the booking on your employees\u2019 behalf. Or, you can empower employees to make self-bookings by investing in travel management software that provides handpicked options from a vast inventory of flights and hotels. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Saving travel costs is essential for every organization. One way to increase savings is by booking the most cost-efficient options. Another way is to partner with airlines and hotels to avail of corporate discounts.
However, when your employees make the bookings, they might not have the time to seek the most cost-efficient options. Moreover, without a list, it can be challenging for them to see the list of partnered vendors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hence, you need to create a business travel program that makes it easier for employees to find economical booking options. You can create an extensive inventory of service providers that offer the best deals and corporate discounts. Ensuring travel policy compliance<\/a> is vital for your company\u2019s bottom-line results. However, employees do not always comply with your travel policy. The non-compliance happens primarily because the guidelines are so ambiguous that they get confused. Another reason is that they cannot view the policy in real-time while booking. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Therefore, you need a travel program that documents a detailed yet clear travel policy. Your policy should contain budget limits, travel guidelines, and reimbursement plans according to departments, employee levels, destinations, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After creating a detailed policy, you can use travel management software to ensure its compliance. Travel management software allows you to configure travel policy and provides customized booking options based on the settings. Moreover, your employees can view if the flights and hotels fall within the policy right at the time of booking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Since the advent of Covid-19, travelers\u2019 safety<\/a> has taken a center seat in every discussion about corporate travel. According to a study<\/a>, 84% of travelers want to travel under the proper safety protocols. Hence, you must take all possible steps to ensure your road warrior employees<\/a> are safe while traveling to unfamiliar destinations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Start by curating a comprehensive duty of care<\/a> plan as a part of your business travel program. Your plan should include destination-risk assessment, employee health check-ups, emergency contacts, etc. Download Duty of Care Checklist<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \n\n\n <\/p>\n
Alternatively, you can hire a Travel Management Company to create and manage your travel program. A TMC has a team of experts who can help you set the budget and negotiate with hotel<\/a> and flight vendors to get the best deals. Moreover, some TMCs also offer travel management software with a vast inventory of Low-Cost Carriers( LCCs) that can help you save good bucks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n3. To Increase Policy Compliance <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
4. To Enhance Travelers\u2019 Safety <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n<\/p>\n