Corporate Travel Management for Small Businesses: A Complete Guide

Owning a small business implies taking on a dozen roles at once, but somehow, the title of "travel coordinator" always seems to end up among them. From sending your sales representative to a meeting with a client to flying the owner to a national conference, all this traveling is bound to cost you a lot of money and effort. This is where corporate travel management in small business operations turns from an option to necessity.

In contrast to large companies that have specialized travel departments, small companies tend to make bookings spontaneously. Someone looks for a flight using their personal laptop, makes a reservation in a hotel via some app and then hopes for the best when it comes to an expense report. This guide provides an explanation of what corporate travel management is, why it is important even if your company sends only two travelers monthly, and how to set it up effectively.

What Is Corporate Travel Management?

Travel management in a corporate context is defined as the process of planning, organizing and managing the business travels in a structured and efficient manner. Travel management for big firms entails having internal travel managers or travel management companies. However, for small units, it implies having a Corporate Travel Agency USA to manage their traveling needs through fare sourcing, policy implementation, changes and customer assistance without having to have an internal department.

Corporate travel management entails the following four elements:

• Booking - providing the best rates for airfares, hotel rooms, ground transport etc
• Policy - establishing policies on spending limit, preferred airline etc
• Assistance - offering a genuine contact person in case there are flight delays and changes in plans
• Reporting - monitoring expenses for you to know how much money goes into travel

Why Small Businesses Should Not Neglect Travel Management

Most people tend to assume that it makes sense to invest in travel management after you are making thousands of trips every year. This is true for small businesses since they end up losing more than big corporations due to the lack of negotiated rates, consolidators etc.

Hidden expenses of unmanaged travel include:

• Employees booking travel via online travel agents at retail prices, missing wholesale or consolidated fares
• Lack of knowledge about who is traveling and where and how much money is spent until the credit card bill comes in
• Lost hours when staff (or owners) have to spend personal time finding flights rather than working on making money
• Variable customer service because problems, such as cancellations, mean that people solve their own problems and don’t pick up the phone to make calls to an agent
• Missing out on special rates for airlines, upgrades to business class, or group rates

All of this will be solved by implementing a system, and the ROI will become apparent almost instantly in the form of time and money saved.

Also Read: Business Class Flights to India: How to Save Up to 50% on Premium Travel

Creating Your Business Travel Management Plan: Start Here

If you're starting from scratch, here's a practical business travel management guide small business owners can implement without hiring a full travel department.

1. Create a Basic Travel Policy

A 20-page document is not necessary here. The simple one-page document with information about preferred airlines, booking windows (e.g., always book 14+ days ahead when possible), class of service requirements, and cost limits will provide clear directions for your employees and allow you to keep control over expenses.

2. Make All Bookings through Single Provider

The largest potential savings for small businesses lies in making all the bookings via single channel. Centralization allows better fare access, proper record keeping, and single contact in case anything goes wrong during the trip.

3. Find Your Consolidator or Wholesaler

This step often allows small businesses to save a considerable amount of money. Public-facing sites of airlines and OTA's often have retail prices only. Corporate travel agency USA allows wholesale and consolidator fares which are usually available only for large corporations. It is especially useful if you need to travel abroad.

4. Delegate Ownership

It is better if someone on your team owns the travel coordination process. This person is going to be your internal coordinator who makes approvals and contacts with the travel agency directly.

5. Report Spending Monthly

Just keeping a simple spreadsheet of trip cost, who traveled, where, and why will help you see some trends – maybe what routes always seem to be overvalued or who always books out-of-policy.

6. Establish a Connection With a Named Traveler

Probably one of the most underappreciated aspects of travel management is having a person to talk to. While automated bookings work great for regular business trips, if a flight is canceled just two hours prior to the departure time, only a named agent that knows your account will be able to book your trip right away.

Choosing the Right Corporate Travel Agency

All travel agencies are not created equal. Consider the following when assessing a corporate travel agency USA based agency:

• ARC accreditation: ensures that the travel agency is licensed to issue airline tickets and follows industry guidelines
• Availability of consolidator/wholesale rates: not just those available for public booking on the internet
• Named travel agents, not ticket numbers: you need someone to work with, not a call center operator
• Verified reviews: see what actual customers say on review platforms such as Trustpilot, not just rating stars
• International flight routing experience: especially important for businesses which have regular employee flights abroad
• Response time during disruptions: how do they deal with last-minute cancellations or disruption to travel plans

This is exactly what Fantastic Fare specializes in, providing wholesale rates in conjunction with named agents who develop long-term relations with their business clientele.

Common Mistakes Small Businesses Make With Travel

• Making a booking late. Late booking will always bring you a higher ticket price, a relaxed requirement for two-week notice already helps.
• Having no alternative. Using only self-service apps leaves you without any assistance in case of changes in your plans.
• Considering only the price of the flight. Cheapest airfare does not equal the cheapest trip since baggage fee, changing fee, as well as expenses for hotel stay caused by the layover can easily change the picture.
• Approach all employees equally. A sales manager making a flight every week will need other travel policies compared to the founder who makes one trip per year.

Conclusion

Travel management within a small business is not about a huge budget or special travel department, it is about proper systems. Just make your policy, centralize all the bookings, and find yourself a partner in a corporate travel agency that will give you better prices and assistance you cannot receive independently. Those businesses that consider traveling as a managed process, and not an additional one, save both money and time from it.