Business Travel Challenges That Corporate Travel Management Can Resolve

Corporate travel can undoubtedly be challenging. There are always new roadblocks and unknown challenges that make official travel a difficult path to traverse through. In the midst of such uncertain circumstances, small businesses may find work-related travel an unmeasurable feat. However, with the ease and convenience offered by travel management tools, these issues can be easily resolved. Let’s explore what these challenges are in the article below:

Business travel is often impacted by many different factors, like global and geo-political events, that impact the world and have a direct effect on corporate travel booking. Even though this industry usually tends to bounce right back, it still faces many significant challenges that can be drastic for small businesses if they do not prepare themselves for it in advance. One such challenge faced by decision-makers is with regard to business travel spending. This is why it is imperative to curtail and control it by identifying the most common challenges faced by businesses, especially small businesses and addressing them timely. 

 

Here are some of the key issues faced by corporate travellers and travel management companies that can significantly impact a company-

 

Keeping Track with Business Travel Management:

 

Managing business travel for several employees at a time can be cumbersome for a travel admin, and to further add to the woes, each employee’s preference differs, and therefore there are many customisations required. Additionally, there are cancelled flight and corporate hotel bookings and refunds that need to be closely monitored. Alongside this, there is also the case of approvals and reimbursements that have to be tracked. Not keeping track can cause a lot of hassle later, costing huge sums to the company account. Not having clear guidelines regarding payments can further make it difficult to keep a record. Using a consolidated company wallet for payments on the basis of approval eliminates the complications arising during reimbursements and can be easily tracked. A single cancelled trip can result in a huge expense if a company is not utilising a corp travel management system. This can be extremely alarming, especially for a small business. Henceforth, travel admins can have a lot to keep track of. And, if this ordeal has to be managed manually, converting raw data into collated data that makes sense, it can be a complicated feat to achieve, if not impossible. 

 

Travel policy violations with Business Travel Bookings:

 

Even though letting employees take care of their work-related travel bookings themselves- makes things easier, it often comes with its own fair share of challenges. Oftentimes, employees end up inflating their corporate booking expenses. This is especially common if the employees aren’t well versed with the company’s travel policy or they don’t fully understand it. As a consequence of this, they end up making flight and hotel bookings that are in direct violation of the clauses specified in the travel policy. This, however, can be easily managed if the company’s policies regarding travel and expense (T&E) are clear and easy to understand. Communicate the guidelines to prevent corporate travellers from making unauthorised purchases and ensure all-around savings on your expenses. Opting for a travel management company is an easy alternative that provides policy integration for easy compliance and real-time reports for greater visibility.

 

Keeping Up with Evolving Technologies in Business Travel:

 

Business-related travel is very unforeseeable, and therefore there is a need to look for flexible options that can accommodate tailor-made flight and hotel bookings. Searching across multiple different platforms and carriers can waste a lot of time in research. A fully automated TMC can add to the flexibility by not only offering tailor-made travel solutions but also by letting your employees make corporate travel bookings as per their preferences, making the most of the flexibility of customisation. Travel management systems are gaining popularity because they manage to keep up with the constantly evolving technologies, like by integrating travel policies with each booking. Another advantage is that real-time reports and analysis offer insightful data. This can further help businesses keep track and gain more visibility into the expenses and exert control over budget management. Businesses can make the most of this by investing in these advanced systems to help with efficient work-related travel. It is, therefore, a good idea to weigh all your options and get on board with a travel management company to ensure that your savings also rise with the rising number of employees venturing on business trips.

 

Travel Expense Processing for Corporate Tour Packages:

 

Business travel management services can easily replace finance teams that have to dedicatedly spend additional time in order to manually process expenses of official travel. Hiring a B2B travel agency can certainly increase the burden of paperwork on a company, thus making the whole process unmanageable. This also requires additional manpower and resources, thus causing a rise in expenses. Furthermore, this burden will only increase with the increase in the frequency and number of corporate trips. This results in an increase in the operational costs due to recruitment, throwing your company’s budget in disarray. This requirement can, however, be eliminated by automating the expense management aspect of business trips. Business travel management companies like myBiz offer free expense management and automate the approval and expense reimbursement process, efficiently dealing with expense claims. This can go as far as to detect expense fraud, being of great service to every business.

 

Traveller Duty of Care with Corporate Travel Services:

 

Corporate travellers are central to any business travel management plan. Even if saving money on work-related travel is a priority for a business, it cannot come before employee wellness. In order to make your travel program more efficient, you have to invest in employee duty of care. Regardless of what the end goal of your business is, it is imperative to give precedence to the experience of business travellers through the practices and policies designed in the company. This is important because the pandemic, visa and passport documentation, burnout, time away from families and other such factors impact the employees negatively, thereby having a negative impact on your company. On the flip side, happier employees are more productive and thus willing to achieve your business goals with their hard work. As a result, factors like flight delays, cancellations, last-minute changes, and more should be given consideration while drafting the company’s travel policy. Employee dissatisfaction can cost your company a lot more as opposed to helping you save.

 

These challenges can adversely impact any business but they can be easily mitigated. Moreover, your company can overcome corporate travel expenses with a corporate travel management tool like myBiz as your corporate travel partner. So, experience increased savings in the travel expenses of your business with myBiz! Join now!

 

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

 

Q1. What is the meaning of T&E?

Ans. T&E stands for Travel and Expenses costs that a business incurs when their employees travel for work purposes.

 

Q2. What is a travel and expense policy?

Ans. A travel and expense policy sets out the guidelines for the employees of a company who are venturing out on business travel or those who want to claim business expenses.

 

Q3. What are the business expenses on corporate travel?

Ans. Expenses incurred on corporate travel, including hotel stays, food and drinks, flight tickets, car rentals, and more, are categorised as business expenses. 

 

Q4. Is it possible to get reimbursement for the business expenses of corporate travel?

Ans. Yes, most business expenses incurred on work-related travel are reimbursed by companies, including ground transfer, airfare, rail tickets, hotel stays, and others.