What is Business Travel? A Complete Guide for All Corporates!

Employees travelling for work involves complex management that can often be extremely challenging. Business travel is meant to be productive. It escalates your employees' learning curve, offering more exposure to them and the company. However, the bottlenecks associated with it make it a hassle. This guide attempts to simplify all these aspects of business trips to allow every company to seek it as an opportunity:

 

 

Every business needs employees to travel far and wide to network and meet clients. This involves a business travel booking of hotels, flights, cabs, etc. However, they can become complicated if not managed correctly, making it tedious.  

 

So, the question arises- how to manage every aspect of employees’ travel with efficient business  travel management? This is vital in ensuring employees can make the most of their work trips. It serves business goals if employees spend their time productively rather than going through the hassles of managing their travel. 

 

But in order to do that, it is important to understand every aspect of booking corporate travel. So, let’s begin with:

 

 

 

Work trips undertaken to achieve different business goals are characterized as corporate travel. Every such opportunity for business travel presents an opportunity for the employees to:

 

• • Move beyond their comfort zone. 
• • Gain valuable cultural and industry intelligence.
• • Forge client relationships and close significant business deals.
• • Nurture those relationships.
• • Bond better with their team.
• • Find creative solutions to complex problems. 

 

With a better understanding of what traveling for business means, let us explore how it is different from personal travel:

 

Business Travel	Personal Travel
Work trips are undertaken for business purposes like client meetings, conferences, seminars etc.	Personal trips are for leisure and include sightseeing, family visits, and more.
The company reimburses business travel expenses.	Personal expenses are borne out of one’s pocket.
Business travellers need certain special amenities like Wi-Fi, meeting rooms, seminar halls and more to stay connected.	Such amenities are an added benefit but not a necessity on personal trips.
Business travellers can take advantage of exclusive corporate rates on bookings.	Travellers can take advantages of loyalty programs and reward points but don’t get to enjoy corporate fares.
Travellers usually visit major business hubs to achieve their goals.	Personal trips can be taken to any popular tourist destination.

 

 

Employees go out on corporate business travel to achieve several business objectives. Even in the modern age of instant communications, business trips still hold a lot of relevance and have several benefits:

 

1. Networking: A face-to-face interaction is always better than virtually meeting somebody. Business travel, thus, fosters a sense of relatability often missing in video calls, emails, and texts. These in-person interactions are also ideal for showcasing leadership skills and impressing clients.
2. Personalized Communication: Business travels facilitate meeting clients and partners to take them out for dinner and drinks. A personalized token of gratitude can further show your appreciation for them. Interacting with them personally leads to better negotiations. Clients appreciate employees taking trips to meet them, leading to long-lasting bonds.
3. Closing a Deal: Meeting clients and entertaining them personally have shown to reap better rewards by resulting in closed deals. Studies show that potential partners are more likely to finalize an agreement if the employees try to meet them in person, thereby making business travel more favourable.
4. Incentives: Work travel also benefits employees. They can move beyond the constricting walls of the office to freely explore their personal and professional growth. These trips, therefore, have the potential to-
   • •Motivate Employees
   • •Encourage Team Bonding
   • •Enable Innovation and collaboration during business travel
   • •Offer them Rewards and Recognition, among others. 
5. Research: Travelling for business enables employees to understand the ground reality of the industry. They are better aware of the market trends and the competition by travelling far and wide k- during their business travel. This helps them do better research and learn innovative ways to improve the product and services.

 

While these might be the primary reasons for business travel, there are many more. Let us try and understand its pros and cons. This will help us have a comprehensive understanding of every aspect of travelling for work-

 

DISADVANTAGES-

• • Corporate trips can be expensive-: Booking for flights, accommodation, ground transport, and more can be costly. This expenditure can even skyrocket with an increase in the number of travellers. Without a proper budget, companies can struggle to manage business travel costs, incurring more losses than profits.

 

• • Work trips can often be stressful-: Booking across multiple platforms, keeping track of expenses, trying to stay connected on the go, and missing flights, among other unforeseen circumstances, can lead to stress during business travel.

 

• • Unmanaged trips can lead to unproductivity-: The lack of properly managed trips can have a demotivating impact on the employees. This can further reflect on the success of the trip, having a damaging effect on the company in the long run. Additionally, the excessive workload and constant travelling can be difficult to handle. This can contribute to decreased employee productivity.

 

• • Frequent business trips impact employees' health and well-being: The constant stress, unhealthy lifestyle, and eating habits can negatively impact the employees' overall well-being. Being away from home and family during business travel can further impact their mental health, making the business suffer ultimately.

 

 

ADVANTAGES-

• • Meeting Prospective Clients-:  Travelling can introduce employees to prospective clients in the most unexpected ways. Generating leads through different platforms is the usual approach to winning clients. But getting a potential client interested through a casual conversation during one’s business travel also has a high potential for conversion. Travelling lets employees promote the business organically and in a stress-free environment. 

 

• • Experience New Working Style-: Working from different locations can increase the employees' learning curve. They get to understand the root-level reality of the market as well as discover the opportunities and business travel ideas to diversify and grow further. Attending training and interacting with fellow workers can reap several benefits for the employee and their employer. 

 

• • Get Tax Benefits-: Bookings made for business travel in India qualify for tax liability reduction. Companies making flight and hotel bookings with GST invoices can claim Input Tax Credit to get tax benefits. 

 

• • More Reward Points-: Travelling for work involves bookings made through corporate credit cards. These credit cards come with several perks. Business travellers can gain reward points for every booking that can be redeemed on future travel. This can lower the travel spend for the company.  

 

• • Avoid Burnout-: Travelling for work can help employees break free from the monotony of a desk job. The same daily routine can lead to a decline in employee productivity, having severe consequences for the company. Travelling occasionally has a positive impact on the well-being of the employees. It gives them a much-needed break from the monotony of repeated tasks.

Also Read: 5 Tips for Corporate Travellers to Maximise Productivity

 

 

According to the business travel definition, employees travel for several reasons. Based on these reasons, work travel can be divided into the following types:

 

 

Managing corporate travel can be difficult, with several elements going wrong despite paying attention to minute details. These challenges can lead to an inflated travel budget alongside multiple hassles if not administered successfully. Here are some of the common challenges faced when trying to book corporate travel:

 

1. Multiple Requests Submitted Subsequently:  Travel managers have to take care of multiple bookings simultaneously. This can be highly complicated without the right business travel management system in place. 
2. Keeping track of Approvals: The administrative team manages bookings and authorizations. To be eligible for reimbursement, each booking must be approved by an authorized manager. These authorizations are mandatory and cannot be bypassed. This can sometimes cause delays in booking or require employees to book beyond the approved limit.
3. Error-Free Travel Expense Processing: Finance teams compute the expenses incurred by business travellers. This involves a lot of paperwork which is consequently prone to errors. It can significantly dent the travel budget. This is due to increased operational costs and inaccurate filing of expenses in the absence of corporate travel expense management software.
4. Policy Violations: Booking corporate travel online has made it simpler for employees, but there are still challenges. One of these is booking outside of the company's travel policy. This can happen due to lack of awareness and result in unauthorized business travel bookings that are costly for the company.
5. Accommodating Convenience with Savings: While savings are essential to availing corporate travel services, convenience is often overlooked. Employees are usually forced to choose affordable options that might not be the most comfortable or the other way around. 

 

The challenges mentioned above can be handled to a greater degree with the help of an ideal travel management solution. It can be your first step towards addressing and simplifying the modern business traveller's needs. So here are some of the prominent corporate travel management benefits:

 

1. Automation:  Technology can be used to address several business travel requirements. Manual processes can slow down and overburden the employees. A good corporate travel management company automates various aspects of the employees' travel, taking care of elements like-
   • • Automated approval flows.
   • • Offer online inventory.
   • • Dashboards with real-time data analysis and reports.
   • • Facilitate business travel bookings on the go.
   • • Notify bookers of potential disruptions. 
2. Customisations: One shoe does not fit all; therefore, customisations are vital for any kind of business travel. A good travel management system addresses the unique problems of every company. It offers personalized solutions to their concerns and adapting to the changing scenarios.
3. Comprehensive Customer Support: A good travel management partner will always ensure that your travel issues are resolved. These can be pertaining to bookings, re-bookings, modifications, and cancellations. They ensure that the issues are always addressed in a timely manner.  Traveller assistance ensures the safety and peace of mind of your employees venturing out to achieve business goals.
4. Real-time usiness Travel Data Collection: A good business travel booking system uses AI to offer intelligent suggestions. It finds patterns that help admins and travel managers develop effective business travel strategies. It can enable you to track spending and booking behaviour, offering insightful reports. These reports can enable stakeholders to identify the gaps and implement powerful solutions.
5. More Transparency: Corporate travel expense software and the right management solution can be more effective in educating employees. It can ensure travel policy compliance, track approval flows, facilitate reimbursements for travel costs, and a lot more. It can create a sentiment of trust, thereby encouraging compliance.

Also Read: An Ultimate Guide on Corporate Travel Management

 

Unlike a corporate travel agency, the right travel management solution like myBiz can offer all of the aforementioned benefits. It aims to provide greater convenience for your business travel program. 

With employees empowered enough to book for themselves or companies opting for centralized bookings; managing travel no longer has to be complicated. Customisations can be easily offered to have a complete overview, ensuring better visibility over travel spends. So, take a step towards smarter business travel with myBiz. 

 

 

 

Q1. What is corporate travel?

Ans. Every trip taken with the primary agenda of fulfilling business goals is known as corporate travel.

Q2. What is an example of corporate travel?

Ans. Example of a corporate trip includes employees travelling for a conference, a seminar, or to meet a client.

Q3. What is the goal of business travel?

Ans. The primary objective of work trips is to obtain different business goals. These include closing a deal, onboarding a client, getting training, and researching the market, among others.

Q4. How does corporate travel work?

Ans. When planning a corporate trip, it's important to have a travel management company handle the details. This involves creating a corporate travel account and taking care of everything from booking flights and hotels to arranging transportation and managing expenses.

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