What is a managed travel program?

Or why “do it yourself” does not work for business travel.

When was the last time that measured the efficiency of your travel budget? How is the budget spent by traveling employees? What is the average cost of a business trip? Many finance managers struggle to report clear figures about travel inside their company. Why?

Because many budget owners think that buying a flight online and seeking accommodation options on a random website brings savings as it is much cheaper. The question here is: “Cheaper than what?”.

That “cheap” cost does not give you actual savings. Are you considering the time spent by employee doing the whole booking and arrangements? How are they paying? How are they managing the expenses?

A managed travel program puts the needs of the traveler in line with the goals of the company.

It could be the key to keeping your company’s travel expenses under control while still providing your employees with the convenience and comfort they need. With a managed travel program in place, you can streamline your business travel processes, like booking trips or paying invoices for the needed services, and make sure that everyone is travelling in the most efficient way possible. But most importantly, that you are fulfilling your duty of care obligations as an employer.

A managed travel program can also help you improve your traveler safety. By working with a reputable managed travel management provider, you can access security resources and emergency assistance that can help keep your travelers safe while they’re on the road. Additionally, a managed travel program can help you manage your risk exposure and reduce your potential for lost revenue.

A managed travel program can help reduce the amount of administrative time and effort needed to manage travel. This allows businesses to focus on their core operations while leaving the detailed planning and execution of travel arrangements to the professionals.

The benefits of a managed business travel program are vast and can save your business time and money. In this blog, we will show the difference between a managed and unmanaged travel program. At the same time, how moving to a managed business travel program can help you save.

What is a managed travel program?

A managed travel program is an efficient way for businesses to outsource their employee travel logistics. A travel partner or a travel management company (TMC), like Go Travel, can handle anything and everything concerning business travel so the travelers can focus on their most important tasks. Go Travel provides both advanced travel software and human support for easy corporate travel management.

By outsourcing these processes to a travel partner, you can simplify the T&E process for the administrative department, for the managers, and for employees.

Traveling can be a daunting task sometimes when you are not familiar with the industry, but outsourcing them to a travel partner, can simplify the process and ensure that business trips go as smoothly as possible. A travel partner can help you book flights and hotels, recommend itineraries, and provide other tailored services to make your trip run smoothly.

Whether you’re looking for a complete travel solution or just some help getting started, a travel partner can be a valuable asset. For the finance department, it may mean better travel & expenses management as the TMC is delivering a simpler way to track the spending and a unified way of reporting for better tracking.

What is the difference? 

An unmanaged travel program can be costly and inefficient for companies. By booking flights, hotels, and car rentals without any guidance or support, employees can often end up paying more than they need to. Furthermore, approval processes can slow down the booking process, resulting in missed opportunities and even further cost increases.

An unmanaged travel program is when employees book their flights, hotels, and car rentals on their own usually via the consumer sites or directly from the hotel or airline they prefer. This can lead to higher costs for the company as the employees are booking what they want without any guidance or support.

Also, when their bookings face delays in approvals, this often leads to higher airfare and hotel rates. Unfortunately, from a business perspective, the finance manager does not have visibility over travel spending until employees submit reimbursement requests post-trip. To accommodate the increasing number of employees traveling for business, you might need more staff like travel administrators or travel managers.

A travel managed program can help your organization proactively address all the potential issues that can arise with employee travel. As a travel partner, Go Travel can handle all types of travel bookings, saving everyone time and hassle.

Traveling for work can be expensive and time-consuming if companies do not provide the right support. A managed travel program can help alleviate some of those costs and headaches. Here are 6 questions to keep in mind when thinking about your travel program:

1. Are you having a functional travel policy?

Employees may not be familiar with the company’s travel policies, which may lead to non-compliance. A well-run travel program can help ensure that employees adhere to policy by providing tools such as booking platforms that enforce policy rules or travel software that alerts employees when they make out-of-policy bookings.

2.  Are you receiving consolidated reports?

When people book their travel from the same source, you get consolidated data that will help you analyze the travel spending of your company. This data will give you insights into travel patterns so you can make strategic decisions that could help reduce costs.

There are many opportunities to build better efficiencies and approaches in your organization. For instance, if you find that your employees are using a specific car rental service frequently, we can work with them to ask for group discounts and negotiate better prices for your company.

3. Are you getting the best rates?

If you’re looking for a travel partner that can provide your employees with access to the best fares and rates, it means you need one using advanced travel technology. A travel management company like Go Travel has access to over 80 B2B travel providers worldwide including global distribution systems with access to over 550 airlines and over one million hotel properties.

Technology that can help your travelers find the best options, and get flight upgrades, waitlist clearances, and preferred seat assignments. If your employees like the DIY way it means they are tech-savvy. Why not provide them access to an online booking tool that holds your negotiated fares and keeps everybody following the travel policy.

4. What are the benefits you provide your employees?

A managed travel program can offer significant cost savings, but it also provides benefits for travelers and travel arrangers.

For travelers, a managed travel program provides a single point of contact for all travel-related needs, as well as bookings that are made through a centralized system. This can make the travel process easier and less confusing. In addition, a managed travel program can help travelers get the best deals on airfare, lodging, and other travel-related services.

For travel arrangers, a managed travel program can automate the travel booking process and reduce the amount of time spent booking trips. It can also help ensure that all travelers are booking their trips through a centralized system, which can improve efficiency and help avoid booking mistakes.

5. What support are you offering your employees?

A travel partner can provide a streamlined and efficient single-source booking process for your employees, whether they book online or offline. This can help to increase compliance with your travel policy.

Additionally, a travel partner can offer a variety of features that make booking travel simpler and more convenient for your employees.

1. Support: If your travelers need help while traveling or experience an emergency, they should have instant access to experienced and dedicated travel professionals via phone or email.
2. Technology: Access to everything via an online platform designed for business travel. Your employees can book all the services they need, even from their phones. This gives them the freedom to work on their schedule while still being able to stay connected to the office.
3. Better planning: Subject matter experts on call for all domestic and international travel needs. Your travel partner teams can provide insights on the travel guidelines, and how you can optimize your travel spending and make cost savings while getting a great travel experience

6. Are you delivering on Duty of Care?

Businesses that send employees on travel, whether domestically or internationally, must take measures to protect them from potential risks, especially in the current climate of the COVID pandemic.

Risk management programs should be put in place to monitor employees from the time they begin planning their trip until they return home. A travel partner can help you ensure your duty of care program is comprehensive and includes all necessary safety precautions. As a travel management provider, we can:

1. Send travel alerts, and do one-on-one communication when flights are canceled or in case of emergencies.
2. Monitor and locate employees on the road with 24/7 travel dashboards.
3. Provide tracking reports as required.
4. Get access to medical and evacuation services.
5. Have a contingency plan in place for emergencies.

A well-managed business travel program is essential for ensuring that your company receives a good return on its travel investment. With streamlined travel management, you can ensure that your travel plan is being followed by all employees, making them more efficient and productive. This, in turn, is effectively working to help your company achieve its goals.

If you are looking to manage better your business travel, let’s talk. As a full-service travel management company, Go Travel has over 30 years of expertise in managing business travel and MICE for over 6100 companies nationwide through its 3 branches in Bucharest, Constanta and Chisinau. We are well equipped to provide your organization the services you need to manage travel efficiently. Let’s talk about your challenges and how we can support you. Get in touch now!