What is travel really costing your small business?

What is travel really costing your small business? For many businesses, the true cost of employee travel can be hard to quantify. Unlike set costs, such as payroll and other regular operating expenses, there are various direct and indirect factors that contribute to the real cost of travel for your business.

Time to book, supplier rates, and access to technology can all impact your bottom line. Similarly, businesses both large and small can feel the effects of unmanaged travel programs, with out-of-policy travel often being the main contributor to out-of-control spending.

That’s why 1000 Mile Travel Group travel advisors offer a full analysis of your business’s travel costs. Within this analysis, we consider all aspects, directly and indirectly, related to the costs of travel to help you decipher if your travel program is providing the best value and is fully optimized for cost avoidance. Here we cover a few points to consider when reviewing your business travel and creating a travel program.

Time

How many hours per week are you paying staff to book travel? Booking travel is not always straightforward. There is the initial search for price and availability, the consideration of alternative travel days and then a price comparison between multiple suppliers before an itinerary is finalized. Industry knowledge also tells us that most “travel bookers” are usually employed for other administrative tasks, thus they’re taking time away from other important duties and hindering their efficiency across the board.

Therefore, an important indirect cost of booking travel is your ’employee cost per hour’. For businesses where employees book their own travel, the cost of employees’ time used to booking their travel instead of undertaking their regular tasks can be costly. Outsourcing your travel booking to an experienced travel advisor could significantly reduce your employee’s time spent on non-core duties, and result in more cost-effective travel bookings, reducing the overall cost of your business travels significantly.

By recognizing the hidden complexities and the true cost of time when booking travel across various channels, businesses can look for ways to better optimize their travel programs. Introducing purpose-built technology to consolidate and streamline the flight, hotel, and car booking process, and using the expertise of experienced travel advisors, businesses can foster greater productivity from staff; by allowing them to spend less time booking travel and remain focused on other important job functions.

Supplier value

How can you be sure you are getting the best value with flights, hotels, and car hire? Booking on consumer websites or direct with the supplier may mean your company is not receiving the best corporate rates and add-ons. Working with a travel advisor allows you to take advantage of their global buying power as well as specially negotiated rates and add-ons that are unavailable to the general public. A travel advisor can also assist you in direct negotiations with suppliers and will ensure your agreed rates and discounts are applied to each of your bookings, either when booked via an online booking tool or via an advisor. A travel policy that requires employees to book travel through a travel advisor also ensures there are no missed opportunities for savings due to the employees booking directly and missing out on negotiated rates.

For every dollar your business spends on booking and managing your travel program, you should be able to see a positive return in cost savings through negotiated supplier rates and enforceable policy controls. If you’re paying more to book and manage your travel program in-house than you’re saving in available corporate travel deals, it might be time to talk to an experienced 1000 Mile Travel Group travel advisor.

Access to technology

Intuitive technology tools that create a positive end-user experience for your travelers and bookers are an important consideration when it comes to developing a budget-friendly travel policy. Without an internal approval system, often a time-consuming process itself when done offline, businesses who allow staff to book business travel directly can find they are subject to a significant degree of out-of-policy booking costs. Technology and user-friendly online booking tools, such as Lightning, inbuilt booking and policy controls, and approval systems, can save your company thousands of dollars per year on out-of-policy bookings.

Do you have easy access to your travel program’s expense data? If you are not leveraging this information into go-forward travel policy strategies you may risk advancing overall program goals, poor budget visibility, and increased cost. Furthermore, access to frequently updated pre-ticketing data allows you to capture and respond to policy breaches before they happen, helping to reduce spending and improving policy compliance.

Data analysis tools such as our Data Hub provide all of this along with an easy-to-digest visual representation of your corporate travel program’s performance.

You can access your business’s travel data online at any time, including air, car hire, and hotel bookings, with a wide variety of search options available. Forecasting, benchmarking and hypothetical data inputs also allow you to see how changes to your travel program could optimize costs and savings in the future.

A travel advisor will help drive savings

The answers, or lack thereof, to these three considerations, may indicate the perfect time for your business to engage with a travel advisor for one or multiple reasons. A good advisor can help your business streamline processes and develop a travel policy that drives savings through greater buying power, leading technology solutions, and access to expert support teams and account management. Professional travel advisors should be able to highlight the return on investment to your business by partnering with theirs and not only reduce your overall supplier costs (air/hotel/car hire) but save your business is perhaps the most precious commodity of all – time.

Are these things currently provided by your self-managed program or travel management company?