THE FIVE FUNDAMENTALS OF TRAVEL BUYING

1. Create and enforce a travel policy

For the majority of SMEs buying business travel is unstructured and unmanaged, with travellers operating without policy costing the company time and money. By following the five fundamentals of travel management, SMEs can successfully buy travel smarter, cut costs and get more for their money.

A well-crafted policy is at the heart of anysuccessful corporate travel programme. Your travel policy should be designed to control spending (encouraging them to book ahead, look at the total cost of travel, for example) and steer the travel booker/individual travellers towards preferred suppliers (loyalty pays) while also giving them enough flexibility to meet their trip needs.

2. Choose the right TMC

Travel management companies play a crucial role in supporting your travel programme but it’s important that you find the one that’s right for you. If you book overseas travel, you may wish to use a TMC that is a member of a global consortium such as TravelSavers or Global Star Travel Management. You may also wish to use a TMC that provides a 24 hour service.

If you have a small business travel budget, then a mid-sized TMC will work better for you. Choose a TMC that has a full suite of travel technology in place that looks after, not just reservations, but security tracking, mobile apps and live booking.

If your travellers rarely travel internationally, then consider using hotel and rail booking agents instead of a TMC.

3. Introduce a self-booking tool and maximise adoption

Many organisations book some of their travel through an online reservations tool, but the real work starts once you have chosen your technology provider. Learn how to implement a booking tool to maximise adoption and bring down processing and travel costs while keeping your travellers onside.

4. Learn to get more for your money from travel suppliers

SMEs may not have the spending power to negotiate discounts with business travel suppliers, but remaining loyal to a limited number of preferred suppliers will pay off. By signing up for programmes that reward companies AND travellers, you can use kickbacks – such as free upgrades – to get more for your money. Most major airlines and hotel groups operate reward schemes and the good news is that, thanks to the recession, they are on the rise.

5. Always consider the safety, security and sustainability of your travellers and travel policy

Good travel management isn’t just about finding the best price. Corporate social responsibility issues are increasingly important, too, including looking after employees’ safety and security on the move and, for many companies, reducing their travel-related environmental impact.

Further Information

These tips were provided by David Chapple, the event director of the Business Travel Show, Europe’s leading corporate travel event and organiser of the world’s largest hosted buyer programme for travel buyers.

The Five Fundamentals of Travel Management form the basis of a series of free to attend conference sessions at the Business Travel Show, which takes place 5-6 February 2013 at Earls Court in London. With more than 200 suppliers, 50 conference sessions and a variety of networking opportunities, it’s the ultimate business travel destination for all travel bookers and buyers. Entry is free – simply register atwww.businesstravelshow.com.

GUEST BLOG: Put TMCs to work for you

Travel is one of the largest controllable expenses for most companies. Using the right travel management company will give you peace of mind and save you time. A TMC should want to learn about your business and think strategically about what you need and offer a full range of services.  

At Wings Travel Management, it is our passion to find the best fares for your business travel needs – advising you on how to best leverage your travel budget while monitoring your travel policy. We work with creative ticketing, Internet fares and our own negotiated fares from all our offices across the globe. This applies to hotels, too.  Sometimes the best fare is one that a TMC can get for you using a pricing index available through one of its branches in another part of the world.

When deciding on a travel management company, there are some key questions to consider:

• Does it have people on the ground in those emerging markets where travel can quite easily not run to plan?

• Does it have the technology to keep up with your travellers, no matter where they are?

• Does it specialise and understand your industry, in other words, know what you need to make it a successful trip?

• Does it have a history of success and leadership in places that are important to your business?

• Does it give you access to company staff 24/7/365?

• Does it offer standardised technology throughout its global operations so you get the same service and reporting everywhere?

• Does it track the performance of all your travel suppliers: air, car, hotel, ground transportation, TMC?

• Does it have process and reporting audits that provide for accuracy and accountability?

• Does your TMC put the client first, understanding that this is not a one-size-fits-all industry? 

• Is your TMC growing into the areas where your business industry is growing? Is it following your industry trends?

• Does it set itself apart in ways that matter: human attention, experience, passion, integrity?

Travel management companies should have easy, ready answers to the above questions. 

To determine whether you’re getting the most from your TMC, contact Wings Travel Management on +44 (0) 207 458 7000 or visit Stand No. 230 at the Business Travel Show.

By Paul East

Paul East is chief operating officer at Wings Travel Management, which specialises in corporate, oil & gas, and marine travel. Meet Paul at the Business Travel Show at Stand No. 230 to find out what sets Wings apart from other TMCs. You may contact him directly on 0207 458 7000 or at paul.east@wings.uk.com

UNBUNDLING DEMYSTIFIED

Unbundling was a dirty word that first reared its head in the travel market a few years ago and the public’s disdain toward suppliers offering unbundled prices peaked when Ryanair suggested it was planning to ‘charge a pound to spend a penny’. It’s since become part and parcel of how we buy travel and, when the game is played well, travellers and travel managers can use unbundling to their advantage, paying for only what they need and saving money as a result. 

In the trade, unbundling is more commonly referred to as ancillary fees. And though we may be more used to their existence, controlling, navigating and tracking them can still be a mystifying experience for many travel managers. According to recent research by the GBTA just 21 percent (21%) of travel managers are tracking ancillary fees while those fees account for over eight per cent of total travel spend.

Believing that ancillary fees have a significant impact on travel budgets and policies and, with better insight into how these fees work, travel managers can make more informed choices, the GBTA has now released the ‘2012 Ancillary Fee Handbook, Who Charges What, When & Where’.

The study categorizes virtually all the ancillary fees that business travellers can incur through airline, hotel and car rental travel. It also provides a rating system that evaluates each fee on three essential characteristics:

1. How common it is for a business traveller to incur the fee?
2. How transparent it is to travellers and planners?
3. How easy it is for travel managers to track the fee once it has been incurred?

You can download it here: http://hub.gbta.org/resources2/view/profile/id/21535. Travel managers across the globe can now breathe a collected sigh of relief. 

Posted by Daniela Reck - daniela.reck@centaur.co.uk 

IT'S TIME FOR TRAVEL MANAGERS TO SWOT UP ON MOBILE

Earlier in the week, AirPlus International and ACTE published a white paper focusing on how mobile payments will change corporate travel and expense management. I read it. And I’m glad I did – it’s a really interesting insight into the future of business travel management.

There are a number of key things that come across. Firstly, forget all the scare-tactics about mobile encouraging rogue travellers. According to this white paper, mobile actually has the potential to drive compliance. Why? Because it helps to link a lot of currently disparate processes together. 

By automating the purchase of smaller trip transactions through NFC (Near Field Communication) technology (which is when you simply touch your phone against a ‘contact’ point on, for example, a rail ticket machine, hotel room door, airport check in desk), managers will win back control over expenditure. By linking it to an app for your travellers, you can also control which suppliers they use and eliminate the temptation to fiddle expenses. And linking everything to your management system makes invoicing easier, quicker and cheaper.

Secondly, mobile also has big benefits for the traveller. It means they no longer have to carry cash and credit cards makes it easier and quicker for them to account for their expenses when they return home, too.  

Yet, despite all the arguments for using mobile payment technology, we’ve been slow on the uptake, with just five per cent of companies actually using mobile payment technology in our industry. Why? Well, mainly because the technology isn’t widely rolled out yet. It is here and it will happen. It’s just a matter of when. 

And it’s also partly due to ignorance – travel managers just don’t know that much about it. If they did, they would want to embrace it and, perhaps by embracing, they could help to speed up its adoption? In the meantime, I recommend reading the white paper and getting a head start.

Posted by David Chapple, david@businesstravelshow.com - tell me what you think @btshowlondon