Benefits of having a business travel policy

The organization of business trips is a complex task for those companies that usually carry out this type of activity. And even more so for the people responsible for managing all of this.

Therefore, having a company travel policy can help facilitate all this management.

What is a travel policy?

A business travel policy is a set of rules that regulate, control and optimize business travel, making it easier for the company or office manager to manage this task.

This document is of tremendous importance because it affects the time and cost of the company, mainly. Therefore, having an adapted policy is necessary if we want to have better control of company travel expenses.

In addition, it will provide greater autonomy and peace of mind for employees or travelers, since they will have greater control over their actions and will have no doubts about what they can or cannot do.

However, many companies do not have this type of document ready when they are preparing to go on a trip and, therefore, they act on the fly, without any kind of control.

Unfortunately, there is no general policy for all companies. This is because each one has different resources. Therefore, it is necessary to have a policy adapted to the company.

Possible problems with a business travel policy

One of the big problems that can happen is that travelers book outside the limits of the policy, which would entail an increase in costs to the company.

In addition, this could lead to dissatisfaction on the part of employees, due to their poor experience, which in turn could diminish their performance in the company or when holding important meetings.

When we are about to create a corporate travel policy it is important that it is simple and adapted for employees. All this linked to the company's expense control objective.

A good way to create an adapted policy is to understand the company's current needs. Collecting data and information about travelers is important for drafting a good travel policy: how they make reservations, what class they fly in, etc.

All of this can help to study and understand the preferences of travelers in order to be able to write a company travel policy adapted to employees and that is cost-optimized.

Nowadays, employees want more flexibility when it comes to traveling, so it is advisable to talk to them about different options or to agree on possible agreements that favor them.

How to draft a travel policy:

Approval protocols

In order to avoid expenses, we should implement a protocol when traveling. That is, an approval process in which the traveler requests a reservation from a company employee, usually a superior or person in charge of the trips, justifying the reason for the trip with the details of the reservation.

Then, the supervisor or person in charge of managing this task will give permission or approval of the reservation for the trip.

Although this process is effective, it wastes too much time on a task that we could automate if we have a travel management tool for companies.

Reservation method

Another factor to consider is the method or portal for making reservations, explaining how the process works through it.

Aspects such as the time in advance for making reservations, it is advisable to leave it stipulated to optimize time and fare costs.

In addition, it is likely that during the trip an employee may have an emergency, of any type.

Therefore, it is important to establish an employee training protocol that helps travelers to know how to act in case of emergency.

Outfitters

There are situations in which companies have a series of agreements with different suppliers such as airlines and hotels in order to obtain discounts on their trips.

This can establish a clear competitive advantage over other companies, since we are reducing our costs in the long term.

Therefore, we must highlight the importance of these types of agreements with suppliers to optimize costs.

Transportation Options

Another important task when establishing the travel procedure is the fare or amount of expense at which the employee can spend on transportation. In other words, we can set a limit depending on the charge, where we set an upper limit for direct passengers, so that they can qualify for business classes on flights and trains.

We can also add if various additional services such as baggage check-in, meals on the plane, etc., may or may not be included.

In addition, we must specify the type of transport that the traveler can choose at the place of destination. For example, if you have the option of traveling by taxi, rent a car to move freely around the city, or on the contrary, use only public transport.

Accomodation

Like the type of transport, it is advisable to create a filter of services that employees can use according to price, destination, position in the company, etc.

One option is to establish if our employees can choose between different types of accommodations such as hotel rooms and apartments.

In addition, once accommodation has been chosen, decide if travelers can opt for additional services such as parking, Wi-Fi or breakfast, for example.

Filtering the type of transport and accommodation according to the type of employee is vital to achieve a good optimization of savings.

Payment method

All additional services that the traveler may consume must be clearly detailed in our corporate travel procedure.

Therefore, the travel expense policy should also detail how these types of services will be paid for. If there is a company card that the employee can use, if the employee must use his own card and then the company pays him those expenses, etc.

It is very important to establish a clear payment method, so as to avoid confusion for travelers and companies.

Once we have stated all the requirements that our business travel policy must have, let's summarize the great benefits that our company will receive thanks to the regulation of this document.

Objectives of a travel policy

1. I SAVE MONEY

It is obvious that cost savings are a primary task for any actively operating company. Therefore, good corporate travel management is essential to begin to achieve this.

As we have mentioned, arranging certain rates with suppliers will result in cheaper trips, which in the long term will result in significant savings.

One of the biggest problems for many companies occurs during the reservation approval period. From the moment a traveler requests a hotel until it is granted, an excessive amount of time occurs.

And despite wasting our time, it makes us lose money, because over that period of time the prices of hotel rooms or flights may increase, leading to an increase in the cost of the trip.

The key is to study our company's travel practices well and to be as efficient as possible in establishing our travel and expense policy.

2. GREATER CONTROL AND SECURITY

During a business trip, it is normal for a number of unexpected situations to occur. Lost flights, suitcases, booking cancellations, etc.

These incidents lead to stress for the traveler and more problems for the company.

As mentioned previously, the importance of having an action protocol for emergency cases becomes at least important.

Therefore, it is another compelling reason to have a good travel policy that specifies to the traveler how to act in certain cases and provides solutions to their problems.

Sometimes, not having a stipulated policy can cause confusion among travelers, which in turn, results in excessive expenses due to the non-regulation of these expenses, as we have seen.

The problem occurs when these excessive expenses come from a traveler who has misused the business card. Some companies find themselves with questionable tickets, amounts higher than the stipulated amount, invoices with dates that do not apply, etc.

If we don't have some control over our travel expense procedure, these types of events can backfire on us.

3. I SAVE TIME

This is perhaps the most important advantage of having a correct business travel policy. After all, time is money.

We must establish in our travel policy all those steps that our employees must follow in order to make accommodation reservations on their trips.

It is true that establishing a protocol is necessary and effective, but not completely efficient. Another option available would be to have a tool or platform for travel management for companies like Vyootrip.

With VyooTrip we will have the travel policy integrated into the platform. In this way, each traveler can organize their trip independently, without the need for authorizations. So we will achieve significant time savings and an outstanding experience for the traveler

In addition, thanks to the integration of the policy into the platform, the control of expenses and invoices will always be regulated, so that we will avoid possible fraud on any trip.

These are all important advantages, although we cannot forget one and that sometimes we do not give it enough importance: assistance during the trip.

The traveler will be assisted 24 hours a day during their trip to meet their needs or any incident we have mentioned.

Therefore, if we manage to regulate everything properly, we will be able to optimize the tasks in travel management well and, therefore, we will save time.

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