Is a travel management service useful for SMEs?

In theory, good travel management for companies is a full-fledged advantage. What company wouldn't want to know where its employees are traveling, how much they spend on hotels, car rentals and flights, and if it can negotiate better rates?

However, there is a tendency to think that integrating a travel management program starts to make sense only for those companies with significant travel expenses.

Now the emergence of new tools and programs are challenging this position. So much so that those travel agencies that have traditionally focused on large companies are trying to broaden their appeal to small and medium-sized businesses.

When to implement a business travel management tool

According to some professionals in the sector, one million dollars in air expenses was said to be the basis for implementing a professional manager in business travel, mainly because it was considered to be the level at which companies could begin to negotiate significant discounts on air fares. It was also considered as the level at which cost savings could provide the return on investment to invest resources and tools for travel management.

The reality is that companies don't have to wait until they're that big to be able to manage their trips. In fact, this is ideal, although it is also true that you have to have a certain volume of reserves. You must have someone to manage this task and most of the time there are too many things going on to dedicate to this work.

Therefore, when the company's CEO can't look at every travel ticket, that's when you start to need someone to manage all the management. In addition, around 150 employees are where owners realize that they lose control of how their employees are working on a daily basis and if the company culture is adapting to business travel.

Nowadays, corporate travel management occurs in much smaller companies compared to companies more than 10 years ago.

SMEs understand that there is value in having a managed program for expense control issues, Duty of Care, etc., and it is becoming more and more necessary. Plus, savings aren't always that easy to come by, so it's important to partner with the right travel manager.

Therefore, if a company begins to have frequent travelers, it should consider the option of incorporating a tool that helps manage business trips.

Travel manager

When a company achieves high expenses (millions of euros) related to flight bookings, that's when we can say that a full-time travel manager is needed. However, it's a misconception that small and medium-sized businesses need to hire full-time travel managers to manage their trips. The fact is that many people with the title of “travel manager” actually spend only part of their time focusing on travel, even in large companies.

Great things can be done without the need to have a 24-hour manager available, especially when using the new ones travel management tools for companies, which automate the entire management process and where prices are adapted to small and medium-sized companies, especially now that the incentive programs of many hotels and airlines do not require high minimum expenses.

In addition, these new tools are emerging to merge corporate travel policy with a booking experience closer to that of leisure travel.

Investment in business travel management may not recover on its own in the short term, but as the company grows, it will become necessary to have these management systems to obtain greater discounts.

In addition, companies accumulate other savings, by partnering with travel management tools, reducing rates and processing costs through the use of online reservations and spending tools.

In fact, access to discounted fares is just one aspect of travel management, which also includes service functions, expense tracking, reporting, and travel assistance for corporate travelers.

In short, the relatively marginal savings that companies obtain from travel management can provide the return on investment that SMEs seek in managed trips.

Efficiency and ease of implementation

One of the great advantages of using this type of tool is the speed of implementation within the company. In a few days the operation of the tool is up and running and all users can start using it in a very short time, without the need for extensive training.

Efficiency is another term that affects travel management systems. Well, one of the most time-consuming tasks are expense reports, which must be submitted every time a trip takes place.

Therefore, reducing the time spent on this task is of great importance, since it is a factor that very few companies dedicate to optimizing and that with a good management tool we could solve in order to increase company efficiency.

In addition, user experience is a key factor when implementing a type of travel management tool in the hands of small businesses, which are vulnerable to the loss of key employees. Therefore, the company should focus on making business trips as simple as possible, and avoiding all kinds of stress every time a traveler requests a trip.

Having a simple platform that manages and solves all kinds of problems is of paramount importance for the retention of key employees.

Assistance from the human team

Some of the concerns of companies or their managers is the replacement of human equipment by machine technology, even when this technology makes travel management easier for both managers and travelers. It's true that technology makes all the management easier, however, you still need to have someone oversee everything.

Even technology companies consider that the availability of human support for travelers is critical to their success. It's a feature that's not easily replaced even with artificial intelligence and machine learning.

On the other hand, the possibility of creating personal relationships also brings benefits to the company in the form of discounts. A member of the company can personally go and pay a visit to a hotel frequented by their company, and negotiate possible discounts for the future there.

Therefore, supplementing a trip management tool with adequate staff for the monitoring and assistance of travelers is essential to provide quality service.

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