Making business travel savings may seem difficult, especially if several of your employees must fly to different destinations at various times.
However, there are methods to lower your expenses without sacrificing the safety or services of travelers.
You may reduce costs on each trip with a clever strategy in place, which will please both your partners and your employees.
Have a look at these ten suggestions for cutting back on corporate travel expenses overall.
10 clever strategies to minimize your costs on business trips
Establishing or growing a firm requires conducting business travel.
Even if one cannot escape these costs, the purpose is to decrease them and optimize each journey to reap the most rewards.
Below are some suggestions for setting up business trips at lower costs:
1. Revisit your travel regulations
With US companies spending more than $31 billion annually on business travel, and the average cost of an international trip being $2,600 per person, it’s imperative to plan your travel policies correctly.
Examine your company’s travel policy more closely to see whether it is comprehensive enough to include all travel expenses, including lodging and travel arrangements, meal reimbursements, or any costs employees may incur while traveling (like site-spending).
Create a business travel plan with specific procedures and instructions so that your staff may make choices that are in compliance with the plan’s parameters and don’t result in extra expenses.
Limiting unauthorized reservations is a certain strategy to cut back on total travel expenses. Your company’s travel policy may not be followed by your personnel for a number of reasons, including poor communication, a complex policy, and so forth. Ensure that the guideline is adopted by and well-known to all workers.
You can achieve this by:
a. Developing straightforward, understandable policy
Adoption of policies will only grow once workers get the “why” behind them. Therefore, ensure your guideline is stated in clear, understandable language and draws attention to the benefits of adhering to it.b
b. Clearly communicating the policy to the workforce
Employers should communicate travel regulations to staff members through accessible ways – email messages, internal networks, and so on. To ensure everyone is aware of the business requirements, you also can hold frequent training courses, golf challenges, and briefings in small groups.
c. Encouraging the use of shared or public transportation
Driving in big cities is a travel expense that is quite prevalent and simple to avoid.
It is healthier for the environment and your company’s bottom line to encourage professionals to share public transportation as opposed to driving their own vehicles and paying massive parking charges or hiring a cab.
There is little need for individual transportation if individuals are going to a conference from one place. If using public transportation is not an option, it is simple to arrange many automobiles using Uber. Even though implementing these procedures isn’t always practical, you should try to convince your staff that excessive business travel costs are a waste of money.
2. Use travel management software
Travel planning, trip management, tracking, and reporting are all done with the help of travel management software. The digitization of corporate travel regulations and the capability to combine travel bills and suppliers are its other significant features and applications.
Here, employees make their own travel arrangements using business booking software that contains the firm’s travel policy. There is no need for reimbursement because the application also incorporates information about company payments!
The majority of travel tools do not cover everything you require for taxation and bookkeeping, but they will still help you keep track of your expenditures and analyze them so you can make budgetary decisions.
TravelPerk is a travel management software, which contains robust trip management capabilities. It facilitates simple travel bookings within the policy for travelers and managers.
Additionally, TravelPerk offers all the tools finance teams and travel budget owners require, including compliance analytics, expense tracking, interfaces, and trip expenditure tracking. Also, TravelPerk provides a free version of business travel management software, which is perfect for companies that want to use a high-quality solution without incurring additional fees.
3. Save cash on flights
Be mindful when selecting the flight tickets you purchase because they can be costly. By being adaptable with your vacation dates, choosing an inexpensive airline, and booking economy seats, you might save money.
After you make a reservation, having a set itinerary is typically less expensive. Consider the option of changeable tickets with multiple return dates only if it’s a must for your trip.
Receiving notifications of flight sales and special discounts can also significantly lower your business trip expenses.
For instance, using a cutting-edge travel management system looks for affordable and aggressive airfare prices. When it discovers a lower bargain to the very same destination, its technology will instantly cancel and reschedule your reservations, saving you more dollars.
4. Minimize hotel prices
Even in the same hotel, room costs can vary greatly, so planning ahead can result in significant savings.
You can decide whether you wish to permit your frequent flyers to pick their own accommodations. That’s great; just be careful to specify a price cap and star rating.
Additionally, you may also want to clarify whether basic rooms are the needed accommodation type or whether you will be paying for minibar fees, Wi-Fi, and other expenses.
Proper research is beneficial if you aim to keep the booking under your hands. Genuine, unbiased user opinions from commuters who have visited such hotels can offer you insights into which accommodations are better.
If you frequently go to the same area, you can negotiate with the hotels there for securing special rates and discounts. Keep a track of when there are price drops and if possible, reschedule your trips accordingly.
5. Establish a reasonable allowance for food and travel
Giving employees discretion over their expenditures on utilities and food may end up preventing overspending.
An individual can decide what to spend in the morning, afternoon, and evening by setting the food costs as a daily total allowance.
There will always be anomalies, so save that 5-star dining establishment for your most important client appointments. You should explicitly urge staff to select the most economical mode of transportation, taking trip times into account. This can entail paying them after they use their personal vehicles to travel from point A to point.
6. Be open and provide rewards for sticking to your budget
It’s critical to ease workers’ suffering when reducing travel expenses. They must understand the “WHY” if they are to feel involved in the endeavor.
For instance, a remote business that hosts annual in-person getaways may have to explain to its staff why travel to conferences must be as affordable as feasible so that everyone can enjoy the event.
Every business will have a distinct “WHY.” If more visibility isn’t really necessary, perhaps incentives can be helpful.
Travel supervisors can contribute to the budget reduction in a unique way when given the authority to award incentives like team meals or mileage credits to employees who adhere to the expense limit.
7. Follow trends in business travel spends
The power of knowledge is remarkable. Therefore, be aware of trends in the travel industry. Keep track of travel restrictions and economic slowdowns. This knowledge will enable you to plan trips properly and reduce unnecessary charges on cancellations and reschedules.
Again, your company must understand which facets of business trips are more important than others.
The following are some possible inquiries to make:
- Who are the travelers that are spending the most money?
- What fees for wifi, airport transfer, etc. could be reduced?
- What adjustments are necessary for Quarter 4 to maintain X team’s annual spending budget?
Every company wants to minimize the amount spent on work travel, and finding the information to do so shouldn’t be difficult.
8. Design a pre-trip approval protocol
Keeping an approval procedure in place for each reservation is among the simplest and most effective ways to lower your business travel expenses.
Clearly stating who must approve travel will help you avoid the issue of canceling trips once they’ve been scheduled, leading to unnecessary expense.
Utilize booking tools provided by your travel management firm to the fullest extent possible. It must allow you to have more control over making travel plans. You may select which workers can make their own travel and hotel reservations so that you can keep track of all their itineraries. It implies that you can respond right away if they violate your travel rules.
9. Enhance employee productivity on the road
Your company stands to benefit if your business travelers are reducing the time spent planning their trip and more time functioning.
They will be more productive if they can make every aspect of their travel go as well as possible.
Technology will play a significant role in this. For instance, you can use tools that synchronize employees’ travel plans with their work-related mobile calendars, providing them with vital travel information when they require it.
Additionally, disseminate local knowledge and special offers so that workers shouldn’t have to search for them, freeing up their energy while traveling.
10. Understand travel accessory expenses
When you think you have budgeted for it all, extra charges like Wi-Fi and parking fees can quickly mount up and end up giving you a rude awakening at the trip’s end.
Certain business services can consolidate these fees into a single package, making it easier for you to plan your spending and maintain tabs on your spending. Engage your staff in the activity to reduce the trip expenses. Help them feel in charge of this region. Work together to choose the best course of action for cost management, and incentivize economy flights rather than business class flights with superior accommodation.
People are more inclined to stick with concepts that they helped develop.
Conclusion
The above are only a few of several suggestions on how to cut costs on each work trip your business takes.
It also is beneficial to go through an export strategy before starting a commercial deal. This would enable you to achieve your goals, discover the markets your firm may succeed in, and serve as a roadmap for your work trip arrangements.
