24 November 2021
Many companies are looking towards Travel Management Companies to assist with their new travel programs since the pandemic has increased the difficulty of travelling the globe.
However, being able to competently advise clients of the new regulations and limitations when travelling is just one of the benefits a travel management company can offer. We thought it would be prudent to highlight some other benefits companies receive when using a travel management company’s service.
Savings
Businesses that have many frequent travellers will already be aware that travel is one of their largest expenses and being able to cut these costs without changing your traveling habits is highly beneficial, so how do we do this?
TMC’s have spent years building relationships with their suppliers and can provide clients with their own negotiated rates, PRIORITY’s clients enjoy savings of up to 40% compared to booking direct or online.
TMCs will negotiate corporate contracts on behalf of their clients based on their individual needs to ensure maximum savings are achieved, especially for hotel loyalty.
TMCs can secure and hold travel itineraries, ensuring rooms and airline seats are not lost while travellers seek confirmation and authorisation for their trips.
TMCs use the most up to date technology, allowing availability to be pulled from multiple suppliers at the same time, ensuring the lowest available price is always visible.
Some TMCs like PRIORITY get remunerated by the supplier and if this is the case, we don’t then charge an additional administration fee, saving our clients thousands in fees each year.
TMCs offer lower negotiated rates which in turn allows a better standard of accommodation to fall into a client’s travel policy.
TMCs can analyse client reports to pinpoint cost saving opportunities
Expertise and Account Management
With experience comes ingenuity and a travel management company’s account management team have many ways to ensure clients receive the best service, prices, and advice for all their travel requirements. Some travel management companies specialise in certain areas, for instance PRIORITY specialises in project travel for the construction & retail industries. This is highly beneficial for our clients as we’re already aware of the industries unique travel requirements.
A travel management company’s account management team frequently think outside the box sourcing additional air and accommodation options to lower costs, suggest alternative flight routes for better availability, locate discounted airfares from numerous suppliers and seek out airline and accommodation promotional offers to benefit their clients.
Travel management companies can be involved with budgeting for their clients’ future tender opportunities, they’ll negotiate extras – such as free parking, discounted meals, early and late check-in, late check-out, which is very beneficial for project travel accommodation requirements.
They’ll report on the latest travel information, destination restrictions and traveller eligibility and are aware that high on everyone’s agenda is traveller duty of care so you can rest assured your travellers are in safe hands.
Support
When help is needed having a travel management company to fall back on can be extremely beneficial; you may need help with a flight cancelation, bad weather preventing a trip, civil unrest, wildfires, traveller advice or even a ‘pandemic’, whatever the issue having a travel management company in your corner can make yours and the traveller’s life much easier.
A travel management company’s account management team will already be aware of the impending issues and will be pro-actively working on a solution before you’ve even contacted them as they are constantly receiving accommodation and airline updates and real-time travel alerts.
Travel management company’s relieve the pressure for travellers who find managing their own travel stressful, the service also gives them their time back, enabling them to concentrate on what’s important, their job.
Travel Policy Assistance
Having a clear travel policy in place is key for a company and their travellers, it helps ensure that travellers are aware of their limitations, expense rules, booking conditions, safety measures and the company’s behavioural expectations.
A travel policy is also a great way to save money and other departments time. Once travellers are aware that they must book through one travel management company, having to process hundreds of random invoices from numerous suppliers becomes a thing of the past.
Travel management companies have years of experience and have assisted numerous companies with their travel policy’s, advising on content and effectiveness and assisting with its enforcement when bookings are made.
The modern travel management company will also be able to offer an online platform with integrated policy, so choices provided to the user are always within their policy parameters, making booking their travel quick and easy, increasing compliance, and decreasing stress levels and the need for manual authorisation.
Modern Technology
Imagine having all your travel needs on one platform, numerous distribution channels and your negotiated rates all funnelled into one booking tool. News alerts relevant to the traveller’s itinerary, detailed MI travel data for savings analysis and the ability to use the booking platform anywhere, at any time, be it at home, the office or abroad.
Travel management companies can provide their clients with ever-evolving technology, constantly offering solutions and features to alleviate the pain behind booking and looking after their travel, be it air, hotel, ground transportation or just to ensure budgets are met.
These new cutting-edge platforms will offer a combination of a booking tool, reporting suite, robust Co2 calculation, relevant travel news updates and complete traveller insight to ensure duty of care towards your travellers is fulfilled.
Travel Data
Having a centralised Management Information (MI) suite is highly beneficial. Clear, up to date travel reporting enables a company to manage budgets, adapt their policy to benefit their travellers, adjust parameters to increase savings, monitor negotiated rate usage, policy adherence and Co2 offsetting.
A travel management company will analyse this wealth of data and advise its clients on the areas that are affecting the performance of the company, including their traveller’s booking behaviour, they then advise on policy changes to benefit the company.
The finance department can also benefit from the MI data, using it to forecast budgets for the entire company or for individuals and projects, enabling adjustments to be made throughout the project so budgets are met.
Finance
Travel management companies can offer their clients different payment solutions, the most popular option is ‘on account’ allowing interest free credit over a certain period.
Accounts can receive individual invoicing and a consolidated statement with all transactions to enable easy reconciliation.
Some travel management companies like PRIORITY will validate all the charges raised by the service provider, querying any extra expenses before they are passed on to the client, saving the company time with internal checks and enables the business to instantly reclaim their VAT based on the invoices issued.
If you’d like to find out more about what a travel management company can do for your business, please get in touch for a chat by emailing us at
[email protected]