According to this Flyaeolus flight survey, 30% of European corporate businesses travel once per month; 62% travel once a year, while 5% travel 21 to 40 times per year
These statistics tell us that trips are a recurring activity for many employees and employers. Because they are, your business requires an efficient and systematic process for adequate planning.
If you are looking to give your employees a seamless and efficient traveling process, then you need the expertise of an efficient travel management company. They’ll help streamline the preparation processes and make business trips easier and a lot more rewarding for your company.
What are travel management companies? Why do you need their services? This article discusses what travel management companies are and the top three reasons to hire their services.
Let’s begin.
What are travel management companies?
A Travel Management Company (TMC), also known as a corporate travel provider or business travel agency, is a travel agent that oversees the business travel arrangements and activities of an individual, company, or organization.
They often offer ongoing business travel management activities using travel management tools to provide improved and enjoyable travel experiences for companies.
They perform different functions, including enforcing a company travel policy to ensure all employees comply with the company’s business trips policies. They also provide a reliable system to enable companies to enjoy the best rates for all bookings, regardless of when they book.
Top 3 reasons to employ the services of a travel management company
Whether you are a small, medium, or large company, employing the services of a travel management company is critical for a smooth business travel experience.
Below are three critical reasons to hire the services of top travel management companies for all your business trips.
1.   Travel management companies cut down business travel expenses
Companies spend $111.7 billion annually on business travel. This is because business travels frequently happen every year for many businesses, which means they will consume a huge part of a company’s expenses.
A travel management company reduces your business travel expenses in several ways. First, they create or enforce an existing travel policy that enables your staff to stick to a specific budget when they travel.
This ensures your staff book the airline and hotel that works best for the company’s budget. They can also track other additional expenses to ensure they align with the company’s spending expectations.
Second, working with a time management company means you will enjoy the best discounts when you travel. They negotiate the best deals, demand loyalty programs from vendors, and harness the best tools to track promotional offers and best rates.
Sometimes, they cancel tickets to rebook for more affordable options, so you can travel at discount rates and maximize costs as you travel.
Third, many travel management companies implement a pre-trip approval process that approves trips. This ensures that the company duly approves all business trips, and no staff goes on a business trip without the company’s knowledge, mitigating unnecessary business trips and maximizing cost in the process.
Fourth, whenever you have to reschedule or cancel a business trip, many travel management companies ensure you do not pay the penalty or extra charge for your action, saving you from additional expenses and driving down costs.
On the whole, travel management companies manage your overall travel expenses through planning, tracking, and reporting tools. By doing this, you can monitor every travel expense to reduce costs while you and your staff go on business trips.
So, if you want to spend less while getting the most from your business travels, a travel management company can help you beat down expenses so you can save when you travel.
2.   They save time
Business travels often involve many processes. From finding the right vendors to negotiating the best deals and bookings, the processes can be overwhelming. Travel management companies take over the planning, scheduling, and booking of your business trips to facilitate the travel process.
They use their resources and expertise to plan your business travels to make the best choices for you.
So, rather than spend lots of time on planning, travel management companies do all the work for you. This means you can focus on other essential aspects of your trips.
Additionally, they monitor your employees’ activities while on business trips to ensure they adhere strictly to your travel policies. They also provide accurate reporting tools to keep you updated about their traveling expenses.
This way, you won’t spend time tracking your employees’ activities while they travel and can focus on running your business efficiently.
Also, travel management companies provide standardized processes for your business travels, which keeps your processes organized, so your employees can follow the right procedures and save time while they travel.
So, if you are looking for a way to spend less time planning your business travels and spend more time running other important business activities, hiring an efficient travel management company is the way to go.
3.   They provide duty care and travel risk management
If you want to ensure a high-risk management system for your employees when they travel, hiring a travel management company ensures your employees’ safety.
They put appropriate measures to ensure they have a safe and secure trip, including monitoring the weather conditions and providing timely assistance in emergency cases.
Additionally, they offer expert consultation services to help you navigate health and safety conditions for business trips. For example, they advise you on the best travel policy to create for your employees and offer the best recommendations on safety and health practices before, during, and after business travels.
Travel management companies investigate and analyze other companies’ security states to ensure they are safe to travel to, connect travel data and GPS for effective tracking and give 24/7 support to your staff when they travel.
Offering your staff duty of care and putting adequate travel risk management is critical to showing your employees how much you care about their well-being; it is also the way to ensure their safety when they travel.
Therefore, if you want to create safe and successful business travel experiences for your employees, you should consider hiring a reliable travel management company to prevent, monitor, and respond to your employees’ business travel risks.
What to look out for when hiring a business management company
When hiring a travel management company, it’s critical to hire the best one that will meet your company’s needs.
By doing this, you can provide the best business travel experience for your employees and get the most from your investment.
However, to do this, you must be on the lookout for five essential qualities:
1.   Reliable customer support
An excellent travel management system offers 24/7 personalized customer support to meet their clients’ needs.
They also provide different channels for their clients to send their requests and enable communication in multiple languages for better accessibility.
By offering these customer support features, they can meet your company’s travel demands in emergencies and mitigate and control risks.
2.   Seamless booking experience
The best travel management companies provide a straightforward booking experience for their clients. This includes avoiding the time-consuming process of sending and responding to emails back and forth and creating a centralized platform to book and respond to their clients’ inquiries from one place.
A simple booking experience also enables the managers and employees to book their trips themselves without third-party interference. By creating a collaborative booking system, your managers and other staff members can book, reschedule, cancel and track their travel expenses easily.
3.   Accurate reporting and analytics
A functioning travel management company provides accurate insights on travel expenses and financial activities.
They provide detailed reports and analytics of how much your employees spend to ensure they do not exceed the company’s budget. They also provide updates on activities that are out of the company’s policy to take timely actions.
By opting for a travel management company with accurate reporting and analytics you will have access to real-time data and reports to track your employees’ expenses when they travel.
4.   Advanced technology
Travel management companies need the best tools and resources to function efficiently. With the right technology, they can automate different activities and provide a faster travel experience for you.
They also provide reliable and real-time insights to keep you in the loop about how much your employees are spending, with proper measures to ensure a hundred percent compliance with your companies’ travel regulations.
5.   Data security
It’s crucial for you to work with a travel management company that ensures the proper security of your company and employees’ information.
For example, your employees’ emails, addresses, and other contact information need to be secured to ensure their data is not breached.
Check out their data security policy to ensure they can safeguard your company’s sensitive information efficiently before you hire.
Conclusion
Hiring a travel management company offers immense advantages for your company. In this article, we explained the three most prominent reasons to hire a travel management company to manage your corporate travels.
Author Bio:
Lydia Iseh is a writer with years of experience in writing SEO content that provides value to the reader. As someone who believes in the power of SEO to transform businesses, she enjoys being part of the process that helps websites rank high on search engines.
Hernaldo Turrillo is a writer and author specialised in innovation, AI, DLT, SMEs, trading, investing and new trends in technology and business. He has been working for ztudium group since 2017. He is the editor of openbusinesscouncil.org, tradersdna.com, hedgethink.com, and writes regularly for intelligenthq.com, socialmediacouncil.eu. Hernaldo was born in Spain and finally settled in London, United Kingdom, after a few years of personal growth. Hernaldo finished his Journalism bachelor degree in the University of Seville, Spain, and began working as reporter in the newspaper, Europa Sur, writing about Politics and Society. He also worked as community manager and marketing advisor in Los Barrios, Spain. Innovation, technology, politics and economy are his main interests, with special focus on new trends and ethical projects. He enjoys finding himself getting lost in words, explaining what he understands from the world and helping others. Besides a journalist, he is also a thinker and proactive in digital transformation strategies. Knowledge and ideas have no limits.