The Pitfalls of DIY Business Travel - Part 2

Recently we ran an article including four reasons why do-it-yourself (DIY) business travel is dangerous for your travellers and your bottom-line. Like any other controllable expense in your company, business travel should be managed professionally and strategically so your business can travel cost and time efficiently. Not to mention, tap into all the industry benefits and SME travel advice you’ll receive by working with a corporate travel management company!

As this is such a broad topic, there are quite a few more reasons as to why DIY travel is bad for business. Keen to know what they are? Here’s another four aspects to consider…

Feel like your EA or your internal travel coordinator always seems stressed? Booking and managing business travel for your boss, a sales team, let alone a larger group of people can be extremely time consuming and stressful. Particularly when there’s flight disruptions, last-minute changes and re-bookings.

Generally, EAs or internal travel arrangers already have a full-time workload and then travel is thrown in on top of that. 

When you’re booking travel for other people, there’s a lot of back and forth with colleagues or managers, time spent on searching for options, making the booking, paying and then liaising with the traveller. Not to mention, if there’s a travel disruption in the middle of the night or flights get cancelled last minute over the weekend… who’s responsible for managing this?

As an FCBT customer, you’ll always have your own Travel Manager to handle all the big jobs, the difficult requests and any last-minute cancellations. Let someone else carry the travel booking stress for your business so your people are at their most productive on business-critical tasks.

By booking through an SME business travel specialist, your organisation is the first to know when industry deals or special industry airfares are released. Plus, because FCBT is part of the global travel company, Flight Centre Travel Group, your business has easy access to a global network of airfares, rates and ground transport options. Our Travel Managers have their fingers on the pulse when airfare deals, hotel rates or any other offers are released from suppliers so you can be confident you are getting the best corporate deal.

Stay up to date with the latest business travel news!

One of the true advantages of booking with a corporate travel management company is the advice they’ll give you about payment methods. If your staff are paying for their own travel and then being reimbursed or you’re using a few different credit cards to pay for travel – how much are you paying in credit card merchant fees each year? You’d be surprised how much these fees cost your business… 

Our advice is to talk to your FCBT Travel Manager to work out what is the easiest and most cost-efficient way for your business to pay for travel. There are quite a few solutions and options available, it depends on what you want to achieve with your payment processes. One option that may be suitable for eligible customers is an FCBT invoice account, which helps to streamline payments with cyclical invoicing. This removes the need to pay merchant fees and frees up your cash flow.

A travel policy puts a framework in place for what is permitted when it comes to booking channels, preferred suppliers, hotel rate caps, how to pay for travel, who books travel, how much is permitted for meals, what your team does when there’s a travel emergency… the list goes on!

An easy-to-understand and succinct travel policy is one of the first things your business needs. It will help to control how your travel dollars are spent and how much you pay for business travel. A policy also protects your people with guidance on company-preferred booking options.

Get in touch today or call us on 1300 797 826