Travel agencies for business travel take on central tasks of travel management for companies and ensure that compliance with the company’s internal travel guidelines is ensured. The aim of working with a specialized travel agency is to optimize business trips, minimize travel expenses and simplify the booking process and travel reporting. Companies that use the professional know-how of travel agencies for business travel must make a careful selection to ensure that the cooperation is a success.
What are travel guidelines and what is their importance?
Companies that regularly book business trips a year have special travel policies that are mandatory for all employees and that travel agencies ensure compliance with. The aim is to ensure that business trips are cost-effective, safe and, above all, efficient. Typical points that govern travel guidelines are:
- Budget: A binding cost framework ensures that the travel budget is adhered to. The choice of means of transport and hotels is limited by the given budget.
- Reimbursement of travel expenses: Clear rules define which costs are reimbursed – for example, transport, hotel and food costs.
- Approval procedure: Specific policies ensure that a company is notified of an employee’s travel plans and gives its consent prior to travel.
- Compliance with legal requirements and rules: Business travelers must comply with all applicable requirements of customs and tax authorities, visa offices and insurance companies.
- Safety: By establishing regulations on travel warnings, the selection of safe accommodation and means of transport, and emergency contacts, the safety of business travelers is maximized.
- Travel Reporting: Clear guidelines simplify the submission of reports and statements.
Travel policies also include everything about travel agencies for business travel – including which providers are allowed to work with and how to pay for the services, for example through special travel accounts and corporate credit cards.
Time and cost savings for companies
If companies and – as a special customer group digital nomads – decide to work with a travel agency for business trips and hand over travel arrangements – such as booking train journeys, flights, rental cars and hotels – there must be a clearly measurable benefit. After the Corona forced break, companies tend to combine appointments and travel stops due to limited travel budgets, which results in longer business trips and more complex travel routes. An important point that travel agencies for business travel do in this context is to negotiate group and corporate rates.
Flexibility and fast response times
For business travelers, last-minute changes to travel plans are just as much on the agenda as the cancellation of flights due to strikes and bad weather. Good travel agencies for business travel use modern technologies and digital processes. They provide a variety of contact options as well as a round-the-clock emergency service that ensures that stranded employees can quickly and safely find accommodation in a hotel or continue their journey to their destination through cancellations and rebookings. Excellent digital skills on the part of the travel agency facilitate the exchange of travel documents and communication, which takes place mainly on a virtual level.
Conclusion – simple booking experiences for more convenience
In times of digitalization, in which virtual meetings make many business trips superfluous, it is all the more important for companies that the financial and time expenditure for business trips at home and abroad is worthwhile. Cost efficiency and safety considerations play just as important a role as the exchange of travel information via virtual communication channels and the digitization of planning, booking and travel reporting. Travel agencies for business travel take care of travel arrangements, pay attention to cost efficiency and ensure reliable compliance with a company’s travel policy. Business travellers value reliable and individualised services as well as fast response times to changes and emergency situations – simply stress-free.
