Corporate travel is costly for any business but for helping build reputation and connections with clients, it’s essential. There are plenty of ways that you can help make cost reductions to save the organization more money in the long run.
For some businesses, there can be multiple employees flying all over the place, both on domestic flights and internationally. Regardless of the amount of travel your business does over the year or the type of travel involved, there’s always more you can do to save money.
In this article, you’ll discover the top ten ways to save money on your next business trip so that your business can continue to scale up and make more profit year in, and year out.
Why is business travel important?
Business travel is a major money-maker for many businesses who conduct this type of travel. While there might be the initial investment of spending money for travel and accommodation, it can pay itself back if the business secures more work off the back of it.
With business travel expected to contribute $1.7 trillion by the end of 2022, it’s certainly an industry that won’t be slowing down, even despite the pandemic.
Human interaction
Business travel is essential for human interaction. While some of it can be done remotely, a lot of businesses rely on building relationships through good old-fashioned human one-on-one.
We’re creatures of habit and to not spend a lot of time with others can be hard for some. For businesses, not getting out there and interacting in person with other businesses or clients, can be damaging to the business performance and its success in the future.
Opportunities for business
With this kind of travel in place, many businesses can benefit from expanding their horizons. It can help open doors that were previously closed and could give a business the chance it needs to find much more success. Whether that’s found in the company’s own country or overseas, there are a lot of opportunities out there for a business to get hold of with corporate travel.
Visibility that benefits leadership in the industry
With businesses operating regular travel to meet up with potential clients or collaborate with other businesses, it helps provide more visibility for the company. This can directly benefit those who are looking to become leaders within their own industry.
10 best ways to save money on your next business trip
Looking to save money for your business trips in the near future and beyond? This list should hopefully be a great starting point for those that need to save money and would benefit from doing so for the growth of the business.
1. Look at travel management competitors to best suit your needs.
Travel management platforms are a great way to help save money when it comes to booking travel. Looking at Concur competitors for example is useful to do in order to find a travel management company that suits your needs and requirements as a business.
The benefits of using such a service are expansive but most of all, it can help take the burden of having to arrange business travel from those working in-house that might be best placed elsewhere.
With a travel management platform in place, everything can be handled for you. Some services offer 24/7 support, which can often be a challenge for some businesses that only operate during traditional office hours. So if an employee runs into problems at 5am in the morning with their flight, the travel management platform in question can always be on hand to help.
2. Amend or update your current travel policies in place.
Travel policies are useful to have because they set rules and boundaries when it comes to employees booking travel, whether it’s them that’s going or someone is booking it on their behalf.
It’s worthwhile taking the time to amend or update your current travel policies to tighten the process of booking travel. Perhaps setting limits on who can travel and who needs to sign off on bigger budget travel excursions.
3. Sign up for any airline, travel, or accommodation rewards.
There are plenty of airlines, travel companies, and accommodation chains that will offer rewards for those who are regular travelers. In order to save more money for the business, it’s worthwhile looking at any and all reward programs that you can sign up for in order to save a bit of money at regular intervals down the line.
Some airlines, for example, will offer air miles, meaning you can save up air miles from each trip taken and hopefully get to a point where you have enough air miles for a free trip or two!
4. Be selective about who you allow for business travel.
When you’re booking business travel, it’s always good to heed caution when picking employees who are going to travel. There might be certain eligibility criteria you set for each travel excursion that employees will need to meet.
For example, a particular trip might only require five people to go or it might be executives or staff members from a certain department within the company. By being selective about who you allow traveling for business, you help reduce the unnecessary costs of giving some employees what is essentially a free holiday.
5. Set realistic food and transport allowances.
While you want to be able to give your employees the best experience when traveling for business, you want to be realistic about the food and transport allowances.
Of course, transport should always be covered fully when it comes to employees working on behalf of the business. However, you do want to be wary about how much of a budget you give for food. There will be some staff members who might take advantage of your generosity.
6. Plan everything in advance to save more.
Planning everything in advance is always more beneficial than having to book accommodation or transport last minute. You’re guaranteed to make more of a saving as an early bird than you are if you’re waiting for the last few days before the trip is meant to go ahead.
If you haven’t already got the staff in-house to do it, then you can always rely on outsourcing the services to get it all done for you ahead of time. If you’re allowing each trip to creep up on you, you’re going to end up losing more money than saving it.
7. Encourage your employees to be frugal in their spending.
Being frugal can be a major benefit for a business and if you’re able to do so, then it’s good to encourage your employees to be frugal with their expenditures too. Try to encourage it whenever a new trip is being planned.
Of course, there will be times when money can’t be saved, but there are certainly times when employees will likely overspend, especially as it’s not their money so they’re likely to be more tap-happy with the company card.
8. Reward those who travel with money-saving incentives.
Talking of your employees, reward those who manage to save more money or discover money-saving incentives that rack up the savings that are made overall within the business as a result.
There are plenty of incentives that you could provide like vouchers or cash bonuses at the end of the year. Give your employees a reason to be proactive in saving money.
9. Consider whether a trip could be done remotely instead.
Can the trip be done remotely? We’ve learned from the pandemic that not every trip is needed and that a lot of business relationships and work can be done via remote meetings. Consider whether a trip could be done virtually or not and how impactful it would be to not have the trip done in person.
It might not always be the best option to do it all remotely, but there might be a trip or two saved that can be put towards a future trip that’s essential. Virtual meetings don’t show any signs of slowing down with 145 million daily users on Microsoft Teams alone.
10. Always look for new deals and tools to help save money.
There are always deals out there to take advantage of as a business. With new tools popping up every so often, you should be on the lookout for online sites and apps that can help save you money when booking or organizing travel as a business.
Whatever tips you use from this article, you’ll surely make a reasonable saving on your business travel in 2022 and beyond. Look at what costs can be cut to make corporate travel more cost-effective and financially beneficial for the business in the long run.
Disclaimer: MoneyMagpie is not a licensed financial advisor and therefore information found here including opinions, commentary, suggestions or strategies are for informational, entertainment or educational purposes only. This should not be considered as financial advice. Anyone thinking of investing should conduct their own due diligence.
