How many are you guilty of…
Good business travel management is about much more than finding a cheap flight or booking a hotel. For SMEs, corporate travel needs to balance cost, efficiency, traveller wellbeing, flexibility and duty of care – without creating hours of extra admin for the team back at the office.
Yet there are a few common business travel mistakes we see time and time again.
So, how many of our 7 Deadly Sins of Business Travel sound familiar?
Sin #1: Always booking the cheapest business travel option
We love saving our clients money – but the cheapest flight doesn’t always offer the best value.
A bargain fare could mean a 4am start, an awkward connection, expensive airport transfers or a ticket that can’t be changed when business plans move.
The better way: Look at the entire business trip – price, timings, flexibility, productivity and traveller wellbeing – rather than the headline fare alone.
Sin #2: “I’ll just book the business trip myself…”
Famous last words.
Online travel booking makes finding a flight easy. Finding the right flight, comparing fares, researching business hotels, arranging transfers and making sure the whole itinerary works can take considerably longer.
For busy SMEs, that time soon adds up.
The better way: Consider the true cost of corporate travel booking – including the valuable employee time spent organising it.
Sin #3: Leaving visas and travel requirements until the last minute
Passport? Check. Visa? Erm…
Visa requirements, passport validity and entry rules aren’t the exciting part of international business travel, but getting them wrong can stop a trip before it begins.
The better way: Make visas, documentation and destination entry requirements part of your business travel planning from day one.
Sin #4: Assuming business travel will go to plan
Flight cancellations, delays, missed connections and last-minute itinerary changes happen.
That’s when having a business travel agency or travel management company behind you really comes into its own.
The better way: Make sure business travellers know exactly where to turn when something goes wrong. Principal clients have access to 24/7/365 Out of Hours travel support, because disruption doesn’t politely wait until Monday morning.
Sin #5: Forgetting about traveller wellbeing and duty of care
06:00 flight. Meeting at 11:00. Client dinner. Another meeting at 08:30. Evening flight home.
Efficient on paper? Maybe. Good for the person actually travelling? Not necessarily.
The better way: Make traveller wellbeing and duty of care part of your corporate travel programme. A well-planned itinerary should help employees arrive rested, productive and ready to do business.
Sin #6: Not having a business travel policy
A clear business travel policy gives employees confidence about what they can book, helps managers approve travel consistently and makes life considerably easier for finance and HR teams.
It doesn’t need to be a 50-page rulebook.
The better way: Create practical corporate travel guidelines covering budgets, flights, hotels, booking methods, approvals, traveller safety and exceptions.
Sin #7: Thinking business travel management ends at “Book”
Booking the flight and hotel is only the beginning.
Changes, cancellations, invoices, traveller updates, disruption, reporting and expenses all come afterwards. Spread those tasks across different websites, employees and systems and the administration soon adds up.
The better way: Treat corporate travel as an ongoing business function rather than a collection of individual bookings.
Looking for better business travel management?
At Principal Business Travel, we’re an independent business travel management company supporting SMEs with corporate travel across the UK and worldwide.
We act as an outsourced business travel department, helping with flights, hotels, rail, visas, travel policies, traveller wellbeing, duty of care, disruption management and 24/7 support.
So whether you travel every week or just a few times a year, we’ll help make business travel simpler, safer and more productive.
That’s the Principal difference.
