By David Chapple, Event Director, Business Travel Show
For the majority of SMEs, buying business travel is rarely a priority and few companies have a structure or policy in place. Instead they purchase it as and when required and often by the traveller themself through an online leisure site.
However, by allowing employees to book independently, SMEs are wasting time and money. For an executive earning ?60,000 for example, a morning spent searching and booking travel will cost your organisation ?128 in lost time and billing. If you have 20 travellers making 20 trips a year all booking independently, that?s the equivalent of over ?51,000 of billable hours wasted.?
So what is the alternative for SMEs operating in a price-driven environment? They may not have the buying power to negotiate discounts, but they certainly buy smarter, save the company time and effort, and enjoy increased benefits and rewards from suppliers by following these simple dos and don?ts.
1???????? DO appoint a travel manager and introduce a travel policy.?Appoint a member of your management support team to take responsibility for buying business travel and work with them to introduce a company-wide travel policy to control spending and reporting.?
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2???????? DON?T use online leisure travel agents. They eat up time and charge hidden fees. If you know what you want to book, go direct ? you?ll get better service and equally good prices.
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3???????? DO ask the experts.If you don?t know what to book and the majority of your business travel is domestic, use rail and hotel booking agents. They will save you time, and HBAs don?t even charge. They also have access to a much wider choice of accommodation to suit all budgets. If you buy flights, use a local business travel agent like Advantage Business Travel or Uniglobe to deal with the more complex itineraries. For a small fee, they will save you hours.
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4???????? DO stay loyal.Loyalty pays. By signing up for programmes that reward companies AND travellers, you can use kickbacks ? such as free upgrades ? to get more for your money. Most major airlines and hotel groups operate reward schemes and the good news is that, thanks to the recession, they are on the rise.?
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5???????? DO look at the complete picture. Booking the cheapest but not the nearest hotel room, for example, may end up costing you more when you factor in extras such as cab fares, parking fees, airport transfers, internet charges and the time and hassle it takes to get to your meeting.
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6???????? DO book ahead. Planning ahead can help you buy quality services for less. ?Fly mid- week or out of season, purchase a multi-city ticket rather than a round trip fare, bundle your flights and accommodation, buy a restricted ticket and stick to your plan rather than fork out for a fully flexible fare! And for rail travel ? never buy tickets at the station, it will cost you 30-40 percent more.
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7???????? DO visit the Business Travel Show. The show takes place in London on 5-6 February 2013, and is Europe?s main exhibition and conference for corporate travel bookers to source, learn and network so it?s the perfect place for your travel booker to find new suppliers and leave with a vat of new knowledge.You can register for free at www.businesstravelshow.com.?
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David Chapple?is the event director of the Business Travel Show, Europe?s leading corporate travel event and organiser of the world?s largest hosted buyer programme for travel buyers. The event runs 5-6 February 2013 at Earls Court in London. www.businesstravelshow.com
Source: http://www.businessrevieweurope.eu/marketing/the-dos-and-donts-of-buying-business-travel
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