Are your travelers getting the lowest airfares, hotel room rates and car rental rates available? What about overall cost effectiveness? Have you maximized your potential for cost reduction? There could be thousands of dollars in savings just waiting to be realized.
Below is a quick checklist to see where you might find additional savings:
Small and Medium Size Accounts:
For companies with less than $1 million in annual travel spend, the primary strategies for cost reduction involve controlling traveler behavior, providing access to lowest fares/rates, lowering the cost of service through an online booking tool and reducing the impact of trip disruptions.
- Do you have an official travel policy in place?
- Does it address airline fare classes, car rental types (and insurance), parking, gas refilling service, per diems, advance booking windows and allowable expenses? (Remember, Congress just changed the rules regarding entertainment expenses.)
- Is your travel policy mandated?
- Does your travel agency and/or online booking tool incorporate internet rates? Direct Connect rates?
- Have you added options for ride sharing programs (Uber, Lyft) or AirBNB?
- Have you enrolled in multiple airline discount programs?
- Has your TMC (travel management company) benchmarked your hotel and car rental rates?
- Do you have a Duty-of-Care program in place? Can you track travelers during an emergency? What about mobile alerts for flight changes and trip disruptions? Being able to rebook cancelled flights before everyone else on the plane gets their tickets can save the cost of extra hotel days and lost productivity.
Larger Accounts:
For companies with more than $1 million in annual travel spend, the above considerations are still important, but additional strategies for cost reduction become available…
- Do you have a primary airline contract in place? Have you consulted with your TMC about the opportunity for additional negotiated corporate discounts in selected markets?
- Have you enrolled in corporate airline discount programs for volume that doesn’t apply to your negotiated contracts? (Neglecting to capture these benefits is the most common mistake we see with large accounts.)
- Has your TMC negotiated discount rates at individual properties near your offices? (Generally, 100 room nights per year is needed in a market to get a discount rate.)
- Have you consolidated your meeting and transient travel programs?
- If you have meetings where attendees pay for their own travel (association members, distribution partners, the public) have you considered having your TMC manage the registration/booking process so you can add the airline volume to your own?
Teplis has been providing corporate travel management programs for over four decades. During this time, we have developed a set of best practices which is guaranteed to deliver maximum cost reduction. Our extensive contacts in the travel industry, when coupled with our experience, can help you get a corporate discount where others have failed.
Don’t go to RFP without including Teplis among the bidders!
Contact us at sales@teplis.com for help with maximizing your travel program and minimizing spend…
