In the modern-day, travel has become integral for most businesses. From meeting overseas clients to overseeing remote teams, there are many different reasons why yourself or someone at your company may need to travel to another city or country. Nevertheless, whilst the trip may be a productive one, it can often be inefficient in relation to company expenditure. Thus, read on to discover 5 top tips for reducing the amount of money spent on travel at your business.
By Team Savant
Image: Nils Nedel on Unsplash
1. Take Advantage of Discounts
First and foremost, the world of travel is filled to the brim with a whole host of discounts. Yet, the problem is that a lot of people don’t take advantage of them. Don’t merely consider discounted flight prices. You should look for discounts in relation to everything from conference room hire, to car rental costs, to accommodation. Moreover, it is likely you will be given one price on the telephone and another price over the Internet, so it is worth keeping this in mind too.
2. Rebooking Options
Hefty expenses often sting companies when they need to rebook a trip. This happens a lot more frequently than we would like it to. Nothing is a certainty in the world of business, and therefore it is not uncommon for something to come up that causes you to reschedule. Because of this, you should always look for airlines and accommodation that offer flexibility. Discover how much you will have to pay to alter your booking.
3. Reward Schemes
A lot of airlines, hotels, and car rental companies, offer great reward schemes. You really don’t feel the value of these until you have booked several trips. Because of this, a lot of people deem them to be worthless. However, in the long run, you will save a significant amount of money.
4. Be Flexible
Of course, it is not always possible to be flexible when it comes to business arrangements. Nonetheless, if you can be, then do it. You will find that flying at an unfavourable time will allow you to make significant savings. However, you also need to consider the impact this is going to have on the traveller. It is worth flying at a favourable hour on the way there, so the individual is in the right frame of mind for the task at hand. You can then book a night flight on the way back, yet you may need to contemplate allowing your employee to have the following day off work to recover. After all, if you force your employees to travel at awful hours and you don’t consider this in terms of the day before and after, you’re going to cause frustration, which could result in you losing your best talent. Read these employee retention tips to make sure that does not happen.
5. Do You Really Need to Fly?
Last but not least, ask yourself the question, do you really need to fly to the destination? Don’t forget to check out the possibility of using the train. Nowadays you can get to a wealth of destinations at a cheaper cost by hopping on the train instead.