Imagine yourself as an entrepreneur or business owner who runs a multinational business. Business trips is an integral part of your business as you frequently have to fly to different countries to attend important meetings with stakeholders, speak at conferences and deliver presentations.
With the cost of accommodation, air tickets and transportation skyrocketing, your business trips expenses are bound to go up. There are employees who tend to think of business travel as an opportunity to overspend from the company fund which makes it difficult for businesses to keep their travel expenses in check. As a business, you have a business travel budget and can not afford to exceed your travel budget. So, how can you make your business travel more efficient and save money on corporate trips? If you are looking for an answer to this question then, you are in the right place.
In this article, you will learn about how you can optimize your corporate trips by making it more efficient and saving a lot of money in the process at the same time.
Have a clear travel policy
The first thing is first. You should have a clear travel policy. Having a travel policy is not enough if your employees don’t understand it or you are not enforcing all the travel policies. It is important for businesses to ensure that your employees fully understand what’s written in the policy, which expenses are covered and which expenses are not. Punish employees who break the rules and spend more than allocated budget on a business trip. This will also send a message to other employees that overspending on corporate trips is a punishable crime.
Plan ahead
Most business travel trips are planned a couple of days before departure, which is not the right way to go about it. The problem with this approach is that when you plan your business trip at the eleventh hour, you will have to pay more for everything from air tickets to hotel room. On the contrary, if you plan your trip weeks in advance, you can easily save hundreds of dollars on your business trips. The earlier you book, the lesser you will have to pay for everything.
Use a business credit card
Ever wished you don’t have to carry all the cash with you on your business trip? Well, know you don’t have to. Take your business credit card with you on your corporate trip and make payments from it. It will save you from the hassle of not carrying cash with you but it also delivers the benefits of discounts and reward points. You can save a lot of money by availing special discounts and redeem those rewards to make future purchases. The convenience of making purchases with a business credit card combined with the discounts makes it a great option for corporate travelers. You can pay for best desert safari dubai with your business credit card and enjoy more savings.
Look for alternatives
Flights to regional airports cost you much less so if possible, you should choose a flight that lands on regional airports. Another benefit of taking the alternative routes of the regional airport is that you will have to deal with shorter airport security queues. Moreover, you can cut down the transportation costs by traveling to and from a regional airport. Similarly, you can look for alternative options for accommodation. Instead of booking a five-star hotel, you can book accommodation from apps like Airbnb, which makes you feel right at home while costing you much less.
Hire a travel agency
With the advent of mobile booking apps, hiring a travel agent or travel agency seems so yesterday. Most business traveler thinks that travel agencies are for large scale enterprises, which is not true. If you are smart enough, you can get a better deal even from a travel agency with discounts on hotel rooms and air tickets. When you consider all these savings on a long term basis, hiring a travel agent seems justified.
If you don’t want to book everything on your own and want to outsource everything, travel agents are your best bet. Even if you something does not go according to the plan, you can always contact the travel agent. If you want specialized services such as dhow cruise marina, you must hire a travel agent.
How do you optimize your business trips for efficiency and cost-cutting? Feel free to share it with us in the comments section below.