ITILITE

Travel Management Software Delaware

Travel Management Software Delaware

Many business travelers these days travel frequently for work purposes. But most of them lack experience and expertise in making travel plans.

In addition, they must manage common business travel challenges like delayed flights, disappointing hotel rooms, and tracking expense receipts.

To make it easier for employees to plan business trips and deal with travel contingencies, many enterprises employ a corporate travel consultant. A business travel consultant or corporate travel agent is a professional who helps employees organize business trips and make travel arrangements without putting in extra time or effort.

Travel Management Software in New York

If you are about to travel on a business trip and are making plans, it is definitely not the time or occasion to carry your pajamas. Family vacations and business trips are not the same. Managing business trips requires consideration of expenses, priorities, and dates. Meticulous planning is necessary to ensure your comfort, safety, and efficiency. Amongst all this, you must also adhere to the budget regulations of your company.

This guide will unpack all the dos and don’ts to watch out for when managing business travel.

10 Dos and Don’ts for a well-planned business trip

These are the essential factors of business travel management to ensure a successful trip.

The Dos:

#1 Do read the company travel policies and practices carefully

Wherever you happen to travel, you must first remember to familiarize yourself with the company travel policies regarding your business trip. Feigning ignorance and then violating corporate policies or protocol would be unprofessional. Instead, talk to your immediate supervisor or reporting manager to clarify what you need to know to follow policy compliance.

#2 Do seek a suitable travel platform

A professional business travel management platform like Itilite is always ready to meet all your demands whenever you need them. You need a travel service that is informed about the subtleties of corporate travel management and can support you because they will regularly check for the offers and schedules most beneficial to your business.

#3 Do collect receipts and be transparent concerning payments.

What does your business plan to do to manage traveler receipts for reimbursement purposes? You can easily keep your expenditures in check and get reimbursements using a platform that supports digital receipt monitoring instead of hard copies.

The best course of action is to save all invoices so that your company can verify when you submit a claim for reimbursement. That way, the expense report becomes effortless, and your likelihood of committing blunders gets reduced while everything is sorted out and arranged. You should check with your manager or human resource department if you have any doubts regarding company refunds.

#4 Do prepare for emergencies

Travel has the scope for many potential interruptions. Missed flights, delayed or canceled trips, natural calamities, and diseases are a few examples. A solid contingency plan can effectively protect stranded business travelers. It would be wise to review company policies and develop a suitable backup plan immediately to mitigate any unprecedented situation.

#5 Do create a checklist of everything you require to carry on a business trip

Business trips may sometimes be hasty and unplanned. As a result, you can be prone to overlooking the necessities. It’s usually helpful to have a corporate travel management itinerary and checklist available, whether it’s on your smartphone or desktop.

The Donts:

#6 Don’t make last-minute arrangements

The key to staying on top of your travel and expense budget is to plan in advance whenever possible. By doing this, you can benefit from reduced prices, bargain for extras like window seats or legroom, and organize your itinerary more easily.

Most businesses have a favorite airline service, so if you have one, you may be able to make deals and get benefits like reduced luggage costs and upgrade your travelers whenever available.

Make sure to explain to your travelers the advantages of making early reservations, but also ensure you have a corporate travel management system that can assist you in making changes and avoiding fees. These additional costs can sometimes total several dollars on every booking.

#7 Don’t let time slip your mind

Sometimes we can get so caught up in our tasks that we may not remember to look at the time. So, you should be careful to arrive on time by setting alerts or receiving reminders, particularly if you need to hop on a plane.

#8 Don’t neglect to store and backup data

We all prefer to keep safe in everything we do, especially while we travel. So, try to ensure that you store and back up everything before you get set to go. While gadgets can change, missing crucial information at the nth hour might completely alter the tenor of your business travel.

#9 Don’t carry everything you got

If you’re one of those worriers, packing more than you need may cause your business travel to take longer than anticipated. Imagine that you have to haul a ton of baggage through the airport. The experience of getting past security checkpoints, locating storage on an airplane, and calling for a taxi or hiring a car can be significantly unpleasant and consume too much time. Whereas, when you travel minimally, your journey will go quickly and less stressfully.

Look into upgrading your traveling luggage by buying a conventional black rolling suitcase. Especially if the only bag you own is an outdated backpack that you have been carrying on your field trips since college. Update to a luggage brand with a more polished appearance and one that easily slides into plane storage spaces.

#10 Don’t have too many controlling processes

Nobody likes to experience micromanagement. People cannot reach wherever they must go quickly if your company’s business travel policies don’t permit customization or have restricted accessibility to expedited security services.

Business travelers seek comfort and safety. The accounts department is interested in determining who is taking the trip and how much it will cost. The travel coordinator wants to streamline the approach. While the business traveler only wants a comfortable business trip.

Luckily, when you use a basic travel management program, you may make it easier to arrange trips and keep costs in check while also assisting passengers in selecting the best solutions.

Closing Thoughts

It costs roughly $990 to $1,293 to go on a three-day domestic business trip. Although spending is necessary for business travel management, travel expenses can negatively influence the company’s net income, particularly for small businesses. Basically, a business travel market spends over a trillion USD of someone else’s funds. Simply put, business travelers are employees who are not using their own money; they are using the company’s budgets.

Employees don’t deliberately aim to splurge money on corporate travel-related trips. But they also don’t have an excuse or reason to save. Hence saving on budgets for corporate travel may seem daunting, particularly if your staff needs to fly to various destinations all year. The estimate of an overseas corporate travel cost is often $2,600 or more occasionally.

Still, small businesses can find ways to reduce expenses without sacrificing the safety and comfort of their traveling employees. Here we curated some of the most effective strategies for reducing your company’s corporate travel costs.

7 Simple ways to reduce travel costs

#1 Seek services with multiple options

Research and look for corporate travel services with an extensive flight inventory for your small business. Be careful when choosing flight tickets because they can be overpriced. If you have travel plans, choose an inexpensive airline, have flexible dates, and stick with economy flights. So, you can save plenty of money.

Unless actually required for a travel plan, get flexible flights that allow you to pick your return ticket. If other options exist in your region, consider them as well. Possibilities include trains as they are frequently cheaper. Besides, you can complete tasks on your desktop while traveling.

#2 Set up a multi-tiered approval system

Putting a mechanism in effect to manage booking authorization is among the easiest methods to save small business travel costs. By communicating who approves a trip, you won’t face the issue of cancellations after booking, resulting in wasteful spending.

Create a booking tool online provided by your travel management company and use it to the fullest extent possible. It allows more control over your small business travel plans. You can decide whether employees can make accommodation and travel reservations using a suitable platform. Then you can conveniently keep track of all employee travel bookings. That way, you can respond right away to their requests.

#3 Streamline your company’s corporate travel policies

It’s essential to have a corporate travel management policy. Implement processes for expenditures, bookings, and fees while on the travel booking platform. Establishing specific rules can support your company users in making choices that adhere to company guidelines and avoid incurring extra expenses that impact your revenues negatively. Your traveling executive may not understand whether an upcoming trip complies with the spending plan without set rules and regulations.

Check your current small business travel policy carefully to ensure it covers all the guidelines necessary to support any eventuality in travel expenses.

#4 Reserve in advance

While we understand that sudden travel plans are occasionally part of work, if you can organize the itinerary date much ahead, you may save a ton of money. That’s the cardinal rule of cutting costs for small businesses. Booking rooms and tickets in advance is usually a good idea when traveling for business because the prices will rise as the date gets closer.

#5 Rewards and incentive schemes

Your employees can help you save big money when they choose a cost-effective way to travel.

Thus, the expense saved by the company can build up over time. So offer your employees a reward for making additional savings. Recognize the ones that help you save money on travel and accommodation. Incentivize them with a gift card to a preferred retailer, a percentage of the money saved, or even vacation or days off.

Most hotel chains and airlines provide complimentary rooms or plane tickets as incentives for a loyal clientele. They call it the “frequent travel rewards” or “frequent flyer program.”

While it is not realistic for big businesses to include such rewards in their travel budgets, small businesses can apply them to save expenses by tens of thousands of dollars annually.

# 6 Maintain a reasonable budget for food and logistics

Allowing your small business employees discretion on their expenses for travel and meals may eventually help encourage responsible spending. For instance, a corporate traveler can decide what amount they will spend on meals when the company fixes a per-day food allowance.

Of course, you can anticipate outliers, so plan to save those five-star restaurant wine-and-dine meals for your most valuable client appointments. A small business may urge staff to adopt the most affordable method by asking them to use shared taxis, public transport, or Uber wherever possible. You can also pay your employees who use their personal automobiles.

#7 Reduce accommodation expenses

If your company’s travel strategy bases itself on a few preferred hotel brands, you might lose out on the best deals and steals. When you spread your possibilities and alternatives to booking with serviced apartments for extended stays or Airbnbs, you can save money and improve the traveling experience for your staff.

Sometimes, even with the same hotel, room prices differ. So planning ahead can result in significant benefits. You can allow your business travelers to pick their own accommodations. That’s great, but be careful to specify a price cap. Additionally, you may mention that standard rooms are the mandatory accommodation category and indicate upfront if you’ll ever be paying for minibar expenses, Wi-Fi service charges, etc.

The Bottom Line

A report predicts that the worldwide business travel industry will increase at a compound annual growth rate of 7.88% with around $1.5 trillion in value from 2022 to 2027.

Obviously, a small business would want to make the most of its corporate travel budget. Finding the information on the right platform will not be difficult.

Best Travel Management Software

Company Travel Software In Delaware

A frequent question businesses ask is, “Will this travel management company be a good fit for our business?” And this is the one companies probably also need to determine: what features to look for when choosing a travel management agency? If you look at the travel industry en masse, you have many options, but not all of them may suit your establishment. One of the big reasons it’s so paramount to pick a good travel management company is that they can provide the professionalism and expertise to make the best travel decisions.

But many are confused by the difference between a travel management agency and a travel management platform. So let’s start by understanding each.

What is a traditional travel management company, and what is a travel management platform?

Travel management company

A travel management company is a service provider that handles business travel. There are small and big travel companies, some less focussed on innovation and technology than others. They take care of travel for your employees. They may also offer companies around-the-clock customer service.

A company may generally designate an account manager at the travel agency to assist with all your business’s travel-related activities. They will ensure that company policies are adhered to and provide customer service for all company travelers. They establish connections between corporates and service providers in the supply chain.

These travel agencies offer many benefits, such as:

Booking hotels and flights for your company

Preparing your travel schedule

Creating travel packages

Compiling travel paperwork

Organizing and planning trips for your employees

Offering assistance and alternatives for trip cancellation, reschedulings, etc.

Providing corporate rates and contracts for individual and group bookings

Business travel management platform

A business travel management platform has a comprehensive suite of applications and tools to help your business organize and prepare for travel, reduce stress and risk, simplify communication and coordination, and optimize operations. By automating the pre-travel process, your business will save time and money on pre-trip and post-trip work. Additionally, using a reputable platform will protect your business by providing comprehensive coverage even in an emergency or a worst-case scenario.

How to choose the best travel management company

Find a travel management company that helps streamline your workflow and keep you organized. Here are a few tips on choosing a good travel management company:

Do your research

Before making any decisions, do due diligence and find the right platform for your business. Ensure you consider the features, pricing, and support options before signing a contract.

Consider what you need

Since each company carries its own needs, it is critical to consider what you need when considering a business travel management company. Some travel agents offer comprehensive event planning capabilities, while others may focus on logistics only.

Benefits and features of the ultimate travel management company

The ideal travel management agency will provide a complete business travel service.

Cost saving/ corporate rates

Negotiating with suppliers can be profitable in any business. A good travel agency will negotiate a competitive rate for your company with the vendor.

Timely and efficient management

Business travel has become a vital part of daily operations as most organizations do business globally. Travelers and organizations require travel companies to ensure timely and efficient travel management.

Customer support

The right travel management company should provide you with customer advice and support from an in-house designated travel manager 24/7.

Customized itinerary

A corporate travel management company handles travel for your company and much more. They manage business tours, make group bookings, hire cars, organize MICE events and help you organize all elements of your company’s business travel.

Hassle-free

They can remove much of the hassle inherent in managing several teams, various locations, and aspects of your business.

What a business travel platform solution can provide

Best inventory and rates

The best business travel platforms offer a wide range of flights and hotel rates. Thus, you can take advantage of steal deals and industry-leading bargains.

Next-level integration

Corporate travel management software is an integrated, web-based solution and a valuable resource.

Automation makes it easy

You can ease your workload by automating tasks and finding unique travel solutions.

24/7 support system

It provides access to information, support, and advice from experts or professional chatbots 24/7.

Advanced analytics

Travel managers can access real-time data, accurate reports, and actionable insights.

Saves expenses

You can save up to 30% on operational costs and improve the travel experience for all employees. A platform allows you to maximize your travel and control your spending.

Autonomous, fast service, saves time

This solution offers quick booking in 90 seconds, planning trips, and customer support.

Customized solutions and tracking

You can create a personalized itinerary for each trip, amend bookings, track expenses, manage travel for everyone traveling with your company, and so much more.

All-in-one platform

Whether you are a business traveler or a company travel manager, a comprehensive business travel management platform is your one-stop solution for checking availability, scheduling flights, planning train bookings, tracking expenses, and managing distribution and payment in cashless mode.

No stress, no worry

Business travel software is an essential travel management tool to integrate scheduling and expense tracking with a suite of accounting features.

Streamlines compliance

Business travel management software helps to streamline your day-to-day travel operations in compliance with relevant company policies.

Closing thoughts

Choosing the best travel management software is tricky no matter what you do, so if you are here right now, rest assured you have come to the best place at the right time. Besides planning and arranging trips, corporate travel management involves many other important aspects.

An ideal corporate travel management company should have your company’s best interests at heart and provide the ultimate travel solutions. It should offer the options that are advantageous to you.

What is travel management software?

Travel management software enables booking, planning, tracking, and analysis of corporate travel. A travel management platform is a framework that supports policy compliance, real-time reporting, and flight inventories.

Here, we will discuss important factors to look out for when choosing top-tier travel management software.

12 Factors to help you find the ideal travel management software

#1 Determine the kind of service provider your business requires

Companies want to look for expense management services that support their staff and accounting departments without hindering operations and day-to-day progress. Your business, like any other, has some special requirements.

Hence, businesses and their top management must assess the company’s individual necessities before shopping around.

But before you dive in, it’s crucial to have a firm grasp of all the software’s capabilities and functions. Each travel software has its packet of features, so pick one best suited to your organization.

Sure, multiple features can be beneficial, still if your company doesn’t require them, they may be superfluous. Similarly, look for a solution that provides the services your organization needs, not just the superficial frills or gimmicks. The software is now simpler to use, and you won’t incur any extra expenses.

#2 Comprehensive inventory

Maintaining travel compliance involves ensuring your inventory is accessible, your policy guidelines are understood, and that employees follow your approval process.

If the travel management software doesn’t include budget hotels and flight service providers, you are missing significant cost-saving benefits. Given that gen Zers and Millenials prefer affordable hotels, it makes sense to provide options.

#3 Integrated Expense Management

Look for the best travel and expense management software like ITILITE to manage and keep records of the company’s travel expenses. Companies deploying staff on business trips can use T&E management software to monitor traveling personnel, make bookings, and create reports.

#4 Makes bookings quickly

Booking a corporate trip does not need to be tediously long. If you store the details of every traveler in your travel management software, you can save a lot of time.

#5 Allows adherence to company policies

When travel policies are adhered to, the travel manager is relieved of significant responsibility. It decreases work anxiety and the expense of travel and streamlines approval requests. Your in-app policy should also be customizable based on factors relevant to your company guidelines.

#6 Ease of use

Reroutes are irritating when it comes to business travel, and they also make it extremely difficult to trace your work trip. You will end up searching every month to gather your receipts. With the right travel management software, processes should be easy for travel managers and employees.

#7 Avant-garde analytics

The ability to provide information on business trips is among the crucial aspects of any travel management software. So, you can make informed choices that will let you save costs by allowing you to determine areas you are overspending. The software should help you keep track of travel expenses by department or team, amount spent, and other factors.

#8 Features that are simple and efficient

If you are the end user, don’t seek travel management software that can’t offer seamless solutions. In a perfect scenario, you want to swiftly make new bookings and retrieve or modify old ones without needing to switch between countless suppliers.

#9 An omnichannel to keep track of all the trips

Arranging all your business travel in one location makes it simple to track. Integrating travel is the primary objective of a travel management solution. So what happens in a real-world scenario?

Generally speaking, the platform should allow you to sign in and view bookings, policy violations, and more. You’ll also need a single platform for approvals, schedule information, cancellation alerts, etc.

#10 Saved information and data management

It is not necessary to spend a long time arranging business trips. Ideally, it will be only a  few minutes, provided you have software that automates and saves each traveler’s data in your travel management software. It may comprise the employee’s name, age, gender, ID proofs, birthdate, and other details.

#11 Excellent customer service

Whenever you plan a trip, try to remember anything can happen. Consequently, you will need a service provider who gives you the flexibility you need when schedules change and unexpected things happen. A platform that allows the flexibility to mitigate the issue swiftly and effectively. It should also have a friendly support team and charge minimal or no costs for any modifications.

Furthermore, your travel management software must include assistance at little or no extra cost to the company. The processes should be transparent without any nasty surprises because you’ll want to be aware of what you are in for at all times.

Also, travelers must receive the support they ask for when they require it without having to get anxious over disrupting their budgets with a barrage of service calls.

#12 User Management

Travel managers should have access to their travel management software and view what’s going on. Having control of the software and access to what the team has been scheduling helps you gain a quick perspective to take action when needed.

As a travel manager, you may be savvy with various scenarios. That may be whether you are managing your own travel plans or assisting people with making travel arrangements. You should be able to quickly pull up the booking or monitor to see who wants additional assistance.

Bottom Line: Ask for a Demo

A demo can assist you in determining how effectively the service functions and how your company would gain from using it. Before signing up, make sure your service provider answers all the pertinent questions and ensure you test the capabilities of the software.

The strong comeback of business travel is making companies increase the number of domestic and international business trips. Employees have started traveling to various destinations regularly to accomplish specific business travel goals.

Also, they will get opportunities to blend work commitments and leisure activities by leveraging the bleisure travel benefits supported by employers. While traveling for work, employees these days have the option to leverage different bleisure options.

For instance, some employees can extend work trips for leisure purposes, while others can enjoy work trips with family or friends. That is why; every employee must refer to the organizational travel policies to decide the right way to blend work and leisure during business trips. Also, they should follow some simple best practices to enjoy the bleisure trip along with achieving business travel goals.

10 Ways Business Travelers Can Enjoy Bleisure Trips in the Right Way

1. Prioritize Work over Leisure

Organizations support bleisure travel to make business trips successful by keeping employees stress-free. While planning bleisure trips, you must prioritize work over leisure. You need to ensure that the extended work trip does not impact the outcome of the meeting.

For instance, you should consider flying out earlier when there is a tight deadline for the commencement or completion of an important project. Likewise, you should not indulge in leisure activities when your coworkers have to work longer hours on the project.

2. Maintain Transparency

Many companies these days allow employees to combine work and leisure while updating travel policies after the pandemic. But they require employees to get approval from managers or the HR department to indulge in leisure activities during business trips.

You must convey your intention to combine work and leisure while sending business travel requests. Transparency is essential to avoid misunderstandings with coworkers or superiors after the business trip.

3. Comply with Organizational Travel Policy

Companies these days define reimbursable and non-reimbursable travel expenses by implementing elaborate travel policies. They reimburse most travel expenses incurred by an employee for work purposes.

But they reimburse only specific expenses incurred by employees for leisure purposes. You must understand your organization’s travel policy to identify reimbursable leisure costs. The understanding will help you avoid overspending and speed up travel expense reimbursements.

4. Include Weekends in the Trip Schedule

You can indulge in additional leisure activities on the business trip by spending a weekend in the business travel destination. While scheduling professional activities, you should explore ways to avoid paid leaves by leveraging weekends.

You can leverage weekends by arriving at the destination on Saturday or leaving the destination on Sunday. However, you must not miss the chance to add two weekends to week-long business trips.

5. Customize Your Travel Packing List

While making trip-specific travel packing lists, work travelers prioritize business attire or formal attire over casual attire. But you have to make several changes to the business travel packing list if you want to combine work and leisure.

Your updated travel packing list should include active casual, rugged casual, and smart casual attires along with flip flops. However, you must not forget to include a swimsuit which you can wear while relaxing by the pool in the hotel.

6. Spend Time with Friends

Many companies these days allow employees to take their partner, family member, or friend on bleisure trips. You should request your partner or friend to join you on the bleisure trip if your company’s travel policies allow it.

Otherwise, you can use the bleisure trip as an opportunity to spend time with your friends living in the business travel destination. They will help you experience the distinct culture of the city by interacting with the local people.

7. Plan Leisure Activities in Advance

Bleisure trips are much shorter than leisure trips. You get opportunities to indulge in leisure activities for a few days after completing work commitments. That is why; you must decide the things to do and places to see in the travel destination in advance.

Also, you can enjoy the trip more by doing the things you want to do. For instance, you should spend a short time exploring museums and art galleries if you are interested in experiencing the city’s artistic heritage.

8. Make the Most Out of the Downtime

You can extend work trips for leisure purposes if your company supports bleisure travel. But you can make a work trip more exciting only by making the most out of the downtime. You can explore the city’s distinct culture after completing work commitments by joining heritage walks, visiting eateries popular with local people, and taking leisurely walks.

9. Consider Exploring a Different City

Europe and America create opportunities for you to explore multiple cities during the same bleisure trip. You can travel from one popular travel destination to another in a few hours by taking a train ride. While planning bleisure trips, you should explore ways to spend time in cities other than the business travel destination. You can make the bleisure trip more exciting by experiencing cultural differences between two popular cities.

10. Focus on Safety and Security

Companies ensure the safety and security of employees traveling for work by meeting duty of care responsibilities. Most companies these days implement business travel management software that comes with a built-in duty-of-care solution. Employees can access the software to manage travel risks by getting support in real-time.

But organizational travel policies often extend the duty of care solutions only to the business part of the business trip. Employees have to explore ways to remain safe and secure during an extended business trip. Hence, you must focus on remaining safe while indulging in leisure activities if your company does not extend the duty of care solution for the entire bleisure trip.

Conclusion

Corporate Travel Policy Template

Corporate Travel Policy Template

The big bang return seen by business travel creates opportunities for your enterprise to increase revenue and profits by investing in corporate travel. But you cannot increase return on investment (ROI) on business travel only by making more employees engage in domestic and international travel.

In addition to increasing the number of business trips, you must make business trips successful through travel management automation. Your company or startup needs company travel software that helps employees achieve work travel goals by keeping them comfortable, relaxed, and safe.

At the same time, the travel management software will help your organization control work travel costs despite global inflation. But you can leverage short-term and long-term benefits by implementing the right company travel software.

For instance, you can reduce infrastructural overheads by implementing cloud-based company travel software. Likewise, your employees will love to use the software when they can access it on computers and mobile devices.

But you should look for specific features that deliver the benefits required to meet your organization’s current and emerging travel needs.

12 Benefits You Should Consider While Comparing Company Travel Software

1. Anytime and Anywhere Access

Employees access company travel software before, during, and after business trips. You can enable them to access the software on the go when it is optimized for mobile apps. Also, you must evaluate the software’s user interface (UI) to ensure that employees can perform desired tasks without putting in extra time and effort.

2. Travel Policy Implementation

Employees can understand business travel rules clearly when they can access organizational travel policies using the software. You can implement custom travel policies while configuring the company travel software. This benefit is essential to prevent employees from escalating work travel costs by violating predefined travel policies.

3. Travel Policy Compliance

Work travelers often violate preset policies due to a lack of understanding. The software will make them comply with organizational policies by displaying travel rules customized based on employees, departments, routes, and similar parameters. Also, the software informs you about travel policy violations by sending real-time notifications.

4. Faster Travel Request Approvals

Employees find it challenging to make business travel arrangements properly when there is a delay in trip approvals. You must ensure that an employee sends trip requests to the right authority and the authority approves the request immediately. The company travel software will make it easier for employees to send trip requests to the right authority. Also, the approvers can use the same software to accept or decline out-of-policy travel requests.

5. Smooth Travel Booking Experience

Work travelers these days want to book their choice of flights, accommodations, and other business travel solutions. You can enable employees to book their preferred travel products and services by implementing company travel software that supports self-booking. However, you can make more booking options available to work travelers by implementing software that comes with access to a large travel inventory.

6. Latest Travel Information Delivery

Many employees are yet to travel for business purposes confidently after the pandemic. You can make work travelers confident only by making them access real-time travel information. The company travel software will deliver the latest travel information to employees before and during the business trip. Employees can access the software as a mobile app to access the real-time information required to stay safe and manage work travel risks.

7. Duty of Care Obligations

While making travel policies after the pandemic, you must focus on meeting your company’s duty of care solution. The right company travel software will ensure the safety of work travelers by tracking their real-time locations. Also, employees can access the duty of care solution embedded in the software to manage emergencies by getting the required assistance or support on time.

8. Travel Data Consolidation

You can track and access information about various business trips instantly only by consolidating employee travel data. The company travel software will enable you to access travel data in a single place. Also, you can access relevant data by generating reports based on important parameters like employees, departments, projects, destinations, and business travel goals.

9. Travel Data Analysis

You can improve work travelers’ experiences and control business travel costs by making data-driven decisions. But you have to put in time and effort to gain actionable insights by analyzing large volumes of data. The company travel software features analytics that makes it easier for you to detect patterns and find trends by accelerating data analytics.

10. Travel Expense Reimbursements

You can keep work travelers stress-free only by ensuring quick travel expense reimbursements. The software will make it easier for you to streamline business travel management through automation. Employees can use the software to generate and submit automated expense reports. At the same time, the absence of paper receipts will help your finance team review and approve the travel expense claims quickly.

11. Travel Spending Control

Global inflation makes it essential for your business to escalate corporate travel budgets. But you must focus on controlling business travel costs to get higher ROI. The software launched by travel management companies makes business travel products available at negotiated rates. Also, it helps you curtail costs by preventing travel policy violations and travel expense fraud. At the same time, you can use analytics to find opportunities to control costs without affecting business travel experiences.

12. Incentivize Employees to Save

Your travel policy could not boost the business travel experience without allowing employees to book their choice of business travel solutions. But the policy can control costs by incentivizing employees to choose lower-cost booking options. You can implement company travel software that allows employees to retain a part of the savings by reducing trip costs. The software will use intelligence technologies to help employees reduce trip costs by recommending the appropriate business travel solutions.

Business travel is making a strong comeback after the pandemic. Your company or startup can leverage the comeback of business travel to earn incremental revenue. But you cannot get a higher ROI on business travel only by increasing the number of domestic and business trips.

In addition to increasing the business travel budget, your organization must focus on boosting the business travel experience and ensuring business traveler safety. At the same time, you need to explore ways to beat global information by controlling ongoing work travel costs.

Your company can save time, resources, and costs by automating business travel management. A cloud-based travel management system helps your organization automate business travel management without increasing upfront and recurring infrastructural costs.

But you should remember that travel management software differs primarily in the category of features. You can streamline the entire business travel management efficiently only by investing in a travel management system that comes with robust features. You can even use features as the primary criteria to choose the right travel management system for your business.

9 Features You Must Consider While Choosing a Travel Management System

1. Travel Policy Implementation

You can make it easier for employees to plan business travel and get travel expenses reimbursed by implementing a clearly-defined travel policy. However, it is also important to help employees understand the business travel rules and access the latest travel rules.

The right travel management system will make it easier for you to implement custom travel policies. Also, employees can use the software to access the latest and relevant rules while organizing domestic or international business trips.

2. Travel Policy Compliance

The travel management software enables employees to access the latest travel policies of your company in seconds. But you must remember that work travelers often violate present travel rules unknowingly or unintentionally.

You can make every employee comply with preset travel policies by showing in-policy travel options. Hence, you should opt for a travel management system that shows in-policy travel options to employees and sends automated notifications each time it detects a travel policy violation.

3. Travel Request Approval Workflow

While making organizational travel policies, you must focus on streamlining and centralizing the business travel approval process. Your policies must clearly define who the approvers are and what each of them can approve. You can further speed up the approval process through automation.

You should implement a travel management system that enables travelers to send work travel requests to the right approver. At the same time, the software will make the approver approve or decline the business travel request while mentioning the reasons.

4. Booking Options and Assistance

Most work travelers expect employers to allow them to book their choice of business travel products and services. You can meet this expectation of employees by choosing a travel management system featuring built-in self-booking tools.

While making business travel arrangements, employees can use the tool to book their choice of flight, accommodation, and car rental. However, you can help employees get relevant assistance while booking travel products by opting for software that supports self-travel booking and managed travel booking at a time.

5. Extensive Travel Inventory

The choice of business travel solutions differs from one employee to another. For instance, some employees love to stay in one of the safer hotels, while others prefer stress-free accommodation. You can meet the varying needs and preferences of work travelers only by allowing them to access an extensive travel inventory.

Many travel management systems enable work travelers to access extensive travel inventory. Employees can further use the same software to compare various travel inventory options. It is one of the features that will help you boost meet employees’ work travel experiences.

6. Negotiated Corporate Rates

The cost of business travel will continue to rise in the near future. Your business has to explore ways to curtail costs without affecting employees’ work travel experiences. You can control business travel costs effectively by investing in software provided by a leading travel management company.

The software will provide employees with access to an extensive travel inventory. At the same time, it will make them book flights, accommodations, and cabs at discounted rates. You should prioritize travel management systems that offer negotiated rates.

7. Travel Analytics

The inflationary phase of the global economy increases business trip costs consistently. Your business can get higher ROI only by controlling business travel expenses. That is why; you need actionable insights gained by analysis of historical travel data of employees.

The new-generation travel management systems consolidate large volumes of travel data and analyze the data using analytics.  Some of these actionable insights provided by the software will help you control business travel costs, while others will help you finetune your organization’s travel policies.

8. Duty of Care Solution

You can make employees engage in international travel confidently only by keeping them safe and secure. While comparing travel management systems, you should check if the software features a duty-of-care solution.

Employees can access the duty of care solution to manage emerging travel risks by getting real-time support. However, you need to prioritize software that enhances employee safety by providing multi-level support, delivering the latest travel information, and supporting employee tracking.

9. Travel Expense Management

A delay in travel expense reimbursements often makes employees experience stress after business trips. You can speed up travel expense reimbursements by investing in unified travel and expense management software.

The software will help employees to submit travel expense claims by generating automated expense reports based on scanned receipts. Also, it will accelerate expense approval and payment while ensuring travel policy compliance and preventing expense fraud.

Conclusion

The right travel management software will help your company keep work travelers safe and stress-free without increasing costs. But you must focus on investing in a travel management system that meets your organization’s requirements and budget. It is always important to choose software that employees can access anytime and anywhere using their smartphones or tablets.

According to a recent survey by the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA), businesses have been spending more on international business travel and allowing non-essential business travel.

The double-digit increase in business travel transactions indicates more and more employees engaging in domestic and international business travel after the pandemic.

But business travel often impacts the mental health of employees traveling for work adversely. Many corporate professionals experience stress, anxiety, and depression due to frequently traveling to various business travel destinations. Every work traveler can manage stress during, before, and after business trips by following some simple tips or best practices.

7 Ways Work Travelers can Manage Stress before Business Trips

1. Prepare an Elaborate Business Travel Itinerary

You have to visit multiple places and engage in various activities during the business trip. Hence, you should prepare a business travel itinerary to access important information like meeting schedules, flight times, hotel addresses, local transportation, and day-to-day activities.

2. Make a Travel Packing Checklist

You will experience stress when you do not find the necessary documents or accessories while traveling for work. You must make a destination-specific travel packing checklist to ensure that you can access clothing, toiletries, medication, safety items, and important documents instantly.

3. Book Tickets Early

Organizational travel policies these days make employees book flights, accommodations, cabs, and other business travel solutions early. Also, you can get your choice of seat and stay in a stress-free accommodation by booking business travel early.

4. Try to Reduce Flight Time

As highlighted by several studies, travelers experience negative emotions like tension when they spend time at altitudes. You can easily reduce stress and anxiety by spending less time at altitudes. That is why; it is always important to book direct flights instead of connecting flights while engaging in international business travel.

5. Recheck Your Digital Devices

Before the scheduled departure, you must not forget to charge your laptop, smartphone, tablet, and other digital devices. Also, you should ensure that electronic chargers and adapters are stored properly in your suitcase.

6. Stay Active and Hydrated

Many work travelers become dehydrated during air travel due to dry air and low humidity. You must keep yourself hydrated by drinking plenty of water before boarding. At the same time, you can stay active by sleeping adequately before boarding an early flight.

7. Prepare to Manage Air Travel Issues

Despite making business travel arrangements properly, you cannot rule out issues like flight delays, flight cancellations, and lost luggage. You can manage these unpredictable issues in air travel by getting real-time assistance.

Hence, you must install the necessary apps on your mobile device and note down the contact information of the person who will assist you in case of emergencies.

7 Ways Work Travelers Remain Stress-Free during Business Trips

8. Eat Stress-Relieving Foods

While exploring a city’s food culture, work travelers forget that certain foods increase stress and anxiety. You can remain stress-free during business trips only by avoiding stress-causing foods like fried snacks, fast foods, sugar, artificial sweeteners, alcohol, and caffeine. At the same time, you should consume stress-relieving foods like oatmeal, green leafy vegetables, walnuts, and dark chocolate.

9. Get Enough Sleep

You should remember that sleep deprivation and poor sleep affect your mood and make you experience stress. You can tackle a day’s stress efficiently during business trips only by getting adequate sleep. Like other business travelers, you might find it difficult to maintain a healthy sleep pattern while traveling. But you must try to sleep properly throughout the business trip.

10. Keep Your Body Hydrated

Some work travelers experience stress due to dehydration, while dehydration makes make business travelers experience stress. You can manage stress only by drinking water adequately and regularly while traveling.

However, you must not increase water intake by drinking alcoholic or sugary beverages. Instead, you should carry a water bottle and get it refilled throughout the business trip.

11. Practice Meditation

In addition to reducing stress, meditation produces a deep sense of relaxation. You should practice meditation to relax and refresh your mind while traveling for business purposes. However, you can relieve stress quickly only by focusing your attention and removing jumbled thoughts from your mind. At the same time, you should stay healthy by finding time to walk or run.

12. Connect with Friends and Family

Many people experience stress when they feel lonely. You cannot connect with your family and friends while traveling. But you can avoid social isolation by staying connected with them through instant chats and phone calls.

13. Keep Expense Receipts Organized

You will need expense receipts after the business trip to prepare and submit expense reports. You can reduce the time and effort required to prepare an expense report simply by keeping receipts organized during the business trip. You should use an efficient receipt management system that stores the receipts digitally by taking their picture and transferring it to cloud storage.

14. Take Advantage of Downtime

You have to focus on achieving predefined business travel goals throughout the work trip. Hence, you will experience stress regularly while traveling. You can stay relaxed after meetings by taking advantage of the downtime. You should use the downtime to relieve stress by enjoying dinner, relaxing by the pool, or exploring the city by walking.

3 Ways Work Travelers Relieve Stress after Business Trips

15. Submit Expense Reports Early

Most work travelers experience stress when there is a delay in travel expense reimbursements. You can get travel reimbursed quickly by submitting expense reports early. You must leverage the business travel management software implemented by your company to generate automated expense reports in less time simply by scanning expense receipts.

16. Rejuvenate and Reenergize Your Body

You must wait to go to the office after the business trip. It is always important to allow your body to recover by drinking plenty of water, eating stress-relieving foods, and adhering to your exercise routine. It is always advisable to work from home for several days before returning to your office.

17. Identify the Main Causes of Stress

The causes of stress vary from one business traveler to another. You can manage travel-related stress efficiently in the future only by identifying the specific causes of stress. The understanding will make you remember the measures taken by you to manage stress while planning business trips in the future.

Conclusions

Companies and startups these days protect work travelers’ mental health in various ways. In addition to keeping their travel policies flexible, they implement feature-rich business travel management software.

Companies and startups organize team meetings regularly to discuss ideas, finetune strategies, collect feedback, or find solutions to specific problems. But some companies organize onsite meetings, while others opt for offsite meetings.

As the name suggests, onsite meetings are held within the office premises and often in conference rooms. On the other hand, companies plan offsite meetings outside of the office. Many companies keep the environment relaxing by holding offsite meetings in holiday retreats.

Likewise, many organizations boost managers’ creativity by making them indulge in exciting leisure activities. Hence, an offsite meeting differs from an onsite meeting in many aspects. We can understand what an offsite meeting is based on these major differences.

How does an Offsite Meeting differ from an Onsite Meeting?

Location

Onsite and offsite meetings differ from each other primarily in the category of location. Onsite meetings are held inside office premises, while offsite meetings are held outside of the office.

Arrangements

While organizing an onsite meeting, companies have to make arrangements for meals, snacks, beverages, writing accessories, and other items. But offsite meeting packages include facilities and technologies required by a company to organize an offsite meeting successfully.

Interruptions and Distractions

While attending onsite meetings, employees get distracted by their coworkers and professional responsibilities. But employees can attend offsite meetings without frequent interruptions and disruptions.

Environment

While attending an onsite meeting, employees feel like spending time in the office. But they feel relaxed while attending an offsite meeting. The relaxing environment promotes team collaboration and fosters brainstorming.

Costs

Companies can organize onsite meetings regularly without escalating ongoing expenses. But they have to incur additional expenses to hold offsite meetings successfully.

Why do Companies Organize Offsite Meetings?

Allow Face-to-Face Interactions

Most businesses these days operate in distributed environments. Onsite employees and remote employees stay connected in the distributed working environment through calls, emails, and instant messages. Companies make onsite and remote employees connect and network face-to-face by organizing offsite meetings.

Foster Creativity

While attending an offsite meeting, employees spend time in a different and relaxing environment. Many employees even feel like taking a break while attending an offsite meeting. The change in the physical environment makes them creative and come up with innovative ideas. The unleashing of creativity often results in brainstorming fresh ideas.

Make Employees Focus

As noted earlier, employees are not distracted while attending an offsite meeting. The absence of distractions and interruptions makes them focus better on problems. They can further come up with ideas to solve specific problems.

Opportunities to Build Relationships

While planning an offsite meeting, the organizer can make participants indulge in various team-building activities. The team building activities bring employees together and make them relate with each other. The relationships will make them improve processes and solve problems in the future by becoming a single team.

Leverage New Technologies

Most companies do not upgrade their conference rooms by installing the latest communication tools. But offsite meeting venues impress clients by installing the latest audio-visual communication tools. The access to new communication technology will make the participants focus only on improving presentations and finding solutions.

How can Companies Organize Offsite Meetings Successfully

Inviting Selected Employees

Companies hold offsite meetings with the aim of discussing new ideas and solving existing problems. They have to consider more ideas, opinions, and perspectives when a large number of employees attend the offsite event.

Companies often restrict the number of participants to make managers focus on core topics of discussion. Also, the decrease in the number of participants makes it easier for managers to plan offsite meetings.

Choosing the Perfect Venue

While planning an offsite meeting, decision-makers have the option to choose from many venues. Many hotels and resorts provide customizable offsite meeting packages at negotiated rates.

Also, many decision-makers keep the participants relaxed and excited by choosing outdoor venues or theme parks. But they ensure that the meeting venue is equipped with modern audio and visual communication tools.

Creating and Sharing Meeting Agenda

Employees often feel like taking a break from work while attending offsite meetings. Despite keeping participants relaxed and excited, organizers must ensure that all topics are discussed elaborately in a short span of time.

Hence, they create well-structured meeting agendas that clearly define the goal of the meeting and the topics to be discussed. They further share the meeting agenda with participants in advance to make it easier for them to research and prepare.

Keeping Participants Excited

Excitement and engagement are two elements that make corporate employees unleash their creativity. Companies make offsite meetings successful by keeping participants excited in a variety of ways. Organizers make participants connect and interact using icebreakers.

They make onsite and remote employees introduce themselves in funny ways. Also, they plan team-building activities that keep participants excited and strengthen relationships. These exercises prepare participants to delve into serious topics and issues with open minds.

Continuing the Momentum

Offsite meetings create opportunities for onsite and remote employees to bond and collaborate. Companies leverage the connection to improve operational efficiency and solve recurring problems in the future. Organizers document the sessions to capture the ideas and solutions discussed by the participants.

Also, they ensure that each participant understands action items clearly. Participants are requested to share their achievements after the offsite meeting in the form of feedback. At the same time, organizations encourage them to suggest solutions by thinking divergently.

Conclusion

A company or startup can leverage many benefits by holding offsite meetings strategically along with regular onsite meetings. But the organizer can make the offsite meeting successful only by selecting the perfect venue and making it easier for participants to travel to the locations.