adntigger710

Hi all!

I'm hoping someone here might be able to offer some guidance. I am the Travel Manager for a small/midsize startup (300 employees), though I kind of grew into the role. We are now looking to expand and optimize our request and booking processes.

As I was thrown into the role I unfortunately have no idea where to begin and have no network of peers for guidance. I can't seem to find a forum for corporate travel managers to seek advice. Does anyone know of a group or forum that would be appropriate?

FYI if there are any travel managers reading this, we are looking for a unique solution as our travel policy is somewhat flexible and budget is based on departments or even a specific trip. We aren't looking to allow travelers to book themselves. We were thinking of making me an agent under a host agency and processing all requests and booking through me. So what we are looking for is 1.) a good host agency for corporate travel managers and 2.) a platform that allows us to streamline the travel request process.

Really appreciate any guidance you can give on the above as well as any groups/forums that might be geared toward corporate travel as I'm fairly lost atm. Thanks so much everyone!

daKav

Egencia? Your employees may not like it (I don't), but, employers seem to.

MSPeconomist

If the OP is going to book travel using a host agency, is the OP a qualified travel agent? Is doing such tasks consistent with career advancement, either at the same company or elsewhere?

eigenvector

300 employees but how many are travelling regularly? Mostly domestic travel or international? There's a lot of range there. I don't think you want to be an actual travel agent, more likely you want to have control and visibility of what's being booked while having tickets issued by a qualified TA. Unless you want people phoning you up from Japan at 3am in the morning asking why their boarding pass says "coupon required".

Non-NonRev

I would start by contacting the Global Business Travel Association and seeing if any of their programs can help you achieve your task/goals:

http://www.gbta.org

Sixth Freedom

Employees booking tickets themselves is really not a bad idea if they book directly with the airline, hotel or other provider and not with a third party.

This is because the airline, hotel or other provider will be able to directly make any changes required themselves whereas going through an agent is often a pain. This is particularly helpful when changes are required or at short notice or if there are IRROPS.

The only times you might want to use an agent are when booking 'difficult' itineraries like those requiring IATA fares or 'unusual' airlines in countries like Turkmenistan.

If you are seeking incentives, you might be able to work through a 'back-end' solution where for a specified group of travellers an airline, hotel or other provider will give you a rebate at the end of a year.

Non-NonRev

Also, basic decisions need to be made as to general policies (example business class permitted if flight is over 6 hours).

Do you need corporate reporting to forward up the managenent chain? And for future use in negotiating preferred supplier agreements (example a rental car agreement that automatically includes loss damage waiver).

Is compliance with policies going to be on an individual departmental basis, or are automated tools needed?

If the company is still enterpernureal in nature, a mixture of flexibility and some basic strictures might be a good approach.

VivoPerLei

When my company started using Concur I hated it. However, I've grown to like it a lot, with just one caveat - it will never let me actually get through a booking without telling me an 'error has occurred, please try again later'. Now, I get all the way to that point, do a screen shot of the itin, and send it to travel for final booking.

stut

Used to use Amex travel with an online booking tool. Always worked well.

(And not just because I could sneak in Premium Economy sectors on an Economy policy - at no extra cost to the company, of course...)

darthbimmer

Why is that? Is it because your employees genuinely don't like to spend time arranging travel themselves, or is it because your management believes the only way to monitor and control travel spending is to have one person do it all? If the latter, understand that modern travel portal tools (like Egencia, which I've used at a few employers) do provide employees self-service and a controllable degree of flexibility while also limiting out-of-policy decisions and providing roll-up reports for management.

Tchiowa

The company I worked for used Carlsson Wagonlit. They enforced rules regarding fares, schedules, what airline to use, etc. They also help negotiate a corporate discount because we had so many flyers.

If you're not an experienced travel agent you're going to find yourself buried in work trying to book everything for everyone. Particularly if there are frequent changes that have to be fixed on the fly.

Here's one way to look at it. You're trying to get your customers to give you their money. Your rationale to them is that you are the professionals and you'll do a better job for them than they can do themselves.

Same logic applies to travel agents.

emma69

Honestly, for a firm that size, unless everyone is travelling constantly, I would allow them / their assistants to book their own travel. I have worked in companies that do, and companies that don't, and honestly, it is so much easier for everyone if you can do it yourself, make changes yourself on the hoof (cancelled flight, speak to airline direct, instead of dealing with some out of hours line at a small travel agency the company dictated we use). Of course the big boys (AMEX, CW, etc.) are 24/7, but even then it can be hit or miss getting a decent agent (e.g. cancelled flight from A-B, next option I was being offered was the following day, miss the meeting etc. I knew I could get A-C-B on a 'not the cheapest' airline (no kidding, it leaves in 2 hours you moron!) and it took multiple calls and emails to get them to just do it).

It is an utterly thankless task BTW, arranging other people's travel - I have done it a few times for small groups of colleagues, and I really find it very frustrating - to the point now that even if I know the destination well, I will outsource it to a friendly travel agent "Hey Frank, me and 6 colleagues are going to Atlanta, I've given them your email to take care of the flights - get us on the same one, and put us in a decent 4* downtown" - so much easier!

As to policy, it sounds like it is on a case by case basis so, why not trust your employees. Where I am we have a one page travel policy, which covers off a couple of essentials and safety and security must-dos, as deemed by our company, but the rest relies on 'reasonableness', from what airline, to what hotel, to meal spend etc. Our CFO keeps an eye on it, if they saw Mary opting for a 5 star hotel at twice the cost of a decent 4 star, they would say something, and monitor her spend more closely. It allows senior staff more leeway on spend (e.g. Bob takes top clients out for a meal and they spend an absurd amount at a *** place) but ensures the analyst is not flying first class from South Dakota to Michigan.

Your role as travel manager could be to provide tools - I am not a travel manager but was co-opted into training some executive assistants on various tips and tricks (e.g. credit card bookings through Amex to get upgrades / F&B credit, flight passes, loyalty schemes, the best value (not cheapest) hotels in the major cities we have lots of travel to, working with our purchasing manager to negotiate corporate rates with some companies, etc.) If you give people the knowledge, and trust, there is no reason it cannot work. And, honestly, if you are worried about cost, know that when I came from a company that had a per diem ("Woo hoo, I'm in the back end of nowhere, ID, I can spend $234 because the policy says so, so I darn well will") to a company that trusted me to be reasonable, my spending went down.