Book travel like a Jetson, not like a Flinstone

It’s no secret, times have drastically changed since we first started booking travel. We can no longer afford to rely on outdated process and systems to book travel, nor can we spare the time! The truth is, there’s so much out there that it can become a little overwhelming to keep up with every single development. While the very basics of travelling still remain the same (we’re not flying on hovercrafts yet), there are facets of booking travel that have not only revolutionised the way we commute for work, they have become nothing less than absolutely necessary.

To help make sure you’re up to date with industry standard, we’ve put together a couple important factors that you should be incorporating into your travel program, if you haven’t done so already!

And before we start, you can always click here to find out how your travel program is currently functioning; as a Jetson, or as a Flinstone?

Ensure your traveller’s safety in a time of global uncertainty

It goes without saying that the state of world affairs has definitely impacted the travel and tourism industry. In a time of global uncertainty, ensuring your travellers security has become a crucial facet of your company’s travel program. It just doesn’t cut it to rely on e-mail messaging or phone calls to check-in with your traveller’s overseas as certain factors can interfere with these lines of communication. For example, inability to access a local sim card or Wi-Fi during a crisis. If you don’t have an international traveller tracking system in place, it’s definitely time to initiate a discussion and find out why. Ultimately, it’s your company that’s responsible for your travellers and without the appropriate procedures in place to ensure their safety, you may be breaching your Duty of Care.

It’s time to review:

• Your company’s communications strategy in an emergency

• The traveller tracking programs you have in place

• Your Duty of Care procedures and guidelines

Give up the 10 + browser tabs and get an online booking tool

I know for a fact you have a hundred other things you need to have done by lunch time, so why waste your time glued to your internet search engine, desperately trying to compare prices on different websites. Even sites that compare fares can become a huge waste of time for business travel; most of these sites will try and find you the cheapest options with the biggest limitations on flight schedule, baggage etc. Unfortunately, many travel bookers are still limited to these options, especially when there is a solution that will save you time and money. It’s an Online Booking Tool. And if your Online Booking Tool isn’t easy to use, is not efficient and doesn’t integrate various aspects of travel into the one consolidated platform, such as flights, accommodation and ground transport, it’s time for another overhaul! If you currently don’t have a Travel Management Company, or don’t have an Online Booking Tool provided by a third party supplier, it might be time to really start considering your options. Or you may as well be using paper and pen to book travel…

It’s time to review:

• Your need for an OBT

• Your current OBT functionality: Is it quick and easy to use?

• Does your OBT consolidate flights, accommodation and ground transport?

Using technology is essential, not optional

So, hopefully you’re not actually using paper and pen to book travel. Times have changed since the only way to book travel was to pick up the phone and dial a travel agent or airline. Now you can book your flights within seconds, anytime, anywhere. This is the result of an inevitable wave of automation and robotics, meaning the need to call an actual person to help sort out your travel arrangements has dimmed significantly. The greatest advantage of this is greater time and cost savings and more efficient processes, as travel managers can oversee the whole process themselves from start to finish without the need for intervention from other parties. It also means less room for error, as automated processes are often accompanied by data validation procedures.

So, if you haven’t already leveraged the use of travel technology, you’re running very late to the party! To see the ways travel technology is being used by others, click here

It’s time to review:

• If your manual processes outweigh your automated processes?

• How many employees are booking online as opposed to over the phone?

• The amount of errors made in your bookings

Sharing is… Caring?

Last but not least is the booming sharing economy, which has seen a number of innovative services rivalling traditional accommodation and transport suppliers. Uber and Airbnb have become forerunners in this new market targeting business travellers, offering alternatives for hotels and taxis, both manageable through apps on a mobile phone. The major appeal of these services is accessibility and in some cases, the pull of perceived cost savings. However, the sharing economy does bring it with a degree of wariness, as security concerns still plague travel managers who are still unsure of the safety regulations that are in place when using these services. If you’re finding that your travellers are becoming increasingly more prone to utilising the sharing economy, then it’s time to start a discussion about whether it’s worthwhile to include them in your travel program.

It’s time to review:

• The amount of your travellers using the sharing economy

• Your duty of care guidelines

• Your current travel policy procedures for accommodation and ground transport

If at any point throughout this article you felt unsure about your current processes and would like to speak to a travel expert about renewing your methods, click here.