Since it’s such an important system, you’ll want to ensure that you’re picking the right platform to use for your company travel.
A travel management system helps travel managers book, track, and analyze business travel. Typically, a travel management system refers to a platform that offers travel inventory, travel policies, and reporting, but this can also refer to the
overall process of managing corporate travelWhen you’re comparing travel management systems, it’s important to understand which features are the most impactful. Here are the features that can help you manage travel safely, efficiently, and cost-effectively.
. Even if office managers or travel managers book on behalf of travelers, you still need in-app travel policies to keep administrators on the same page.
You should be able to customize your in-app policy by several different criteria:Your travel management system should allow you to preset your travel policy so that it’s live and working whenever anyone books a trip.
Rather than a travel policy that is just a boring document, you have it right there in your booking app, where it matters most.
Your travel management system should include approval workflows inside of the platform, so that if anything falls outside of policy, the person booking a trip can request approval and save their trip details (instead of sending an email and losing all their hard work of selecting the right itinerary). You should be able to set up these approval workflows however you want, such as picking different approvers for different teams and customizing the level of strictness.
Is approval required for all trips or just trips that fall out of policy or just trips booked by certain travelers? Your travel management system should include robust customization.
Your policy and approval workflows are really critical in helping you maintain travel compliance around the clock, but so is your access to inventory. If you’re using a travel management system that lacks low priced accommodation and flight carriers, then you’re missing out on big cost-savings opportunities. When you consider that
millennials actually tend to book budget options , you’d be wise to make these available to them.Paying a fee for every support call is really old school and really expensive. Your travel management system should include support at no additional cost to you. This way, you know exactly what you’re paying for and there are no surprises at the end of the month. Also, travelers can get the support they need when they need it without worrying about upsetting anyone in finance for a bunch of support calls.
When you’re booking a vacation and you get redirected, it’s annoying. It can also be a little nerve-wracking because you’re not sure if you should trust this new vendor you’re being redirected to.
With business travel, redirects are not only obnoxious, they make tracking your business travel all but impossible. At the end of the month, you’ll be scouring the web trying to
collect all your invoices . Avoid this at all costs.One of the most important features of any travel management system is the ability to report on business travel. Here are some things you’ll want to be able to track: