Travel has helped us to understand the meaning of life and it has helped us become better people. Each time we travel, we see the world with new eyes.
In a world where you source out every single one of your requirements through digital and online platforms, why should your travel experiences be different? Gone are the days when you needed to consult a travel agency or tour operator to get your travel itineraries sorted.
Now, we live in the age of online platforms and digital applications where all it takes to complete a task are a few clicks and taps. And it’s about time corporates start leveraging available avenues for their business travel requirements. Even now, many organisations rely on travel implants, an agency-run dedicated travel desk, to carry out all their travel-related work. What’s the issue, you ask? Well, let’s just say that if companies are still using travel implants despite having the convenience of multiple digital services at their disposal, they’re hampering their business travel feasibility, especially in the post-pandemic era.
As the world is going digital, the onus has now shifted on businesses to reduce their dependence on travel implants and instead opt for online platforms that are both tech-savvy and sophisticated. In the process, companies will be able to enhance the discipline of their business travel routines and ensure greater adherence to their established travel policies.
There are various ways how an online platform helps businesses attend effectively to their corporate travel requirements. Let’s go through some of them.
Improved Efficiency
When you process a travel request at a travel implant, it usually has to go through multiple officers before it eventually gets approved. Not to mention the several rounds of communications that it entails in the process. Besides minimising your control over the entire process, this complex structure is incredibly time intensive too.
Using an online travel management platform, on the other hand, allows you to streamline these different processes. From monitoring travel bookings to keeping track of expense reports, an online platform enables companies to stay in the loop at all times. Further, it eliminates the need for travel administrators to track and monitor costs as the same gets automated on the platform itself. Moreover, it also provides employees with greater transparency regarding their travel workflows.
Reduced Costs
In an offline booking model, the individual is often required to deposit an additional handling fee on top of their booking costs. Digging deep into the matter will tell you that certain corporates also pay the cost of travel implants to their travel management companies or partners, thereby increasing their travel costs.
For companies that have a large employee base, this poses a significant problem. While the individual costs might appear to be trivial, they snowball into a substantial amount when the collective total is taken into account.This is where online platforms prove to be highly beneficial. They eliminate the scope of handling fees and take into account the real-time pricing information along with the company’s travel policies.
They empower organisations to set up dynamic budgets, thereby letting travel managers stay on top of constantly fluctuating prices. Consequently, it paves the path for organisations to provide a comfortable business trip to their employees without stretching their budgets thin.
Encourages Cost Efficiency
Keeping track of expenses in an offline booking and travel management model is a highly challenging task. Given that the offline model requires companies to deal with expensive fees, extra staff, multiple vendors, and complicated approvals, a lot of companies end up overspending their travel budget. This, in turn, ends up hurting their other core operations.
In contrast, online platforms offer employees and travel managers unparalleled visibility regarding both their company policies and their budgeting requirements. This helps in fostering a cost-conscious culture throughout the organisation.
Generates Insightful Travel Data
Data is arguably the greatest form of currency in today’s world. And that’s exactly what an offline travel agent deprives you of. Sure, they take over your business travel duties, but at the same time, they fail to provide you with any kind of data whatsoever. This dramatically undermines your company’s ability to introduce improvements to its existing processes.
However, when you use a digital travel management software or application, they arm you with a host of data-intensive reports that revolve around the crucial metrics of travel frequency, flight costs, hotel stay frequency, and hidden fees, among countless others. Apart from improving your organisation’s fund allocation mechanism, these insights allow you to strike a better deal with the airlines and hotels that it uses the most.
Embrace the Future of Business Travel with Quest2Travel
Since 2000, Quest2Travel has established itself as a role model among travel management companies and platforms by successfully managing E2E corporate travel without using implants. Quest2Travel’s sleek online travel management platform enables businesses to manage employee travel procurement transparently and securely. From managing books and approvals to generating valuable expense management and travel-related reports, Quest2Travel helps you cover all these aspects without skipping a beat.