How to choose a corporate travel management tool for your company?

With Business travel picking pace and more employees traveling, an efficient corporate travel management tool to simplify employees’ travel while optimizing the travel process can prove to be immensely beneficial.

An advanced travel booking and management platform will offer a range of tools and features to help manage travel booking complexities, enhance travel policies as well as provide a seamless experience for corporate travelers. It also ensures a duty of care solutions besides automating expense reporting and expense data generation.

Here are some must-have tools and solutions for a corporate travel booking platform to improve the travel experience.

Flight and Hotel Search: Integration with global distribution systems (GDS) to provide comprehensive flight and hotel search capabilities, including real-time availability, pricing, and booking options.

Travel Policy Management: A tool to configure and enforce corporate travel policies, allowing administrators to set rules and restrictions on bookings, such as preferred airlines, maximum spending limits, or class of service. Customization will also help any change made in the travel policy to reflect in real-time to help employees know the new guidelines immediately.

Booking Management: A centralized system to manage and track travel bookings, including features like itinerary management, reservation modification, cancellation, and automated notifications to travelers.

Traveler Profiles: A database to store traveler profiles with relevant information like passport details, frequent flyer numbers, seat preferences, and other personal details to streamline the booking process.

Expense Management: Integration with expense management systems to capture travel expenses, including integration with credit card providers for automated expense reconciliation.

Cost Savings: Allows insights into major travel KPIs such as employee and department-wise spending, number of last-minute bookings, out-of-policy bookings, and more, which in turn helps identify areas of cost leakages.

Travel Reporting and Analytics: Tools to generate comprehensive reports on travel spending, cost savings, travel patterns, and compliance with travel policies. Analytics capabilities can help identify areas for cost optimization and track travel trends.

Mobile Applications: Mobile apps for both administrators and travelers, enabling on-the-go access to booking details, itineraries, real-time updates, and travel assistance.

Travel Risk Management: Integration with travel risk management tools to provide real-time travel alerts, safety advisories, and assistance during emergencies.

Supplier Relationship Management: Tools to manage relationships with travel suppliers like airlines, hotels, and car rental companies, including negotiating contracts, tracking performance, and managing preferential rates.

Traveler Support: Access to a 24/7 customer support system to assist travelers with booking changes, cancellations, travel emergencies, and other issues that may arise during their trip.

Policy Compliance and Approval Workflow: A system that ensures travel bookings adhere to company policies with multiple employee levels, destinations, and travel modes, and includes an approval workflow for bookings that require managerial authorization.

Integration with Expense Tracking Systems: Seamless integration with accounting or financial / ERP systems to streamline expense tracking and reimbursement processes. This allows in-house departments to look into employee spending to optimize future trips.

Traveler Feedback and Reviews: Tools to collect traveler feedback and reviews, allowing organizations to continuously improve services and monitor traveler satisfaction.

These are some essential tools that a corporate travel booking platform should have to provide a comprehensive and efficient travel management experience for both administrators and travelers. The specific features and tools may vary based on the requirements of the organization and the travel management company providing the platform.