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Travel
Management:
The
THEUltimate Guide
ULTIMATE
GUIDE TO TRAVEL
MANAGEMENT
Created by TravelPerk
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Table of
contents
What are the key components of modern travel management?.........5
To summarize.........................................................................................21
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Lack of data for the finance team Real-time travel data visibility
IN THE TRENCHES
QUICKLY COLLECTING INVOICES
“If you purchase flights directly from RyanAir or British Airways, you
have to write to them or login and ask for the invoice and it takes a
lot of time at the end of the month. One of the best results of book-
ing all of our business travel on one platform has been invoicing. I
now get one invoice for all monthly travel. It’s amazing.”
JOHANNA BARVO
Office Manager at Kantox
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So, what are the pillars of modern travel management in the “new nor-
mal”?
With these five pillars in place, you can bid farewell to manual, complicat-
ed booking processes, back-and-forth emails, and requests for reports,
and can even optimize your annual business travel spend. Most important-
ly, you can say goodbye to confusion.
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Common challenges in
travel management
Do any of these sound familiar?
• Booking travel requires endless email threads that destroy your pro-
ductivity and ruin your day.
• The Finance team is at their breaking point trying to figure out who’s
spending money on what trips and why.
• The Finance team oversees every trip booking to control spend the
only way they know how—by micromanaging.
• Travelers lack the freedom to choose the exact trip itinerary they want,
as they would when booking their personal travel.
• Finance and Human Resources teams don’t have enough visibility and
control over risk management for travel
In the 80s or 90s, corporate travel was commonly managed using travel
agencies or clunky corporate software. Then we entered a new millen-
nium, but business travel didn’t come with us. So, many medium-sized
businesses ditched overpriced solutions and started booking trips on con-
sumer sites to get great deals. This made corporate travel management
a time-consuming burden. Then came COVID-19, and practically rewrote
“travel history”.
When your company is using a process that wasn’t designed for how you
travel (the solution is either too robust, or non-existent), what ends up
happening is that neither travelers, admins nor finance managers have
their needs met. This holds especially true now, as we enter a new land-
scape for business travel as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
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Traditional Clunky user experience Overly complicated and Costly. Lacks low-price
Corporate that travelers don’t en- feature-laden. Impossible flights, trains, cars, and ho-
Software
joy. Offshore customer to control travel when tels available online. Trav-
service, typically ranked travelers don’t want to use elers dislike the software’s
as the top frustration in the tool. user experience, so they
customer reviews. end up booking elsewhere
out of policy.
In addition to all that, these services often do not feature the latest information on travel restric-
tions. They also do not provide flexible fares on flights themselves. Instead, you usually need to
head straight to the airline’s website to find flexible fares. This means that to book a simple busi-
ness trip, you have so many tabs open that you can hardly count them.
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We’ve created a checklist to help you stay on track, you can find it at the end of this guide.
IN THE TRENCHES
MAKING TRAVELERS HAPPY
“We’re a fully distributed team. For our biannual company wide meetups, my col-
league and I would book all of the travel. For a team of 20, it would take us 2-3 days
working together—so that’s one full week combined—to do all of the back-and-forth
emails with every employee and finalize the flights and ground transportation. As
we’ve grown to a team of 70 people, to do it that way now would be almost impossi-
ble. Fortunately, we switched to using TravelPerk last year so that travelers can now
book for themselves. Our employees love using TravelPerk. It’s especially important
to employees to be able to pick their own layover. For me, travel management is
easier than ever. I can log in at any time and see who still needs to book their flight
for our upcoming meeting. And when everyone’s flight is booked, I can see the
flights all in one place and then easily group people together into vans and busses
based on their arrival times to get everyone to the event location.”
MELISSA MAUK
Finance Director at Hotjar
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Here are the main features to look out for in your new travel management
platform:
• Consolidated invoicing - The ability to get one monthly invoice for all
travel from one vendor, instead of having it spread across the web.
• Travel spend reporting - Easy access for all finance and administrative
team members who need to track travel itinerary details and spend by
cost centers, tags or labels.
• Easy booking process that travelers love - Make sure that employees
are comfortable with self-booking, and choose a tool that’s easy to use
with consumer-grade UX.
• Great inventory - Inventory is not a side note. Make sure the platform
you use has every available option you can find online and that the
company is committed to adding more inventory to ensure travelers
are not booking outside of the approved platform.
• Travel support - You need travel assistance that’s available 24/7 so that
employees no longer have to fully rely on the internal admin team for
support.
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Use those items like a checklist when comparing tools, and don’t forget to
read reviews! (See the checklist on the last page of this guide to help you
implement every step of the process.)
Before implementing your tool of choice company wide, you’ll need input
from multiple departments. Be prepared to communicate the benefits of
modern travel management to get company leadership on board.
And, if you’re unavailable to help, then travelers get stuck waiting for fixes,
and ultimately this costs the business time and money. The logical solu-
tion is to rely on a partner who can deliver 24/7 travel support so you, as
an office manager or travel manager, don’t have to.
Many office managers and travel managers are still hands-on with travel
(and all of its last-minute problems), and that’s great. The point is having a
partner that’s available when you’re not, so you can choose what’s import-
ant for you to handle, and where you can get help.
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You can’t and shouldn’t try to handle all travel support internally. So how
do you go about sharing the burden?
OPTION 1
EMPLOYEES CONTACT EXTERNAL SUPPORT OUTSIDE
OF BUSINESS HOURS ONLY
How it works: Notify employees that outside of business hours, they
now have travel support available, so they no longer have to hope
and pray that you’ll answer your phone in the middle of the night.
Remind them that you’re still the go-to person during normal work-
ing hours. Let them know what sort of requests the service can han-
dle during off-hours, such as making changes, booking alternate
routes in the event of last-minute cancellations, adding a traveler to
an existing trip, etc.
Who this is best for: This works best for small, intimate teams locat-
ed in a single office (you want employees to easily remember your
time zone so they know who to call). If handling most issues isn’t
a problem for the internal admin team, and they just need support
during off-hours, then this setup makes the most sense for every-
one involved.
OPTION 2
EMPLOYEES CONTACT YOU FOR ALL ISSUES, AND YOU
FORWARD SOME OF THEM ON
How it works: From the travelers’ point of view, nothing will have
changed. They’ll still go to you directly with all requests, cancella-
tions, and changes. You can decide to handle some of them your-
self, and for others, you can contact the service provider.
Who this is best for: This process can work best for teams that, for
whatever reason, aren’t ready to make a big change in how travel
support is provided, or don’t want to require that travelers speak to
support directly.
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OPTION 3
EMPLOYEES CONTACT EXTERNAL SUPPORT FOR ALL
ISSUES
How it works: Let employees know what sorts of issues the external
support service will handle. For some senior executives, you may
need to offer to contact support on their behalf and serve as the
go-between.
Who this is best for: If your employees are a bit more independent
and are accustomed to directly addressing issues outside their typi-
cal job description, then this is the way to go. This might also be the
best option for large companies that travel often and can’t afford
to internally provide support for the myriad issues that arise on the
daily.
IN THE TRENCHES
LATE-NIGHT TRAVEL REQUEST
“Last night, our CEO and co-founder learned that for some rea-
son their car rental was canceled. This was at 10pm, and I wasn’t
connected. They contacted TravelPerk support directly instead of
having to contact me, and they were able to get another car.”
JOHANNA BARVO
Office Manager at Kantox
IN THE TRENCHES
TIME FOR OTHER PROJECTS
“I really love handling issues for my team. However, I know it’s not
possible for me to be in charge of every travel-related issue, be-
cause things happen around the clock. Now that I have help with is-
sues like cancellations, adding or removing travelers to a group trip,
getting refunds or making other changes, I can make time for other
projects. We’re moving to a new office, and I’m getting to help with
getting furniture, layout and assigning seats. If I was handling every
issue myself, I would never have had time to do that.”
MANDI ROBERTSON
Office Manager at Bowers & Wilkins
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Before setting up policies, it’s smart to talk with all necessary stakeholders
about whether certain departments or even offices or specific travelers
have unique travel needs.
STEP 1
REVIEW YOUR CURRENT TRAVEL POLICY
Hold a meeting with all stakeholders (could be the CEO, the CFO,
the head of operations, and/or team leads from departments that
travel often). Discuss what is and isn’t working about your existing
policy, for example the existing policy might be a blanket set of
rules across the company, with no customization for certain depart-
ments. By the end of the meeting, make sure to have set priorities
for your new, automated policy, such as cutting administrative time
spent booking in travel by 50%, or bringing travel policy compliance
to 90% of all trips.
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STEP 2
CHOOSE A TRAVEL MANAGEMENT STYLE
There are pros and cons to every type of travel management. Here
are 3 very different styles, when it comes to automating policies:
While not requiring approval for any trip can reduce administrative
time and hassle, it can increase costs if some employees do not
adhere to the company policy. On the other hand, requiring approv-
al for every trip can increase costs if an administrator is too slow to
approve the trip, and the cost goes up. While some businesses find
that the extremes are right for them, most companies choose to
take the middle route.
STEP 3
DETERMINE POLICIES BY DEPARTMENT, TEAM, OR EVEN
TRAVELER
Assuming that you’ll require approval for trips booked out of policy,
it’s now time to get specific with your policies. Do certain depart-
ments, offices, or specific travelers have unique travel needs? Will
one policy work for the entire company, or do you need different
policies for different departments, offices, or types of travelers (say
leadership)? These are the most common travel policies that mod-
ern companies need:
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You can take the basics and get even more detailed if needed:
• Maximum cost per hotel per night, for each city that employees
visit
STEP 4
SET UP ALL NEEDED APPROVAL WORKFLOWS
If a traveler attempts to book a trip that is outside of policy, you
want to have a simple approval process in place. The traveler
should be able to request approval inside of the app, which will
notify the admin. No need to write emails!
For an admin who is regularly approving trips, one of the most help-
ful things is a platform that shows you all the trips waiting for your
approval right inside the dashboard. That way you have a central
location for every trip that’s still in progress and you never have to
search your email for anything.
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IN THE TRENCHES
HASSLE-FREE BOOKING
“We can make whatever rules or policies we need, but there is always
going to be exceptions. Even though we might say, ‘Book two weeks
in advance,’ at some point, someone will have an unexpected trip
where they really need to fly somewhere in the next week. It’s best
for us to let them book their trip as soon as possible and get them
flying. We don’t want employees to have to book for themselves on
their credit card, which creates extra work for them and for finance.
We want them to quickly book the trip they need inside of our ap-
proved process.”
MARTA KUTT
Global Facilities Manager at TransferWise
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By using cost centers, labels and by making sure all of your trips are
available in the reporting tool, you can generate smart reports that will
help the finance team identify trends, leaks, and opportunities for budget
optimization.
The first step is to set it all up. Get together with the finance and opera-
tions team to decide on the cost centers and labels that fit the business.
Tags and labels - Beyond cost centers, are there any important filters
that the finance team would require when viewing travel spend
reports? For example, would they like each trip tagged by team or
by project? Decide upfront so that the tagging system can be imple-
mented clearly from the get-go.
Keep all travel in one place - To get accurate travel data, you need to
keep all travel in one place—whenever possible. Work with a travel
management solution that integrates with providers that matter to
your company, such as budget airlines, Airbnb, or European train
lines. If your company has negotiated hotel rates, you want your
corporate solution to be able to book those rates for you, so you don’t
lose the travel data by booking direct.
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Easy to get invoices - The finance team needs to grab all invoices
quickly so they can reconcile expenses, whether that’s for transport
tickets or hotel accommodation. The best way to do this is to use a
platform that consolidates travel spend into one monthly invoice. At
the very least, you’ll want to be able to log in to one platform to find
invoices, so you’re not having to hunt them down all over the web.
Ask finance if they want you to send the invoice to them monthly or if
they want to log in and download it themselves.
Ability to track spend instantly - When your finance team can’t see
what is being spent on travel, they can’t make budget decisions in
the moment and they are always playing catch up. To fix that problem
and be the hero for your finance team, consolidate all travel spend
into one platform so that they can generate reports on what is being
spent, by who, and why (when using tags and labels). Same as with
the invoices, determine whether you need to send them a monthly
report, or if they want to download it themselves.
Cost savings on trips - Fixing travel isn’t just about saving time. Many
businesses are still using travel booking platforms that were built in
the 80s and 90s. Meaning that they markup the inventory so that the
company is paying more than a consumer would. Impress the finance
team by delivering consumer-grade prices for trips with a platform
with a broad, pocket-friendly inventory and options for you to reclaim
VAT.
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If you’ve been tasked with fixing travel management at your company, you
absolutely can’t ignore the demands of the finance team. They’ve become
so accustomed to being blind to travel spend, that you will blow their
minds when you give them access to all travel spend consolidated into
one place.
IN THE TRENCHES
MEETING THE FINANCE TEAM’S NEEDS
“Our head of finance spoke with me about wanting to find a cor-
porate travel tool that would work for us as a global company. His
chief concern was that the finance team had no idea what we were
spending on travel at all. Another big issue for us as a company was
that our travelers weren’t allowed to book on their company credit
cards, and I had to book for them on one single card, which would
quickly get maxed out.
MANDI ROBERTSON
Office Manager at Bowers & Wilkins
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To summarize
You’ve made the shift away from old-school business
travel towards travel that is based on trust, transparency,
simplicity, information, and flexibility.
Goodbye, back-and-forth emails. Goodbye, overpriced
“business” travel. Goodbye, micromanagement. Good-
bye, PDF travel policies. Goodbye, outsourced support
call centers. And goodbye to chasing invoices. Good
riddance.
Let the tool reflect the Put the policy inside the
business booking process
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Checklist
Modern travel
management
Use this checklist to overhaul your travel management
process and save time, hassle, and stress for everyone.
VAT reclaim
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Step 3.
Step 4.
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Save up to 20%
Per-trip pricing, only pay when you
travel
All travel insights data at your Set up granular travel policies for
fingertips easy compliance
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Easily book through the world’s 24/7/365 traveler support for free
largest inventory
Real-time risk alerts & travel restric-
Cancel your trip and get 80% of tions
your money back
Manage your trip and access support
Let travelers book on their own on the go with our app
and not pay out of pocket
Concierge style support available
Get quick support with group
bookings
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