Set your travelers and your company up for success when you recognize and avoid these common travel policy oversights.
Creating an effective and widely adopted travel policy is hard. There’s so much to include and take into account that the task can feel overwhelming. Travel policy oversights can lead to an unnecessary expansion in travel spend as well as a decrease in traveler satisfaction.
To help you create the best travel policy for your team members and your business, here’s a look at the 5 most common travel policy oversights — and how you can avoid them.
1. Ignoring Traveler Preferences
Your team members have certain ways they like to travel. They might prefer a window or an aisle seat. They might prefer hotel rooms with two double beds or a single king-size. And they might prefer certain makes and models of rental cars.
And they definitely prefer specific airlines, hotel chains and rental companies.
These individual traveler preferences should be embraced rather than ignored. Travel managers should strive to offer as wide an array of cost-effective options as possible. As an added step, make abundantly clear what options are in-policy and what are options are out-of-policy. This additional level of transparency will make team members feel good about the options they do enjoy.
2. Viewing All Trips Equally
Not all business trips are created equal. They can vary significantly depending on the destination, the time of year and even the time of day.
It’s important that travel policies take into account these variables. If a travel policy applies a hard and fast template to both a day trip within the region and a days-long trip to a foreign country, travelers are going to be left confused and frustrated.
Travel technologies can help you create and implement a dynamic travel policy that accounts for the unique nature of each trip.
3. Passing on Expense Management Tech
Expense management is one of the most frustrating, time-consuming and stressful aspects of business travel. Long gone are the days of printing out a spreadsheet and stapling together receipts. It’s important for companies to use the right expense management technologies so that the process is easy, streamlined and stress-free for all parties — travelers, travel managers, accounting team members, etc.
4. Failing on Duty of Care
All companies have a duty of care responsibility to keep their travelers as safe and secure as possible. That’s why travel managers need visibility into where their travelers are located around the world at any given time. But that’s easier said than done without the right tools and support.
New travel technologies can help companies keep tabs on their travelers at all times. Also, third-party duty of care and risk management firms can help ensure that companies have the right tools and support in place should something happen to their team members while on the road.
5. Allowing Out-of-Policy Bookings
Companies should always provide direction on where travelers can book their trips and where they cannot. Start by establishing a single source for travel bookings, one that delivers the choice and flexibility that your team members want and need. And then make clear in travel policies how bookings should occur, what exceptions can be made available, etc.
In-policy bookings are good for both the company and the traveler. They can help reduce overall travel spend, and they can also be a tool for making booking a stress-free and gratifying process for your team members.
Travel Policy Support and Assistance from JTB Business Travel
Creating the right travel policy is hard. It’s even harder when you don’t have the experience, knowledge and insight needed to create an effective travel policy.
At JTB Business Travel, we’re always here to help. We regularly support clients during the policy-creation phase, ensuring they have in place the right policies and the right travel technologies. In short, we can help you avoid these common travel policy oversights so that your travel program and your team members can thrive.Contact us to learn more about how we can support your travel policy process.
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