As business travel spending soars, you’re probably wondering how to best budget for business travel in the months ahead. Here are a few of the ways to save that you might be overlooking, including opting for an annual management fee.

Have you been seeing your team’s business travel expenses slowly creeping upwards? Or maybe the change hasn’t been so slow over the last half-year? If so, you’re not alone.

According to a late July report from the Global Business Travel Association, global business travel industry spending is expected to hit an all-time high this year. GBTA forecasts that $1.48 trillion will be spent by the end of 2024, surpassing the previous record of $1.43 trillion. (The industry set the prior record in 2019.) The GBTA forecast further expects spending to surpass $2 trillion by 2028.

GBTA credited this soaring growth in spending to a few factors, including a stable global economy and a near-pre-pandemic return to travel. Toward the beginning of the year, many publications, like the Wall Street Journal, declared that business travel is firmly back. GBTA also estimated that the large majority of this spending once tallied up at the end of the year, will be toward accommodations ($501 billion). This is followed by air travel ($282 billion), food and beverage ($245 billion) and ground transportation ($165 billion).

All this business travel spending can be good for some. However, it can also leave Travel Managers with a big question. How can they better budget for business travel so teams can remain profitable while traveling as much as required?

You may have already tried cutting travel costs. You may’ve implemented certain changes like reducing the overall number of trips or lowering travel budgets for certain teams. Maybe you’ve even started cracking down on negligent travel spending that might’ve caught a blind eye in the past. However, are you still missing certain ways to save as you budget for business travel?

Here are a few overlooked options that you may want to consider in the months ahead.

1. Streamline your travel booking process.

Time is money. Are you or your Travelers spending valuable time searching through various websites or platforms to find a good travel deal? If so, you probably aren’t actually saving all that much.

Streamline your travel booking process. Use a travel management platform that allows you to do it all in one place. When you partner with a travel management company (TMC), you get access to deals and savings you can’t find anywhere else. Additionally, you gain valuable time back, as you can book flights, hotels and more, all on one travel management platform.

It’s even better if your chosen travel management platform can also track your expenses and gather data about Traveler spending habits. With that powerful data, you can then make future strategic travel management decisions accordingly.

It all adds up to, ultimately, money saved.

2. Finetune your business travel policies.

From expenses and how they’re reported to best practices related to duty of care, your business travel policy should comprehensively cover everything a business Traveler might need during a trip. From a budget standpoint, though, your business travel policy should protect that budget. It should ensure that Travelers don’t overspend or that unnecessary spending doesn’t occur.

A TMC can help you fine-tune that business travel policy. Then, they can help enforce it through a travel management platform that simply doesn’t allow out-of-policy bookings or spending to occur.

However, it’s also up to Travel Managers to make sure policies are thoroughly communicated to teams.

What does this thorough communication look like? Don’t just send one email and call it done. Instead, send regular emails to your teams, communicating the policies and reminding Travelers of what the policies entail. Bring the policies up in meetings. Create an easily accessible and living policy document that Travelers can refer to at any time.

Go the extra mile to ensure everyone knows about the business travel policy. Ensure that that policy actually protects your budget. It can save you a substantial amount over time.

3. Consider the best fee model for your business.

Working with a TMC can save your travel budget lots of cash in multiple ways. However, have you considered whether you can save on your actual TMC costs? If not, it’s time to do so. Look at your TMC’s fee options and consider what might be best for your needs.

TMCs charge differently for different services, depending on the fee models they offer. Some charge transaction fees, charging you for each transaction made over the course of your contract. Others charge a monthly or annual management fee, which is charged a little bit like a subscription service. You pay a regular fee but get certain services included within that fee.

An annual management model is a great option if you have a core team of Travelers and are pretty good at estimating your travel needs for the foreseeable future. You can use this knowledge to pick an annual plan that covers your number of Travelers and the type of travel services you’ll need (as well as how frequently you’ll need them). You won’t have to worry about incurring additional costs.

However, if you have a growing number of Travelers or your travel is a little more unpredictable, you may not find the same value in an annual management fee. You may prefer a transaction fee model. That way, you only pay for the services you need when you need them, without committing to anything further. Either way, ask your TMC if they offer the pricing model you need and if they don’t, it may be time to make a change.

Business Travel Can Be Complicated — JTB Business Travel Can Help

Managing business travel can be complicated, especially for SMEs. However, working with a TMC like JTB Business Travel can make the process easier. We’ll streamline your booking, reporting, expenses, budgeting and more, all in one place.

Get in touch today to learn more about how we can help you keep your business costs under control, no matter how much business travel spending may be sore in the months ahead.