- The benefits of using corporate travel experts for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)
- The differences between traditional travel management agencies and online booking tools
- The core features that a good travel management platform for SMBs should offer
- A review of the top five corporate travel companies for SMBs
What are the advantages of using a corporate travel management company?
- They’re business travel experts: travel management companies have years of experience and knowledge of the travel industry to properly manage your business travel program and help you make cost savings and eliminate inefficiencies
- Their focus is entirely on your business travel needs: often, business travel management falls to an existing employee who has other responsibilities and objectives. Travel management companies are dedicated to the task of managing your business travel needs with no other distractions. Plus, you don’t need to hire an additional member of staff to take on this workload.
- They negotiate the best corporate travel rates on your behalf: for group and individual travel, business travel experts are adept at negotiating better rates for SMBs
- They collate travel spend reports: travel management companies compile reports on business travel spend and expenses by team, department, or project to help you optimise your budgets
- They help maintain compliance: one of the biggest challenges for SMBs is making sure that all business travellers are complying with the company’s travel policy and not making unauthorised bookings. These travel professionals can enforce your travel policy rules when booking business travel arrangements.
Traditional travel management agency versus online booking tools
Traditional travel management agencies
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Online booking tools
What features should a travel management company for small and medium-sized businesses offer?
- Flexible booking options: flexible booking is a must-have for SMBs in order to be agile while protecting their budgets. Accessibility to booking travel services such as flights, trains, accommodation and car rentals that accommodate last-minute changes to travel dates or cancellations after booking free of charge or for smaller change fees than usual is a key feature for SMBs.
- Multiple transportation options: a TMC that offers transportation options aside from flights is another essential feature. SMBs are more likely to travel closer to home and also more likely to be keen on saving money, so the ability to book different transportation options such as cars and trains is essential.
- Integrated travel policy: having travel policies built into the core of a TMC is another core feature for SMBs to ensure that they can enforce compliance and enjoy cost savings on travel booking.
- Reporting capabilities: access to reports that break down the data by each business traveller, transport type, booking type, cancellations, and recoverable VAT helps SMBs identify and initiate spend optimization activities.
- Carbon offsetting: making more sustainable choices to better the environment is often a top priority for many SMBs. The ability to offset their emissions related to business travel is now a key TMC feature for SMBs.
The 5 best corporate travel experts for small and medium-sized enterprises
1. TravelPerk
TravelPerk is a travel management company that offers an all-in-one digital travel platform that manages the entire business travel booking process from start to finish.Not only does TravelPerk offer users the world’s largest travel inventory for flights and accommodation and a huge catalog of integrations, but it also offers SMBs unique services such as a VAT recovery solution, a carbon offsetting programme, and FlexiPerk, a cancellation feature that grants users the ability to cancel business trip arrangements up to two hours before departure with a guaranteed refund of 80%.On top of this, TravelPerk offers:
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- A simple, intuitive online booking tool
- Comprehensive and up-to-date travel alerts for peace of mind
- Automated travel policies and in-app approval system
- Extensive reporting capabilities and expense dashboards
- A risk management solution
- A simplified travel expense process
- 24/7 business travel assistance
2. Selective Travel Management
Selective Travel Management is a travel management company specialised in providing business travel services to several industries including SMBs, governmental departments, higher education, charity and missionary, film and entertainment, and groups and events.The company offers several services that range from group travel business booking, consultancy, risk management, and 24/7 services including in-house emergency support.Selective Travel Management’s client base predominantly spans the UK and Ireland, and their key features include:
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- 24-hour traveller assistance
- Traveller tracking abilities
- Online booking tool and travel management portal
- Multi-sector itineraries
- Search by fare and schedule
- Travel budget management
- Bookings in line with unique company travel policies
3. BCD Travel
BCD Travel is a corporate travel management company with offices in 109 countries that offers travel management services to companies all over the world. Aside from business travel management, the company’s services include meetings management, expense management, and carbon-emissions tracking and reporting.BCD Travel is a traditional travel management company that offers services via an agent and online booking tools including a software suite of three separate platforms for businesses to manage travel. Via these tools, the company offers several travel management functions including:
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- BCD Pay, a travel expense management tool
- BCD Alert, a mobile app for travellers that provides 24hr support and risk management to travellers
- TripSource, a self-management tool for business travellers
- DecisionSource, a feature that provides insights on your travel program based on data
4. Diversity
Diversity is a travel management company for the humanitarian, faith, and NGO sectors, and operates in 82 countries worldwide. Diversity’s online booking tool allows users to book flights, trains, car rentals, and hotel rooms and facilitates airfare deals available and seat holding for non-profit organisations.The company also offers PinPoint, a traveller tracking software that highlights the levels of risk within different locations around the world, provides travellers with real-time risk alerts, and enables colleagues to locate travellers via GPS tracking.However, as a travel management tool, Diversity has its limitations. For example, the company doesn’t offer an integration with travel policies for 100% booking compliance, a VAT reclamation feature, or any third-party integrations. The company also has limited inventory on offer and doesn’t offer a carbon offsetting programme.
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5. Key Travel
Key Travel is a travel management company specialising in the humanitarian, faith, and academic sectors and offers deals on flights, train tickets, accommodation, car rentals, and ferries, as well as parking and lounge, passes via its online booking tool, KT Online.The company also provides a risk management and tracking app for traveller safety, and its reporting tool, KT Insights, provides reports on financial and carbon spending to help drive compliance with travel policies and improve overall travel programmes.However, since Key Travel offers a suite of digital tools rather than a centralised platform for business travel management, and only caters to specific industries, the company may not be suitable for SMBs looking for a solution that caters to their industry.
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