On the surface, managing employee travel may seem simple: just find a hotel in the right location and book a room.
In reality, workforce travel management is much more complicated and time-consuming. It takes an average of 6 hours for travel managers to book and manage a trip at a small to mid-sized company. In addition to those 6 hours, it takes corporate travel buyers 6 months to put together requests for proposals and negotiate rates with their hotel partners, according to Business Travel News. And those rates may or may not be entered properly in the global distribution system.
What else goes into that time?
In addition to booking trips and negotiating rates, travel managers are tasked with many other jobs and travel challenges, including:
Policy compliance
Travel managers are responsible for making sure that hotel reservations comply with corporate policies, procedures and protocols for employee travel. A study found that 40% of U.S. business travelers admitted to booking outside their companies’ travel policies, requiring travel managers to spend more time correcting and regulating travel and bookings.
Traveler safety
The responsibility to ensure traveler safety often falls on travel managers. Research from the Global Business Travel Association shows that traveler safety and risk management are becoming increasingly important to travel managers, but almost 70% of travel managers surveyed said that in times of crisis, traditional corporate travel management tools aren’t enough to locate travelers who booked directly with suppliers.
Reporting and reconciliation
Auditing negotiated hotel contract information, including rates, amenities, and other features, is time consuming. Only 6% of travel managers audit their rates monthly, and about one in seven do not perform any hotel rate audits.
Changing reservations
A survey by TNS Research found that approximately 25% of travel reservations change at least once before or during the trip, and travel managers are often expected to answer calls from employees on the road 24/7 to handle unexpected reservation changes or issues with check-in. This makes it more difficult for travel managers to maintain a healthy work-life balance, which can lead to poor productivity at work or burnout.
Here’s how CLC Lodging can help:
Travel managers are spending 6 months on negotiations when they could spend just 6 minutes becoming a member to access CLC Lodging’s network of 15,000+ pre-negotiated hotels. CLC members also gain access to these features:
Hotel search and booking: Our members gain access to the nation’s largest private membership network of pre-negotiated hotel discounts.
Travel policy compliance: CLC’s solutions are tailored to fit your budget, proximity and accommodation requirements, while adhering to your exact policy.
24/7/365 traveler support: CLC’s US-based traveler support center is available 24/7/365 for reservation changes and traveler support so you never miss a traveler’s call.
Accurate, consolidated billing: CLC performs a comprehensive audit of 100% of invoices to prevent errors and unauthorized charges.
Simplify travel management
Learn how you can instantly access up to 15,000 pre-negotiated, accurate hotel rates by joining CLC Lodging today.
