It’s not until you start working with a travel management company that you realise just how much you can save throughout the business travel booking process … if you have the right technology. Saving on business travel is not just about negotiating corporate rates for your hotel and car hire or getting airfare discounts on your peak routes.
You can also save tens of thousands of rands with smart technology like a good online booking tool (OBT).
Companies using an OBT have the power to drive time and cost efficiencies every time they make a booking. Let’s zoom in on the market’s leading online booking tool (OBT) – YOUR.CT coupled with Concur and explain more.
YOUR.CT and Concur were designed to help SMEs book quickly and easily. If we look at YOUR.CT coupled with Concur’s top features – you’ll see how these features save you either time, money or both.
Customer friendly user experience
No other OBT has a cleaner, more consumer-friendly user experience (UX) than YOUR.CT and Concur. With little, or no training required, travellers or travel bookers can get started making a booking immediately.
Concur has unique ‘modules’ or in-platform user experiences that are based on who is using the tool to optimise the booking experience.
How this benefits travellers
YOUR.CT provides a highly customised experience for individual travellers by remembering your preferences and past bookings. The tool’s artificial capabilities (AI) capabilities mean bookings don’t take as long as the searching and booking process is both intuitive and personalised.
AI and machine-driven learning capabilities are now a critical element for driving time efficiencies in travel management for customers. YOUR.CT and Concur’s AI capability learns how you use the tool, what you typically book and what your preferences are and sets them for you by default. This means that each time you use the OBT you’re booking as efficiently as possible. And we all know time = money.
How this helps travel bookers
YOUR.CT and Concur’s exclusive travel booker module includes special functionality to address any requests that ask for ‘a quote of available options first’. It allows bookers/arrangers to suggest appropriate travel segments (and alternatives) and send through to travellers.
Why self-booking via the OBT is important
The more bookings your business makes via the OBT, the more you save on booking fees as online fees are lower. Customers can book domestic, regional, or international flights through YOUR.CT and Concur, with the booking flow easy to follow, fast and policy driven. What’s more is that you have total flexibility when it comes to payment. You can choose to pay using a lodge card or credit facility, which offers a fully reconciled travel spend overview and is 100% interest-free.
Other savings considerations
When you’re partnered with a TMC their job is to configure your travel technology so that your business can capture every opportunity to save. Aside from the OBT’s functionality there’s also a few other ways that technology supports a best practice travel programme, which translates into soft and hard cash savings.
Here are a few other points to consider -:
- Make sure your OBT is configured to suit your travel policy. This means that your OBT will help to drive your policy and can indicate to travellers at point of booking if they have chosen an out-of-policy fare or rate and by how much it’s out of policy. An OBT will also ask the traveller to explain why they have chosen a non-compliant option.
- Implementing a pre-trip approval process to ensure no bookings are being made that shouldn’t be.
- Ask your TMC to check that all your negotiated rates and preferred suppliers are loaded into your online booking tool correctly and are visible to travellers.
- Sophisticated TMC software will search out special promotional prices and best ‘on the day’ rates. Some systems will automatically cancel and rebook tickets when a cheaper alternative in the same location is available.
- By consolidating all your business travel bookings via your TMC’s online booking tool your business will have more visibility of spend and booking volume, which is essential for being able to negotiate with suppliers for volume-based discounts.
And finally, a TMC will help you choose how to pay for travel, either by individual credit cards, consolidated electronic invoicing, cost centre or project code to make online and in-platform processing simpler and quicker for you. An integrated expense management system will help to create process efficiencies when reconciling expenses.
The upshot of all this? Travel technology is an essential enabler for businesses to save on travel. From the booking and buying process to reporting and supplier negotiations. Just remember though, the savings journey all starts with a great OBT.