Booking travel directly through airline websites can lead to a few headaches. Employees might not always stick to your company’s travel policies, which could result in costly mistakes. Plus, they might miss out on special rates or deals, with higher prices. Sorting through bookings and changes can also be a hassle on a day-to-day basis.
If your company frequently sends employees on business trips, it’s worth considering a corporate travel agent. These experts help ensure all bookings comply with your policies and take advantage of the best rates. They also handle any changes or cancellations, saving time and reducing stress. Using a travel agent can simplify your travel management, cut costs, and ensure your team’s trips go off without a hitch.
This blog explains what travel agents do and how your business can benefit from working with one.
What is a Corporate Travel Agent?
A business travel agent is a professional at a travel agency who specializes in managing business trips for companies. They play a crucial role in helping businesses travel efficiently by:
- Researching cost-effective travel options.
- Booking flights, hotels, and car rentals.
- Offering expert advice and consulting on travel matters.
- Assisting with visa applications and other travel-related support.
When organizing corporate trips, these agents provide personalized service tailored to your company’s needs. They create detailed itineraries, handle all the complex arrangements, and ensure every aspect of the trip goes smoothly. This helps businesses save time and avoid the hassle of managing travel logistics on their own.
What Does a Corporate Travel Agent Do?
Itinerary Planning and Modifications
A business travel agent helps you create the most efficient and cost-effective itinerary for your business trip. They find the best flights that match your schedule and needs and can also put together a budget-friendly accommodation package.
Flight and Hotel Bookings
You can use the best corporate travel agents to book your flight and hotel tickets and take advantage of their access to exclusive deals and discounts for business travelers. This is because they get tickets at a lower cost as they work with many companies and negotiate corporate hotel rates for a high volume of employees with both airlines and hotels.
Visa Arrangements
For business travelers, getting a visa sorted out before their trip is crucial. Corporate travel agents handle all the necessary documentation and manage details that might be confusing. Plus, their extensive network of contacts at various embassies helps streamline the visa application process.
Corporate Travel Recommendations
Business travel agents share insights on how to cut costs without sacrificing quality. Their experience in handling numerous bookings, gathering customer feedback, and maintaining relationships with hotels and airlines helps them provide tips that save you money.
Suggested Read:
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What are the Pros and Cons of Using a Corporate Travel Agent?
Pros of Choosing a Corporate Travel Agent
Expert Handling of Travel Challenges
The best corporate travel agents expertly manage all complexities of business travel bookings. They handle potential challenges and complications, leaving you free from the stress of dealing with unexpected issues. This expert oversight means that every aspect of your travel is taken care of, minimizing the chances of problems arising.
Thorough Coverage of Trip
By using travel agents, you ensure that no important detail is overlooked. They meticulously manage every part of your travel plans, from flights to accommodations, making sure everything is covered comprehensively. This thorough approach helps prevent any overlooked issues and ensures a smooth travel experience.
Cost Management
Travel agents are skilled in managing travel costs and ensuring that your budget is respected. They obtain the best deals on transportation and accommodation by leveraging their established relationships with suppliers. This means you benefit from lower costs and discounts that might not be available elsewhere.
Personalized Travel Solutions
Corporate travel agents understand the unique needs of your business and its travelers. They tailor travel arrangements to fit specific requirements, ensuring that every trip is customized to meet your company’s needs. This personalized approach helps enhance the travel experience for everyone involved.
Cons of Choosing a Corporate Travel Agent
Lesser Visibility Into Trip Processes
Outsourcing travel management can reduce your visibility into the decision-making process. With less direct control, you may have limited insight into how travel decisions are made and how they impact your travel management KPIs.
For example, the company is unaware of the actual price of negotiation, whether they could get a further discounted price, the average money spent by a particular department, the percentage of cancellations, and safety issues faced by employees.
No Round-the-clock Support
The best corporate travel agents typically operate during standard business hours. If issues arise after hours or on weekends, your employees may struggle to get the support they need, leaving them without immediate assistance.
A business travel agent cannot always provide 24/7 support to travelers. For example, if a business traveler needs immediate assistance with booking a flight because they missed one late at night, they’ll likely have to wait until morning to contact the agent.
In other words, there are situations where employees need immediate assistance to avoid any safety issues. An agent cannot help in all circumstances.
Potential for High Costs
Using the best corporate travel agents can lead to increased expenses. Many agents or agencies charge annual fees along with transactional fees each time their services are used. These costs can quickly add up, potentially consuming a significant portion of your travel budget.
Conflicting Interests
Business travel agents often have established relationships with travel suppliers, which can sometimes lead to conflicts of interest. You might not always receive the best deal available. Instead, the deal may benefit the agent or their preferred suppliers more than your business.
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Benefits of itilite as Your Corporate Travel System
How to Manage Your Corporate Travel Seamlessly?
While business travel agents might be able to help you plan and book your business travel, travel management software makes the whole process effortless. With this software, there is no need for a middleman, and you can take control of your business travel by making all the arrangements yourself.
It allows you to book tickets, track travel expenditures, and analyze your spending on a single platform. Not to mention, it can also help you save time and money.
Travel management software makes business travel effortless for you in the following ways:
- Allow employees to book tickets for themselves easily amongst a curated list of personalized packages.
- Get the best deals through a wide inventory sourced through GDS (Global Distribution System) and save your company money.
- Travelers can modify their itinerary, get rental cars, and keep their tickets on a single application.
- Streamline travel approvals by gaining access to a multi-level approval workflow through the travel management software
- Get deep insight into important travel KPIs such as department-wise spending, high-spending employees, and policy violations.
- Track your employees in real time to ensure their safety
- Give round-the-clock travel support to your employees so that they can get assistance at any hour of the day
- Integrate travel policies with the software to achieve 100% policy compliance
A Comprehensive Solution for Your Travel Needs
While corporate travel agents offer benefits, their drawbacks can significantly impact your business and travel plans. That’s where modern corporate travel management platforms like itilite come in.
itilite provides a superior solution for businesses with frequent travel needs by eliminating the middleman. It delivers all the advantages of traditional travel agents, plus so much more. itilite excels at uncovering cost-saving opportunities, securing unbeatable deals on transportation and accommodation, and streamlining the entire travel expense process.
With itilite, you gain a more efficient, transparent, and cost-effective approach to managing your corporate travel, ensuring that every trip is handled with precision and every dollar is maximized.
To know more about our services, talk to our team now.
FAQ’s
To choose a corporate travel agent, look for one with a strong track record of managing business travel and a deep network of supplier relationships for the best deals. Ensure they offer 24/7 support and transparent cost structures to meet your company’s specific needs effectively.
A corporate travel agent specializes in managing business travel arrangements, including bookings, itineraries, and expense management. They provide expert advice and support to ensure efficient, cost-effective employee travel.
Travel agents typically get paid through commissions from airlines, hotels, and other travel providers for bookings they make. They may also charge their clients service or annual fees for their expertise and support.
A travel agent primarily handles booking and managing travel arrangements for clients, while a travel consultant provides in-depth advice, personalized recommendations, and strategic planning for complex travel needs. Travel consultants often focus on higher-level planning and may charge consultation fees.
