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Local solutions, delivered globally

CTM provides local service solutions to customers around the world. Please select your local region, and start experiencing the CTM difference!

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Online booking tools

Corporate travel management (ctm) supports a range of online booking tools (obts), including proprietary and third-party solutions, enabling a tailored travel management solution that is built for your business’s specific travel needs and preferences..

What differentiates CTM’s online booking tool offering from other travel management providers is our ability to enhance the end-user experience of third-party tools by layering CTM’s proprietary technology framework. These unique product customizations deliver our customers with enhanced product features and benefits, significantly increasing the speed and cost-savings potential of our online booking solutions.

In North America, we offer a range of online booking tools for our customers, including Lightning by CTM and Concur.

Experience CTM's Lightning online booking tool

7 reasons to use an online booking tool

Whether you’re a travel arranger, travel approver, business traveler or all three, an online booking tool (OBT) can be the perfect solution to your travel management needs. Below highlights just a few of the many reasons why your business could benefit from utilizing an OBT.

Research and book air, hotel and car rental in one platform, combining corporate negotiated deals alongside global distribution system (GDS) content and last minute inventory. Better visibility of rates and availability in a single source eliminates the need to compare across multiple sites.

Compare the best rates to travel across multiple providers in a single search, ensuring access to the best corporate travel deals. Configurable policy regulations ensure maximum program compliance and support supplier preference to heighten your negotiation power. Access to redeem unused ticket credits enables your team to eliminate wastage. User-friendly OBTs also enable your teams to easily self-book their travel, reducing service fees.

Personalized experience

Store traveler information and preferences, upload negotiated deals and supplier preferences, and apply filters to present and sort travel options in the most effective way for your individual users.

Duty of care

Traveler tracking and risk alerts allow companies to easily locate and contact their travelers based on their travel itinerary, reducing potential risks to safety and efficiency.

Policy compliance

OBTs can be configured to your travel policy to ensure 100% mandate to in-policy buying, further bolstering your supplier negotiations and minimizing traveler risk.

Consolidated reporting

Booking all aspects of your travel in a single OBT ensures that all travel data is consolidated for more efficient reporting and budget control, and greater visibility of your travel program’s performance.

Book on the go

Online booking tool’s mobile apps enable your workforce to remain highly productive while on the road. With the ability to book and manage their itinerary 24/7, an OBT app gives your travelers greater control over the business travel experience.

Experience CTM’s online booking tools in action. Request a demo today.

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Lightning OBT

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Online and Mobile Booking

Click here to get in touch  with a CTM representative today. From the inception of online booking over a decade ago, CTM was on the forefront of this technology. As its evolved, we have continued to provide our customers with dedicated experts to map out a successful implementation plan and ongoing end-user support.

We leverage Concur Travel, the industry’s most comprehensive and innovative online corporate travel booking tool, to deliver the broadest selection of travel content through an intuitive and easy-to-use online experience. Concur Travel gives you total control of your corporate travel program, by delivering the travel content your business travelers need while providing you with policy enforcement, robust global capabilities and increased visibility through real-time reporting. Convenience for our customers and ourselves is critical- so having the most travel content available in one tool made Concur an easy choice.

Once you start working with CTM, we develop a managed Concur site, customized to match your company's needs and travel policy. All with zero start-up cost to your company!

Concur Travel offers organizations:   

• The most travel content of any online provider
• Reduced travel booking costs versus full service agent
• Online exchanges, change of return 
• Robust global functionality
• Powerful real-time reporting and analytics
• Enhanced visibility - your company colors,logo & notices ("Have you qualified for this year's sales award cruise?)
• 100% automatic integration with  Concur Online Expense.   No other online booking tool has this ability. 
• Constant innovation as a technology leader

Online Travel Booking Made  EASY   

Concur Travel makes booking travel quick and easy, even for the least experienced users. Concur Travel's user interface delivers a familiar consumer travel booking experience, offering end users powerful yet easy-to-use features, all while ensuring your corporate policies are being enforced. Visual enhancements including an intuitive map-based interface for point and click air booking, grids to display fares organized by your preferences and property photographs make booking travel effortless.

Concur Travel enables travelers to simultaneously book air, rental car, hotel, and rail reservations quickly and easily. With minimal effort and an intuitive user interface, travelers can rapidly book the most complex of trips with a few clicks. Trip templates, maps, smart reminders, and integration to mobile devices are just a few examples of how Concur Travel increases employee productivity by accomplishing the travel booking task faster than any other tool.

Concur Mobile®. 

Concur Mobile is a natural extension of Concur® Travel & Expense, which integrates the complete travel booking and expense reporting process. With Concur Mobile, travelers can manage trips, expenses and reports, and add or change items such as dining, taxis, hotels, and rental cars – all from their phone.

The solution gives business travelers the freedom to manage their itineraries and expense transactions, allowing them to complete reports in a timely manner. Managers can remotely review employee expense reports in detail, allowing them to approve or reject reports wherever they may be traveling.

Concur Mobile gives users the power and flexibility to:

* View itinerary and flight schedules

* Book rental cars, hotels, dining reservations and taxis

* Get directions

* Capture receipt images

* Add or delete expenses

* Approve or reject expense reports

Use video link (https://www.concur.com/en-us/travel-booking?icid=en_us_home_travel)

LET'S GET STARTED

Ready to talk to CTM and start saving?  Click here to get in touch  with a CTM representative today.

What Our Clients Say About Us

Nobody brings people together like we do.

We're a multi  award-winning corporate travel, meetings and events management company.

We're all about helping businesses to connect by understanding your culture, people and customers. We provide exceptional service, support and cost control through unrivalled knowledge and innovative award-winning online booking technology for business travel, meetings and events.

When you need to travel and meet for business, we've got the services to put traveller safety, duty of care and wellbeing at the heart of your travel programme. With 24/7 support and risk management processes, we carve out great value, efficiencies and insights to help you buy, book, travel and meet in the safest and most sustainable way possible.   Sound like a good fit? Start working with a top UK business travel management agency. Or if you need a little more convincing, keep scrolling.

​From implementing an easy to use travel booking solution to building corporate travel policy and programmes, we're the providers you want by your side. Top business travel agents don't just get travellers from A to B, we get you there in the safest, most secure and sustainable way possible.

We're the unrivalled champion in meetings management. From large scale conference planning to taking a strategic approach to your meetings, the combined power of our award-winning meetings technology and venue finding experts provide industry leading service, safety and insight to our customers.

Accommodation.

Our database of suppliers offers a huge range of rates and accommodation to support any need or business travel budget. Through strategic supplier partnerships with apartments, large hotel groups and independent accommodation providers, we're able to offer value for money and cost control to customers.

​​​​Our award-winning event management team put delegate engagement, creativity and sustainability at the top of the agenda. Our industry best event planners are experts in designing  events that exceed business objectives. Whether it's in-person or virtual, we're the team you want on speed dial.

Experts in public sector business travel.

We've got a rich history of public sector travel management organisations means we understand the unique challenges public sector organisations face. The diverse mix of our customers and our proud place on two frameworks: Crown Commercial Service (CCS) RM6217 (Lot 1 & Lot 4) and Kent Procurement Services (KCS) enables a single source solution which can save time and costs on the entire procurement process. 

​You are knowledgeable and a breath of fresh air to work with.

Our transformational travel, meetings and events technology.

Our online booking systems, award-winning meetings management technology and event management software platforms are designed to find the best way to connect, while considering safety, wellbeing and the planet. We combine corporate travel booking systems and expert people in travel management to put the right tools at the fingertips of managers, delegates, travel bookers and travellers to offer exactly what they're looking for. So, if it's powerful travel booking technology you need, we're the travel management company for you.

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CTM provides local service solutions to customers around the world. Please select your local region, and start experiencing the CTM difference!

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Connecting business through travel

Connecting ideas through travel

Connecting people through travel

Welcome to ctm. we do business travel, differently., corporate travel management (ctm) is a leader in business travel management services in the united kingdom, emea and beyond. we drive savings, efficiency, safety, and sustainability to businesses and corporate travellers, wherever your business takes you..

When you partner with CTM you’ll enjoy the experience of business travel done differently – a uniquely designed travel programme, built for your business’s specific travel needs and objectives, and expertly delivered in every region you operate in. We design travel programmes that drive strategic results for every part of your business and every member of your team.

So if you’re looking for a tailored travel management solution, delivering customer service excellence, innovative technology and a demonstrable return on investment, you’re in the right place.

Experience the CTM difference

Elevate your travel programme with Corporate Travel Management

Is your travel programme delivering savings, efficiency, and safety to your business and travelling workforce? Are you leveraging your travel data to negotiate better travel deals and positively influence booking behaviours? Do you have access to the tools you need to control your budget, reduce risk, improve sustainability and maximise employee well-being?

If not, it’s time to elevate your travel programme with CTM.

We don’t believe in a one-size fits all approach to travel management. We work in partnership with your team to design a tailored travel programme, utilising proven strategies and leveraging big data, to deliver strategic outcomes which align with your business’s unique objectives and priorities. Find out how CTM’s solutions can transform your business travel programme and budget today.

Get more from your business travel programme

Bigger savings

For every dollar spent on our travel management services, we’ll return more to you in savings.

Greater efficiency

Our expertise, 24/7 support and intuitive technology significantly improves your team's efficiency.

Award-winning service

Access award-winning service and solutions designed for your needs, via your prefered channel.

Heightened safety

Drive safety and well-being to your travelling workforce to reduce risk and increase productivity.

Improved sustainability

Travel doesn't have to cost the earth. Our tools and solutions support more sustainable travel.

Better insights

Unleash the power of reliable, actionable data to drive programme performance and accountability.

Take your travel programme from average to exceptional

Take your travel budget further

For every pound spent on our travel management services, we’ll return more to you in savings. That’s the CTM difference.

How we do it

• You’ll benefit from CTM’s extensive global buying power and supplier negotiations to experience exceptional deals on flights, accommodation and car rental
• Your CTM travel platform provides one-stop-shop access to the best corporate negotiated deals, last-minute inventory and dynamic supplier content (NDC-ready), all comparable side-by-side for maximum speed, choice and value
• CTM’s forecasting technology visualises the cheapest time to travel in a single search, ensuring you travel at the most affordable time
• Your strategic Account Manager will design a bespoke travel policy based on your unique travel behaviours and business objectives, and conducts regular travel programme analysis and benchmarking to identify ongoing savings opportunities
• Consolidate your corporate travel, meetings and events spend with CTM for stronger supplier negotiation power and access to great corporate and event travel deals.

Increase efficiency

Get where you’re going fast.

Leverage CTM’s travel expertise, 24/7 support and intuitive technology to significantly improve your employees’ productivity.

• We put intuitive  travel technology at your fingertips 24/7, making travel research, booking, and trip management simple, efficient and reliable
• Choose your preferred self-service online booking tool and a mobile app to book all your flights, hotels and car rental in a single transaction
• Enjoy round-the-clock travel service from CTM’s travel advisors , via a channel of your choice, for friendly, knowledgeable, and relevant travel support wherever and whenever you need it
• Enjoy access to live consolidated travel reporting across every aspect of your travel programme, driving increased visibility, control, and efficiency.

Maximise safety

Boost travel confidence & productivity

Enhance your employee’s safety while travelling for business with our suite of intuitive and integrated risk management tools.

• Traveller tracking technology enables you to track and communicate with travellers in the event of an emergency, including one-click ‘proof of life’
• Pre-trip approval workflows enable risk identification and management prior to booking
• CTM risk alerts send email and SMS notifications to affected travellers based on itinerary location and risk levels
• CTM Mobile travel app enables travellers to book and manage their travel needs on-the-go for greater independence.

Get connected.

Contact our team today to discuss your travel programme needs., transformative business travel technology.

Global Scale, Local Expertise, Agile Tech

The scale to achieve maximum savings, the spread to provide consistent local market expertise, and the agility to solve tomorrow’s travel challenges today.

Built For Simplicity, Consistency, Flexibility

We take a highly consultative, curated approach to designing unique, simple and effective global travel solutions which deliver strategic results today and into the future.

Your Feedback Drives Our Roadmap

We put you front and center of our product and service roadmap, ensuring you benefit first from the fastest, most relevant and impactful solutions.

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Testimonial

The service experience provided and standards we expect from CTM have always been critical to our business success... We now have no ‘downtime’ when a consultant is out of the office, as the entire team knows our policy and our travellers’ needs. This always gives us excellent service continuity, which makes my role just that little bit easier.

- Engineering client -

CTM held our hand through the [implementation] process – training on the booking tool was clear and concise, and the entire exercise could not have run more smoothly.

- Food manufacturing client -

Challenger continues to seek the best return on its investments in technology. Partnering with CTM to implement Fare Forecaster was a commonsense decision that met our needs in achieving this goal.

- Challenger -

Corporate Meetings & Events

Take your corporate meetings and events to a new level of performance with CTM’s specialist event management team , ETM. Our expert event organisers ensure strategically designed meetings and events which deliver exceptional attendee experiences, more strategic outcomes for your business, and a better return on your travel budget.

Benefit from our extensive supplier relationships to leverage corporate deals on accommodation, travel and entertainment, saving you time and money. Moreover, consolidate your corporate and event travel spend through CTM for stronger supplier negotiations, maximizing your overall budget’s potential. Whether it’s corporate events, strategic meetings, conferences, group travel, team-building activities, or sales incentives, we tailor your event management solution to exceed expectations and drive business success.

Partner with us for a connected event experience that drives results for your business, people, and budget.

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Solutions for Every Business Size

Whether you’re a global enterprise, national corporate, or fast-growing start-up, we design travel management solutions that deliver on your goals.

Integrated Technology Ecosystem

Our technology is built to be as flexible as your needs are diverse, putting transformative tools at your fingertips 24/7 for maximum productivity and peace of mind.

Our Customer Success Stories

Don't just take our word for it. Explore our customer case studies and success stories to see how CTM has delivered resuls for businesses like yours.

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• Strategic Account Management
• Small Business Solutions
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• Business Travel Blog
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Local solutions, delivered globally

CTM provides local service solutions to customers around the world. Please select your local region, and start experiencing the CTM difference!

Don’t show this again

Online booking tools

Corporate travel management (ctm) supports a range of online booking tools (obts), including proprietary and third-party solutions, enabling a tailored travel management solution that is built for your business’s specific travel needs and preferences..

What differentiates CTM’s online booking tool offering from other travel management providers is our ability to enhance the end-user experience of third-party tools by layering CTM’s proprietary travel technology framework. These unique product customisations deliver our customers with enhanced product features and benefits, significantly increasing the speed and cost-savings potential of our online booking travel solutions.

In Australia and New Zealand, we offer a range of online booking tools for our customers, including Lightning by CTM and Concur.

Experience CTM's Lightning online booking tool

7 reasons to use an online booking tool

Whether you’re a travel booker, travel approver, business traveller or all three, an online booking tool (OBT) can be the perfect solution to your travel management needs. Below highlights just a few of the many reasons why your business could benefit from utilising an OBT.

Research and book air, hotel and car hire in one platform, combining corporate negotiated deals alongside global distribution system (GDS) content and last minute inventory. Better visibility of rates and availability in a single source eliminates the need to compare across multiple sites.

Compare the best rates to travel across multiple providers in a single search, ensuring access to the best corporate travel deals. Configurable policy regulations ensure maximum program compliance and support supplier preferencing to heighten your negotiation power. Access to redeem unused ticket credits enables your team to eliminate wastage. User-friendly OBTs also enable your teams to easily self-book their travel, reducing service fees.

Personalised experience

Store traveller information and preferences, upload negotiated deals and supplier preferences, and apply filters to present and sort travel options in the most effective way for your individual users.

Duty of care

Traveller tracking and risk alerts allow companies to easily locate and contact their travellers based on their travel itinerary, reducing potential risks to safety and efficiency.

Policy compliance

OBTs can be configured to your travel policy to ensure 100% mandate to in-policy buying, further bolstering your supplier negotiations and minimising traveller risk.

Consolidated travel reporting

Booking all aspects of your travel in a single OBT ensures that all travel data is consolidated for more efficient travel reporting and budget control, and greater visibility of your travel program’s performance.

Book on the go

Online booking tool’s mobile apps enable your workforce to remain highly productive while on the road. With the ability to book and manage their itinerary 24/7, an OBT app gives your travellers greater control over the business travel experience.

Experience CTM’s online booking tools in action.

Request a demo today.

You might be interested in...

Lightning OBT

Pre-trip approval

Forecasting

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Corporate Travel Management, Business Travel Services & Solutions

Modern corporate travel management for the fast-changing travel landscape

Manage risk. Support traveler wellbeing. Plan for the future. How can Egencia™ help you modernize your corporate travel program?

The only proven global B2B travel tech platform

Egencia is always working to deliver travelers, travel managers, and travel arrangers unrivaled choice, value, and experience, with the powerful backing of Amex GBT.

We’re in a league of our own

Our platform can be optimized for all types of users, in companies big or small.

Tech is in our DNA   We originated in the labs of global tech giants and now we are a part of the most valuable B2B travel solution in the world.

AI-driven insights   Our AI delivers custom user experiences that add value to your company’s travel program.

Suite of APIs   Amex GBT Egencia’s open API platform gives you the ability to build robust integrations that help you automate, connect and simplify your travel and expense management.

Unbeatable travel content We lead the industry with over 290 global airlines and 650,000 lodging partners.

Industry-first NDC capabilities Amex GBT Egencia is the first to offer new distribution capabilities to our clients. 

Amex GBT Egencia Preferred Rates  We offer the best value for business travel with access to special discounted air fares.

The unique content from Amex GBT Egencia provides unrivaled choice and value for air, hotel, car and rail.

Our technology-driven customer service and commitment to excellence puts Amex GBT Egencia on another level.

Industry leader in service Our platform and services are consistently rated above 95% satisfaction by customers.

Best-in-class traveler support We provide services to over 2 million travelers in over 60 countries.

Globally proven Amex GBT Egencia proudly supports over 9,000 companies of all sizes around the world.

Constant innovation We consistently deliver enhancements and innovation across our online and offline services.

Smartest shopping experience Our technology provides the smartest, quickest shopping experience to give the best routes and rates based on user preferences.

Proven optimization Our AI and machine learning delivers the best experience and enhancements for savings, traveler wellbeing and sustainability.

We lead the industry in innovation, with data insights from 100s of millions of transactions every year.

The world's business travel platform

• Companies of all sizes in more than 60 countries trust Amex GBT Egencia to modernize their corporate travel programs
• We deliver simple, consumer-like business travel that users love and fast, knowledgeable support for unexpected moments
• With a globally consistent platform and skilled travel program management, rest assured your travel program is optimized to manage risk while maximizing ROI

Ready to update your travel program?

If now is the time to redesign your corporate travel program to manage risk, support traveler wellbeing and monitor your travel spend, this toolkit can help.

Amex GBT Egencia helps you stay connected

14 million business trips were made with Amex GBT Egencia last year. As your travel management company, we’ll be with you every step of the way.

Managing travel risk

Travel risk management has never been more important. Find out how you can manage risk, deliver duty of care and make your business travelers feel secure.

• A comprehensive and quickly adaptable business travel policy is crucial. Use this free guide to help you create a travel policy that adapts to your needs.
• Make traveler wellbeing a priority. Inform, alert and assist them in real-time via the mobile app and online booking tool
• Reduce risk by improving travel policy compliance

Putting traveler wellbeing first

You want employees to feel fully supported from the time they book until they return home. Amex GBT Egencia travel experts are ready to assist.

• Learn how you can enhance your duty of care policies for travelers
• Travel booking is only one part of the equation. Traveler safety is the other. Use this pre-travel safety checklist as a guide
• Learn how Amex GBT Egencia simplifies hotel bookings for travelers .
• Put your travelers in the driver’s seat and take advantage of our fleet of 5 million car rental options worldwide

Savings and ROI

Even as the travel industry changes, businesses still need to make strategic decisions based on cost and ROI. Amex GBT Egencia can help you boost your bottom line.

• Gain insights, identify savings and optimize travel spend in real-time with Amex GBT Egencia Analytics Studio
• Find out how Umpqua Bank maximized their business travel ROI with Amex GBT Egencia
• Amex GBT Egencia travel services can help simplify expense management . Easily track travel expenses that reflect spending with personal or corporate credit cards
• 19 ways our travel management solutions can help you save time and money

Amex GBT Egencia empowers over 2 million business travelers to get the most out of their business travel. Shouldn’t you be one of them?

Amex GBT Egencia’s G2 Winter 2024 Awards

Are you considering a return to business travel.

Amex GBT Egencia partners with Festive Road to offer a permissible travel framework to evaluate an organization’s overall readiness to travel based on corporate, individual and government regulations.

Are you an Amex GBT Egencia travel customer?

I'm a business traveler, i manage travel, recommended for you.

Request a demo to see what Amex GBT Egencia travel management solutions can do for you.

Already a customer? Contact Amex GBT Egencia customer service .

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The ultimate guide to corporate travel management

The days of businesses operating and growing within a small city radius are long gone. In today’s fast-paced and tech-savvy business world, companies have easy access to global talent and clientele.

As such, transporting stakeholders long distances is standard practice. Recent forecasts project that there will be more than 470 million domestic business trips taken in the US alone in 2024.

While corporate travel is a necessary part of operating a modern business, it can also be logistically difficult and costly to manage—especially as your business scales. This article will help cover what you need to know to improve your corporate travel management operations.

What is corporate travel management?

Corporate travel management is the process of coordinating, analyzing, and managing a company's business travel needs.

Effective corporate travel management is crucial for keeping business trips organized and efficient, ensuring that travel arrangements align with the company’s policies, helping to enhance the safety and comfort of travelers, and adhering to budgets.

What does a corporate travel manager do?

Craft and implement comprehensive corporate travel policies.

Corporate travel managers develop detailed travel policies that align with the company's unique goals and needs.

For example, a travel manager would establish policies for:

Booking procedures. Define processes for booking rides, flights, and hotels.

Travel class guidelines. Set standards for business or economy class based on distance, duration, or employee level.

Accommodation standards. Specify the type, budget, and class of accommodations allowed (for instance, hotels or home rentals).

Expense reporting and reimbursement. Set limits on daily allowances for meals and incidentals, and establish procedures for tracking and submitting travel expenses.

Technology use. Implement travel management software or apps to simplify travel arrangements, data analysis, and reporting.

Orchestrate seamless experiences

Corporate travel managers oversee the coordination and execution of business travel plans for employees. They either directly arrange all aspects of travel themselves, manage an internal team of travel coordinators, or work with third-party travel agents.

Today it’s also essential to adopt corporate travel apps , as they assist managers with streamlining travel plans across their organization. A corporate travel app helps with the following:

Automated expense tracking. Eliminates the need to save hard copies of receipts by automatically adding to the system the trips and meals to be expensed.

Centralized control from a dashboard. Provides complete visibility into travel policies, procedures, expenses, budgets, and plans.

Real-time reporting and tracking. Offers a comprehensive look into customized travel programs with real-time updates for travel, meals, incidentals, and more.

Simplified travel management. Includes flexible and customizable limits for booking rides, buying food, and processing payments (such as charging to a personal card for reimbursement or to a business card).

Control the budget for optimal financial outcomes

Travel managers navigate the line between providing comfortable travel experiences for employees and sticking to the business’s travel budget.

To do this, managers research cost-saving opportunities, identify the most cost-effective times to travel, and negotiate discounts with travel vendors.

A travel manager might, for instance, identify and book off-peak flights for a team attending an international conference. They could also track rideshare prices to find optimal travel times and book hotel rooms with corporate discounts.

Analyze data to inform future travel policies

Corporate travel managers are also responsible for monitoring travel data. Keeping a close eye on travel analytics helps with:

Tracking expenses. Examining corporate travel expenses reveals spending patterns and shows where the company can reduce costs.

Identifying travel patterns. Historical travel data helps managers find patterns and trends, which helps with forecasting future travel needs and preferences.

Benchmarking against industry standards. Travel managers compare their company’s travel spending and policies against industry benchmarks to better understand performance.

Analyzing supplier performance. Evaluating data about suppliers can uncover their reliability, service quality, and value.

Managers capture this data with feedback surveys from employees, travel industry reports, travel management software, and third-party travel platforms.

Prioritize duty of care for employee well-being

Corporate travel managers work closely with HR managers to develop duty-of-care protocols for their employees.

Duty of care in corporate travel includes:

Ensuring the health of employees. Maintaining the well-being and health of traveling employees and making sure they have access to necessary healthcare and support.

Providing for basic needs. Arranging for essential amenities like quality food and beverages, and comfortable accommodations.

Protecting employees. Keeping travelers away from situations where they may experience harassment, stress, or discrimination.

Collaborate with industry partners

Corporate travel managers’ duties don’t start and stop with coordinating and managing business travel. They’re also responsible for building relationships with top industry partners and vendors.

This includes establishing discount and comfort agreements with airlines, negotiating deals with hotel chains, and selecting the best rideshare apps.

They also work closely with internal teams and senior management to ensure that travel strategies and contracts align with overall business goals.

For travel policy setters or managers

Oversee your travel program with the flexible rules and streamlined reporting you need, with Uber for Business.

Challenges within corporate travel management

Successfully managing corporate travel requires so much more than simply booking plane tickets and hotel rooms for employees. Below are some of the top challenges corporate travel managers face.

Cost-benefit analysis

In corporate travel management, this involves quantifying all costs associated with travel and weighing them against the benefits, such as networking opportunities, employee development, client relationships, and successful sales.

Imagine a scenario where a company is considering sending an employee to an international conference that costs $3,000 in total. The corporate manager would need to research the potential benefits (such as networking, business development, and employee growth) of spending that $3,000 and determine if it’s worth it.

Cost-benefit analysis can also be nuanced. Consider this data point, for example: 48% of business travelers say their last work trip was too long. If an employee can accomplish what they need to in 2 days of travel and a manager books a trip for 4 days, it results in 2 extra days of employee time and corporate travel budget.

Cost-benefit analysis, in this instance, would involve analyzing past data, including post-travel feedback surveys, to understand how long employees need to travel to accomplish goals while optimizing the travel budget.

Traveler satisfaction

Research shows that 60% of employees say business travel positively affects their satisfaction with their job. And Slack’s 2023 “State of Work” report found that most employees say feeling happy and engaged at work is a key motivator. What’s more, when employees are happy and productive, businesses thrive, according to The Economist .

The tricky part for travel managers is accommodating employees’ diverse travel needs and preferences within a corporate (not a luxury vacay) budget.

To keep employees happy and productive, travel managers must understand what satisfies employees while they travel and then develop a plan to deliver a positive experience while working within a corporate budget.

Adapting to changing business needs

Shifts in business priorities, such as targeting new international markets or altering strategic partnerships, directly affect travel requirements.

A shift toward more in-person client meetings, for example, can increase travel frequency. Corporate travel managers must adapt policies and budgets to align with evolving business needs.

And efficient corporate travel management requires monitoring shifting political, economic, and health climates worldwide and being ready to respond and adapt. Travel needs can change in an instant, and corporate travel managers must remain adaptable to adjust travel strategies as necessary.

Environmental sustainability

A 2023 Deloitte study reported that climate concerns will likely limit corporate travel growth in the coming years. Deloitte found that “4 in 10 European companies and a third of US companies say they need to reduce travel per employee by more than 20% to meet their 2030 sustainability targets.”

This statistic highlights the growing pressure on corporate travel managers to devise travel strategies that meet the needs of a growing business while being efficient, cost-effective, and environmentally responsible.

4 tips for managing business travel

Now that we’ve discussed some of the job responsibilities and top challenges of corporate travel managers, let’s cover the best tips for managing business travel.

1. Establish clear communication channels

When employees don’t know your travel policies and procedures, it’s impossible for them to comply.

In other words, they might not know how much they can spend at a corporate dinner, whether they should take a taxi or use a rideshare app, or what safety and security policies they need to follow when traveling for business.

Consider establishing a clear communication channel where every employee can access critical travel information. This could be a dedicated travel portal or intranet page, regular email updates, or travel management software that provides real-time communication.

2. Conduct regular training sessions

Another way to fine-tune communication and increase awareness about travel policies is by conducting regular training sessions.

Create a live or digital training course that covers the following:

• Travel policies: Review company-specific travel guidelines and booking procedures.
• Safety measures: Explain all protocols and emergency procedures for travel. Draw special attention to areas people may be visiting that are undergoing political or civil unrest.
• Changes in procedures: Provide updates on any new or altered travel-related processes. This is especially important during health crises.
• Duty-of-care responsibilities: Educate on and provide clear definitions of the company’s commitment to traveler safety and well-being.
• Per diem amounts: Outline the daily allowances for expenses while traveling. Include a definition of what is and isn’t allowed. For example, is alcohol part of a per diem or excluded from corporate expenses?
• Expense reporting: Give instructions on how to accurately report and submit travel expenses.

3. Adopt travel technology

When you’re managing travel for multiple employees across different offices, it’s challenging to educate everyone, track expenses, and ensure compliance with travel policies. To organize and streamline everything, you may consider a travel management system (TMS).

A TMS is a comprehensive travel platform that helps companies book, track, and report travel activities. It typically also provides real-time data and analytics, helping you monitor travel spending and optimize your travel strategies.

4. Evaluate and update travel procedures and policies

Any changes in technology, the world economy, political climates, global health status, and industry have a profound effect on business travel.

As such, it’s essential to establish a process for continually evaluating and updating travel procedures and policies.

This could include:

• Reviewing policies to make sure they’re relevant, cost-efficient, effective, and safe
• Surveying your employees to see how happy they are with your travel policies
• Evaluating your TMS data to identify where you can optimize travel, innovate, and improve processes

Move your business forward with Uber for Business

In today’s fast-paced business world, getting corporate travel right is more important than ever. Adapting to changes quickly and embracing new technologies are key to staying ahead in managing business trips effectively.

You may also consider leveraging Uber for Business , a game changer in managing your company’s travel needs. It simplifies the entire process of corporate travel management with features like automated expense tracking and centralized control, making it easier to stick to policies and budgets.

With Uber for Business, you’re not simply organizing travel. You’re also saving time and money while giving your team a smoother, more efficient travel experience. Learn how to get started .

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Planning to Combine Business and Leisure Travel? You’re Not Alone.

As employees increasingly add leisure time to their business trips, companies are trying to figure out where their duty of care obligations begin and end.

Credit... Aart-Jan Venema

Supported by

By Amy Zipkin

• April 7, 2024

On a Sunday in late January, Melinda Buchmann, who lives in Florida and supervises client relations for RevShoppe, a 30-person remote company advising organizations on sales techniques and strategies, arrived in Banff, Alberta, to help set up a four-day company meeting.

The last day of the event, her husband, Josh, a director of strategic partnerships for the delivery company DoorDash , who also works remotely, joined her. They spent two leisurely days hiking in Banff National Park and visiting Lake Louise.

“I take advantage, because I don’t know when I’m going to return,” Ms. Buchmann said of the decision to combine downtime with a business trip.

As postpandemic work life has changed, and arrangements now include full-time office attendance as well as hybrid and remote work, so, too, has business travel. The phenomenon known as bleisure, or blended business and leisure travel, was initially embraced largely by digital nomads . But such combined travel is now also popular with people outside that group . Allied Market Research, a subsidiary of Allied Analytics, based in Portland, Ore., estimated that the bleisure travel market was $315.3 billion in 2022 and would reach $731.4 billion by 2032.

As employees increasingly add leisure time to their business trips, companies are struggling to determine where their legal obligation to protect employees from harm — their so-called duty of care — begins and ends. And workers may think that because their trip started with business, they will get all the help they need if something goes wrong on the leisure end. Instead, they should generally consider the leisure part of a trip as a regular vacation where they cover all expenses and contingencies.

Companies are responsible for knowing where their employees are during a business trip, covering expenses if an accident or emergency occurs, securing new lodging if a hotel is damaged, even swapping out a broken down rental car. Still, it’s not entirely clear if that coverage ends completely after the conference or the last client meeting.

Companies recognize that threats are increasing, said Robert Cole, senior research analyst focusing on lodging and leisure travel at Phocuswright, a market research company. They are trying to figure out how to take care of a valuable company resource, the employee, without leaving themselves open to financial risk or potential litigation.

“Crafting a comprehensive policy that balances business objectives, employee well-being and legal considerations can be challenging,” Nikolaos Gkolfinopoulos, head of tourism at ICF, a consulting and technology services company in Reston, Va., wrote in an email.

Employees may be on their own without realizing it and may be surprised by out-of-pocket expenses if they require hospital care abroad or evacuation, said Suzanne Morrow, chief executive of InsureMyTrip , an online insurance travel comparison site in Warwick, R.I.

Ms. Morrow said medical coverage provided by a company “is generally only for the dates of the actual business trip abroad.” If travelers are extending the trip for personal travel, she added, “they would want to secure emergency medical coverage for that additional time abroad.”

Employers and employees are left to figure out when the business portion of the trip ends and the leisure segment begins, a significant detail if an employee has a medical emergency. “Where does the corporation liability end?” said Kathy Bedell, senior vice president at BCD Travel, a travel management company.

Companies have varying policies to deal with the new travel amalgam. The chief executive of RevShoppe, Patricia McLaren, based in Austin, Texas, said the company provided flexible travel options and allowed employees to work anywhere they choose.

Even so, there are constraints. The company requires all employees, including executives, to sign liability and insurance waivers when they are on a voluntary company-sponsored trip, such as an off-site meeting. Such waivers typically place responsibility on employees for their own well-being. And if they bring someone, they are responsible for that person’s expenses.

Employees are responsible for requesting the paid time off and notifying their managers of their whereabouts, although that part is not a requirement. Managers have to ensure adequate staffing, Ms. McLaren said.

Elsewhere, employees may not bother to mention the leisure portion of their trip. Eliot Lees, a vice president and managing director at ICF, said he had been on trips as a child with his parents when they combined business and leisure. His parents were academics, who would piggyback vacations onto conferences.

Now he does the same. “I don’t think I ever asked for approval,” he said. (ICF has no formal business-leisure travel policy. It’s allowed as part of personal time off.) After a conference in the Netherlands last year, he spent four days hiking in the northern part of the country.

“I go anywhere, and take more risks than I should,” he said. He said he didn’t carry personal travel or accident insurance.

Any nonchalance may quickly evaporate if a threat emerges. Security experts say even low-risk locations can become high-risk for a few days or weeks of the year.

“Companies are concerned about losing visibility into a traveler’s whereabouts if they booked flights and hotels outside their corporate travel management company,” Benjamin Thorne, senior intelligence manager in London for Crisis24, a subsidiary of GardaWorld, wrote in an email. “The company may think the traveler is in one city when, in reality, they could have booked a holiday package to another nearby city. This lack of visibility by the company makes it difficult to support travelers when a disaster occurs.”

He also raised the possibility that “a traveler with bleisure travel reservations and expectations may find their work trip canceled due to changes in the risk environment or company policy, disrupting their leisure plans.”

Will a company step in off hours if there’s a problem? “That depends on how you are booked,” Mr. Cole, the senior research analyst at Phocuswright, said. A rule of thumb is the further you get from corporate control, the greater the gray area gets.

Half of GoldSpring Consulting’s clients take the responsibility for the entire trip, said Will Tate, a partner at the consultancy based in Cross Roads, Texas, and a certified public accountant. They don’t want the reputational risk. The other half say: “The business trip ended Friday. That’s when we end our duty of care.”

Some companies are trying to define and narrow the gray area. “If you are clearly on personal time, there is no legal requirement for your employer to provide for you,” said Nicole Page, a lawyer whose practice includes employment law at Reavis Page Jump in New York.

Uber provides employees with advisories before a trip, travel assessments, safety tips while traveling and emergency travel assistance, including medical aid, airport travel support, urgent and emergency assistance, and lost or stolen personal property insurance whether they are on business or pleasure travel or a combination.

And at DoorDash, Chris Cherry, head of global safety and security, wrote in an email that “while personal travel is not something we track, we have received requests to extend our travel support capabilities to personal travel.” Mr. Cherry said in those cases, the company has manually added employee leisure itineraries to its travel risk management system and “provided the same level of overwatch that we do for regular business travel.”

The Buchmanns plan to travel this month to Barcelona, Spain, for the McDonald’s Worldwide Convention. DoorDash will have a booth, and Mr. Buchmann will work on the exhibit floor and also entertain clients.

Ms. Buchmann will accompany him. She plans to go sightseeing in the morning, and work in the afternoons and evenings Barcelona time. She will also take three days of paid time off and has shared her plans with Ms. McLaren, the RevShoppe chief executive.

They will stay a day after the conference and plan to visit the Dalí Theater and Museum in Figueres. “I’m sure there will be no shortage of tapas and window shopping along way,” Mr. Buchmann said. He expects to be back at work the next Monday.

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