Corporate travel is fast-paced and often incredibly last minute. The significance of having a reactive corporate travel specialist on your side is utterly invaluable in the modern business world. With an infinite number of options to choose from and the constant battle between price and comfort, it is important to understand exactly how a Travel Management Company (TMC) might streamline the process of your companies corporate travel.
What is a Travel Management Company?
A Travel Management Company actively manages all aspects of a business’s corporate travel requirements. They help companies develop and enforce travel policy, as well as planning, booking and managing travel arrangements for chosen employees.
Typically, the agents in place at TMCs are industry experts, able to offer invaluable advice and recommendations on each and every destination visited.
What services do travel management companies offer?
TMCs offer a wide range of services that can be handpicked from, in order to create a personalized, boutique service to suit each companies specific needs. Some of the more common Travel Management Company services include:
- Travel Policy Development and Enforcement: TMCs can help create and implement a corporate travel policy, which is absolutely essential when it comes to reducing wasteful spending when your employees are travelling.
- Travel Booking and Management: TMCs can book and actively manage your travel arrangements for employees, including booking flights, hotels and ground-transportation.
- Travel Expense Management and Detailed Reporting: TMCs can provide tools and services to help with your management of travel expenses. This can include custom reporting, with department codes to help speed up your accounting process.
- Traveler Support: TMCs will typically offer 24/7 emergency assistance for travellers during their trip. This means you will always have someone on hand for last minute bookings, changes and cancellations.
How can travel management companies help streamline your travel?
Partnering with the right TMC can help streamline a business’s travel management process in a number of ways:
- Saving Time:Â TMCs can absorb the responsibility of the booking process, meaning Executive Assistants and Office Administrators are free to focus on the key aspects of their roles.
- Stress-Free:Â Travel trauma doesn’t operate on a 9-5 schedule, it often seeps into your evenings and weekends. So, wouldn’t it make sense to outsource that stress?
- Compliance:Â TMCs would be responisble for enforcing the best practices outlined in your corporate travel policy, cutting down on wasteful spending and uncomfortable conversations.
Need help finding the right TMC?
Take a look at the 7 Best Corporate Travel Management Companies In Canada!
How does a Travel Management Company differ from a Travel Agency?
A TMC delivers a comprehensive service for a companies end-to-end travel needs. Whereas, a Travel Agency typically only offers a service through which to book flights, hotels and transport. Travel Agencies might offer a cheaper initial outlay when it comes to making reservations, but then the burden of responsibility is passed on to you to manage. That means dealing with last minute changes, people running late and panicked calls that run late in to the night.Â
Our conclusionÂ
A Travel Management Company has the capacity to streamline any business’s corporate travel procedures. From policy development and compliance to travel booking and management, TMCs can offer can offer a number of significant quality-of-life improvements. Ultimately, the happier your travellers are, the more successful the outcome of their business trip. Isn’t that what matters?
Looking to improve your Corporate Travel Experience?
Here at Inspired Travel Group, we pair each of our clients with a single, dedicated corporate travel specialist. This means you receive personalized attention at every turn! Thanks to our unique staffing structure, our 24 hour emergency line is always operated by a corporate travel professional, meaning you never have to wait on the line to a call centre ever again!
Sound like what you are looking for? Get in touch with a Corporate Travel Expert today!
