Organizing business travel is not an easy task, and even if your company has a separate employee doing this, there is still a high probability of errors due to misunderstandings or simple carelessness. Therefore, the best option is to use a special solution for organizing business trips. Today we will look at a number of questions that need to be answered when choosing.
Is the service convenient?
The solution needs to be one that is convenient to use. Firstly, a simple and clear design, not overloaded with unnecessary tabs and buttons, to reduce the likelihood of errors. Secondly, it is important that you can buy tickets in one place (and not only for the plane, but also for the train), and book a hotel room – you shouldn’t choose niche solutions for each task, it’s better that the service covers them all.
Are all tickets and hotels available?
Many people believe that a separate solution for organizing business trips is not necessary, because you can always contact a travel agency for corporate clients. But the fact is that agencies working in the b2b segment usually have a smaller range of air tickets and hotels than services serving individuals. The fact is that agencies most often cooperate with a limited number of suppliers.
So when choosing where to organize your trip, make sure you have as many options available to you as possible. You can simply manually search for tickets to the desired destination in a regular service, for example, OneTwoTrip, and then compare the results with the options offered by the agent or solution.
How much does the solution cost? Is there a trial period?
Agencies charge a commission, and many services charge a subscription fee (and, by the way, commissions for tickets too). Study the tariffs and pricing policy, find out how they change (for example, if you connect more users to the service or book more tickets). It is ideal if you have the opportunity to test the functions before purchasing: this way you will evaluate whether the solution covers all your tasks and will not lose money.
Can it be scaled?
Perhaps today there are not too many people in your company or business trips are organized relatively rarely. But there is a possibility that this will not always be the case. It is important that the solution copes not only with current volumes, but also makes it possible to effectively plan ten times more trips.
Will it be convenient to view a hundred business trips in the interface? How is the search organized? Is it possible to connect several administrators to the solution or give access to employees? All these points should be taken into account immediately.
How the support service works?
Quality customer support is one of the most important aspects when it comes to travel. Flights are postponed or cancelled, the hotel refuses to accommodate a group of people or change a room, and during the organization questions may arise (how to pay? why don’t I see my reservation in the system?).
It is important that operators are available around the clock and through convenient communication channels. If the support service works from 9 to 18 and only answers by phone, most likely there will be no one to solve an urgent issue.
How does payment work?
In small companies, employees often pay for tickets and hotels with their card or the director’s card, and then return the money through accounting. In addition to the fact that this is hardly convenient for accountants, it is also unprofitable: in this way it is impossible to return VAT on a ticket. So it is most profitable to pay by bank transfer from a legal entity. Make sure that the chosen solution has such an option, for example, you can transfer money to a deposit or pay with a corporate card.
How to control expenses?
If employees buy their own tickets or book hotels, it is important that the service allows them to set limits. Of course, situations where an ordinary manager buys a business class ticket at the company’s expense do not occur so often in real life, but in practice, many employees do not consider the difference of several thousand rubles to be fundamental for business. However, with a large number of business trips, it can be quite significant.
So make sure that the solution allows you to set limits on the cost of tickets and hotels (and possibly on the number of stars) in accordance with your company’s travel policy. It is important that this setting be as flexible as possible, that is, the limit is set for groups of employees or even for each person individually.
How to obtain closing documents?
Trip planning solutions are also great because they take a lot of paperwork off your plate. Make sure that the service you choose generates closing documents: all information about the cost of a ticket or hotel reservation is automatically included in the required form. It’s convenient if you can immediately give accountants and lawyers access to certain sections of the service.
Optimal solution
OneTwoTrip for Business meets all of the above criteria.
- Simple interface. The search is no different from the usual services for buying tickets and booking hotels.
- Many options: tickets for more than 800 airlines, 2 million hotels around the world and railway tickets within Russia and Europe.
- No commissions or hidden fees. The price shown in the search results is final.
- Service is free.
- OneTwoTrip for Business prices are lower than when purchasing the same tickets and booking hotels through services for individuals.
- Payment by corporate card or from a deposit.
- All closing documents are available in your personal account.
- The support service is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, seven days a week.
