The job of a Corporate Travel Management Agent is to help companies organise travel arrangements for their employees. With the advent of latest Corporate Management Systems, It’s changing their role of a corporate travel agent who offer intelligent trip search and direct booking with the airline or hotel, as well as ticketing.
Who is a Corporate Travel Management Agent?
Corporate travel agents are travel professionals that work with companies to manage their corporate travel arrangements. They act as travel managers and take on tasks related to booking flights and accommodation, arranging travel visas, and providing travel support. Their job is to ensure that all business trips are cost-effective and safe, to reduce any friction usually found during the booking processes.
Why Businesses Should Use Corporate Travel Management Agent?
Reduce costs: The major advantage of using corporate travel management agent is to reduce travel costs. such as accommodation rates, insurance, airline tickets, and any other related expense. A corporate travel agent will have the necessary experience to find or negotiate the best possible deals for the company.
Time management: If you manage a medium or large company, you won’t have time to book your business travel yourself, which is time consuming, A dedicated corporate travel management agent will take care of these tasks so you and your staff can focus on everything else.
Efficiency: With the rise in corporate travel, most businesses opt for a corporate travel management agent to ensure their employees travel safely whilst adhering to all the relevant travel policies.
Corporate travel management agent can be individual consultants or work as part of a corporate travel agency. The tasks of these agents are very similar. Here are the top 6 responsibilities of corporate travel management agent:
1. Create and Manage Travel Itineraries
If you book your flights directly with an airline or use an online ticket service, it’s likely you will get charged high fees for any changes you wish to make to your itinerary, but you can get a corporate travel management agent to getting penalised, who will make the necessary changes without any extra charges. You can berest assured that nothing will go wrong during your business trip.
2. Find the Best Price
A major part of corporate travel management agent involves finding the best possible rates and even negotiating with a number of different service providers. They have adequate expertise in handling the task of negotiation and can find you the best rates or even get special discounts that you may not otherwise be able to get yourself.
3. Arrange Suitable Accommodation
Finding the most suitable accommodation for business travellers is another key responsibility. The agent looks for all the available options at the right price, including guest houses, hostels, and hotels, before booking the rooms for the required number of days and employees, then helps you find the best accommodation without going over budget.
4. Arrange for Transportation
One of the biggest parts of travel planning is transportation. This can easily be handled by a corporate travel agent, who will arrange your transportation needs in advance. They will ensure your flights are booked, a rental car is organised, airport transfer is arranged, and train tickets are purchased. Sure, you will be required to pay the agency for these services; however, considering the amount of time and money they save you, the fee or commission they charge is well worth it, especially if you or your employees travel regularly.
By using a corporate travel management agency, you’ll not only get better accommodation rates, but you will also benefit from cheap business-class flights for your employees. This means the overall business travel costs can significantly be reduced.
5. Organise Business Meetings and Events
When your company needs to organise events or meetings overseas, the process can take time and investment. The planning process for hosting an event can be complex and time-consuming. You can hire a corporate travel management agent to take care of this task, you will reduce costs and make your business events more profitable.
6. Control Travel Costs and Policy Compliance
Specialised agents comply with corporate travel policies by using real-time travel policy management to maximise functionality for the business traveller. When you Hire a professional agent to take care of your company’s travel needs will not only drive cost reductions but also optimise business relationships while complying with travel policies.