Lori Menzione and Al Norman from Amex GBT's Global Business Consulting division share tips for travel managers to keep programme costs under control as business travel returns
Many travel managers and procurement teams will be preparing
2021 budgets in the knowledge that a certain level of cost reduction will be
necessary to make up for this year’s T&E decline. Expense sheets will
likely show a substantial increase in car rental, air fares and hotel spend as
travel rebounds. You know the income your business generates through in-person
meetings far exceeds the savings of grounded travellers, but you will still
need to satisfy looming demands from finance teams. Consider these six ways you
can reduce programme costs in the coming months without eliminating the
business travel on which your business’s growth depends.
Evaluate your travel policy
Your travel policy is the first opportunity to control travel costs. Evaluate
it to determine potential process improvements and savings. If you don’t have a
universal travel policy today, now is a perfect time to create one. Ensure your
policy balances cost saving measures, like purchasing non-refundable tickets
and using lowest logical fares, with traveller safety precautions, like
restricting layovers. Partner with policy consultants for help in reviewing and
rewriting your policy to maximise savings. Consultants are travel industry
experts who can provide strategic direction and customised solutions to control
expenses once your travellers are back on the road.
Consolidate your travel programme
Combine the multiple online booking tools and travel providers you work with to
eliminate duplicate fees and drive savings. A consolidated travel programme
with a single travel management company provides greater consistency and cost
avoidance. It also allows you to maximise traveller benefits from preferred
travel suppliers.
If you already have a TMC, now is a great time to compare
its capabilities to other providers and evaluate how the company will support
you once travel returns. Inquire if their financial situation has changed with
these uncertain times and if they still have the headcount to provide the
services on which your employees rely. Consider the potential signing bonuses
and savings possible when you switch vendors.
Dig into the data
A robust data analytics solution offers travel managers the information they
need to achieve greater savings. You can analyse how much money is going
towards preferred rental car, airline and hotel companies. Ensure you are
achieving the travel volume you are contractually obligated to meet in order to
reap the discounts negotiated with suppliers. If the numbers fall short,
investigate which travellers are booking out of policy. If the number is higher
than expected, try striking a better deal with suppliers. Use the visibility
gained from data analysis to influence cost-saving policies.
Refund unused airline tickets
Electronic tickets can be forgotten when travel plans change. Consider how you
can earn potentially lost revenue with an e-ticket management solution. Easily
identify and recover unused tickets that otherwise would be forfeited to the
airlines. Replace the typically manual and time-consuming process with an
automated tool, saving you administrative costs and slippage. Reports on your
unused airline tickets can be used to foster valuable discussions within your
organisation and airline suppliers.
Enforce an approval process
You may need to be more particular about the type of trips your business
allows, for both traveller safety and cost control purposes. There are tools
available that can trigger automatic leader approvals before a ticket is issued
to help ensure policy compliance. These triggers can be based on destination,
employee seniority, or reason for travel. Enforcing your travel policy allows
you to reserve spend for essential business travel, making your budget go further.
Evaluate suppliers and incentives
Look for additional discounts your preferred rental car, airline and hotel
suppliers may offer for extending your contract. By renegotiating with
suppliers, you may get extra status, additional services like wifi, or fees
waved that you weren’t getting before. Suppliers are eager to get people travelling
again and recoup lost revenue, which means they may be more likely to negotiate
than they have been in the past.
It’s also a good time to evaluate the status of your current
suppliers to see how they’ve managed to weather the financial impact of the
recent travel reductions. Some of your suppliers may not be as strong as they
were when you first partnered with them, meaning fewer resources and less
support for you and your travellers. Use this opportunity to bring in new
partners that may offer bonuses and rebates that your current suppliers may now
be challenged to provide.