8 tips for booking business travel
Quick insights
- Booking travel early and reviewing your business’ preferred vendors may help streamline travel bookings.
- Creating an expense management policy can assist employees in understanding what they can and cannot expense on behalf of the company.
- Using business travel credit cards for travel-related expenses can allow cardmembers to earn rewards that they can later reinvest into the business.
If you or your employees need to travel for business purposes, you may be tasked with booking travel accommodations. While booking travel may seem stressful, there are several things you can potentially do to simplify the process.
Whether you’re a seasoned traveler or are about to embark on your first work trip, consider the tips below for booking business travel.
1. Book travel in advance
Whether you’re planning a business or personal trip, it may be beneficial to book travel in advance. This includes airfare, lodging and any additional transportation. Booking travel early might allow you to access better rates and availability.
Additionally, if you’re traveling for work, you may not want to risk your preferred flight or hotel getting fully booked. Crossing this off your list early may help you avoid unnecessary stress leading up to your trip.
This tip can also apply to any events you’re planning during business travel. Booking a reservation for a client dinner or an event space for a team activity can help you secure the venue that you’d prefer before it’s booked.
2. Use travel booking sites to compare rates
There are many websites created to aggregate travel accommodations, like flights and hotels, to help customers find the best available rates. These sites can be helpful tools for small businesses trying to stick to a budget.
There are also travel management software options that allow you to plan and book travel directly through one platform. This type of software may also provide expense management tools that can capture receipts for bookkeeping purposes and help create expense reports.
3. Explore group booking options
If several employees are traveling at the same time, you may be able to benefit from group travel rates. Certain airlines provide discounts on airfare and amenities for larger groups with the same bookings. Consider researching specific airlines to see if they offer any group rates.
4. Consider booking with preferred vendors
If your company has arrangements with preferred travel vendors, you may be able to access discounted rates for airfare, lodging or transportation. If you’re an individual employee at an organization, you may want to check if your employer has preferences for who to book with.
Even if a company doesn’t have formal ties with travel providers, they may prefer to book with specific vendors due to price, flexibility with reservations or other reasons.
5. Review your company’s expense management policy
Many companies have formal expense management policies that outline acceptable expense categories and any relevant spending limits. If you’re an employee, it may be wise to review the policy before booking your trip. That way, you can check if your planned travel bookings qualify for reimbursement.
If you’re a business owner or finance stakeholder, consider creating an expense management policy before employees travel. Some details you may want the policy to outline include:
- Reimbursable expense categories
- Any spending limits for travel, lodging and meals
- Per diem information if applicable
- Guidelines for creating expense reports
Using business credit cards could also be a helpful way to streamline the expense reporting process.
6. Issue employee credit cards for expense management
Many business travel credit cards allow cardmembers to issue individual employee credit cards. Because these credit cards are linked to the company’s credit account, employees won’t need to use personal credit cards and wait for reimbursement.
Certain small business credit cards issue employee cards at no additional cost. Primary cardmembers can set individual spending limits, monitor cash flow, review business insights and more via your card issuer’s mobile app.
7. Leverage business credit cards for rewards and travel benefits
Another benefit of using business credit cards to cover travel expenses is the ability to earn rewards and use other credit card benefits. Depending on your credit card, you may be able to exchange rewards you earn for airline miles or hotel stays. Even if your credit card prioritizes cash back rewards, you can choose to reinvest those rewards into future business travel.
It’s also common for business credit cards to offer travel-related benefits. This could include travel insurance, lost luggage reimbursement, rental car insurance, purchase protection and more.
8. Use expense management software
Investing in expense management software may be a good idea for businesses with lots of travel expenses. This type of software may help expedite the expense reporting process by automating tasks like template creation and expense categorization.
It also often allows employees to attach receipts to expense reports through an app. This way, employees can take photos of receipts on the go without worrying about keeping the physical copy.
In summary
When booking work travel, it can be beneficial to book flights and accommodations in advance. Other tools like travel booking sites, business credit cards and expense management software can potentially help streamline the process further.
