Once upon a time, small to mid-sized businesses considered corporate travel planners as an extravagance better afforded by larger corporations and rock stars. Not anymore. With the cost of travel increasing across the board and the influx of travel planning technology, small and mid-sized businesses are finding that corporate travel planners are a necessity.
If your company has been toying with the idea of engaging a corporate travel planner to handle your staff’s arrangements, here are three reasons that might just push you over the edge.
1) A corporate travel advisor dramatically impacts your travel budget.
A corporate travel advisor dramatically impacts your travel budget in two ways. First, we help lower costs through our agency buying power. We’re able to purchase airfare and hotel accommodations at rates not available to the general public. Secondly, since we’re handling the arrangements, your staff spends time on their jobs instead of navigating airline and hotel websites. In the end, a corporate travel planner pays for itself, over and over again. Not to mention the relief of not having to handle booking and any changes yourself.
2) Booking corporate travel has become extremely confusing.
The technology designed to make booking travel easier, actually makes it far more confusing for many travelers, even the Web savviest ones. Booking corporate travel has become extremely confusing. There are so many options available today and it seems each one returns different pricing, which can depend on the day you search and even the time of day you book. No one has time to sit around watching fares and rates. When you are constantly booking travel like we do, you know best times to buy, best properties, etc. A corporate travel planner is able to find the best fares anywhere in no time.
3) A corporate travel advisor brings the element of customer service back to business travel.
Travel has become very impersonal. It’s difficult to talk to a human being when travel plans are business as usual. When emergencies arise, it’s nearly impossible to find someone who knows what’s going on and who can actually get your plans back on track. Happy employees are productive employees. They are a company’s best assets. It doesn’t cost the company any more to have them treated with respect and care, so why not do it? Rather than relying on faceless call centers for assistance, your staff makes one call to the corporate travel planner.
CIRE Travel’s corporate clients’ staff choose to make that one call to us because time and again whatever they need, it’s handled—personally, fast, efficiently and with clout.
Still not convinced why your HR or office manager should NOT be handling your travel arrangements?
READ: Marge in HR Shouldn’t be Your Corporate Travel Planner
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