Three Reasons Why Small and Mid-Sized Businesses are Turning to Corporate Travel Agents Now More Than Ever

By Eric Hrubant, Owner, CIRE Travel

Once upon a time, corporate travel agents were a luxury reserved for large corporations and rock stars. But for small and mid-sized businesses, having a corporate travel agency was an out-of-budget extravagance.

Not anymore. With the wildly fluctuating cost of travel, the influx of corporate travel planning technology, and the travel industry’s slow rebound to pre-pandemic schedules, small and mid-sized businesses are finding that corporate travel agents are an absolute necessity.

If your executives or employees are frustrated with dealing with call center wait times, or if you’ve been toying with the idea of engaging a corporate travel agency for the first time, here are three reasons that might just convince you to make that call and let CIRE Travel flawlessly handle your corporate travel planning.

1) A corporate travel agency dramatically and positively impacts your business travel budget.

A corporate travel agency 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 negotiated rates not available to the general public. Secondly, since our corporate travel agents are handling the arrangements, your staff can focus on their jobs instead of spending hours 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) Corporate travel planning has become extremely confusing and a huge time commitment for employees.

The technology designed to make booking travel easier, actually makes it far more confusing for many travelers, even the web savviest ones. Corporate travel planning 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. Your employees don’t have time to sit around watching fares and rates. When you are constantly booking travel like our corporate travel planners 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.v

3) A corporate travel planner brings the element of customer service back to corporate travel.

Travel, in general, has become very impersonal. It’s difficult to talk to a human being when travel plans are made on the internet or via a huge call center a half a world away. When emergencies arise, it’s nearly impossible to find someone who knows what’s going on and can actually get your plans back on track, even if you do wait hours on hold.

Happy employees are productive employees. They are a company’s best assets. It doesn’t cost your 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 (and waiting on hold or in line for hours), your staff only needs to make one call to their CIRE corporate travel planner. It’s handled. Period.

CIRE Travel’s corporate clients choose to make that one call to us because time and again, whatever they need, it’s handled—personally, quickly, efficiently and with the clout and muscle of our multi-million dollar parent company, First in Service Travel.  If you want to learn more about how CIRE Travel’s corporate travel planning can save your company money and save your employees time, give us a call at 212.339.2917 or drop me an email at Eric@ciretravel.com.

Meet our team of CIRE Travel professionals.

Still not convinced why your HR department or office manager should NOT be handling your travel arrangements?

READ: Marge in HR Shouldn’t be Your Corporate Travel Planner

CIRE Travel is a full-service travel agency headquartered in New York, NY.  Our expert team supports clients across the country and around the world.