The Pitfalls of DIY Business Travel

Do-it-yourself (DIY) business travel management is like a fully loaded, meaty burrito. Why? Because at a glance, it looks like a healthy meal, but when you start counting the calories, sodium and fat in your stuffed tortilla roll … appearances are deceiving.

It’s the same as DIY-ing your business travel, on the surface you may think you’re getting the best airfare and the cheapest hotel rate, but as with most things in life, there is far more to business travel management than just searching and booking trips.

Here's four reasons why DIY can be unhealthy for your travellers and your bottom line.

When your key decision and profit-making employees – sales staff, senior execs, C-suites are booking and managing their own business trips, imagine how much time is spent by each person planning trips.

Think about how long it would take for one person - to put together a long-haul trip with multiple stops, transits, flights and hotels if you’re booking over the internet or direct with suppliers. Multiply that by five people and that’s hundreds of dollars wasted in lost time on non-core business activities.

When your team is booking travel randomly over the internet and trying to manage things themselves every minute and every dollar counts. In fact, our calculations indicate that a company that makes around 50 travel bookings per month is losing over $10,000 annually on wasted time managing business travel themselves.

Partner with an SME business travel specialist and you’ll save (your entire business) time and money on every booking.

When your travellers are booking trips ad hoc over the internet – how do you know where they are? What if there was an emergency, a flight disruption or weather event and you needed to contact them immediately but had no idea where they were located?

When your team is booking travel their own way through a variety of channels, it can be extremely difficult to provide support for your travellers.

If you have staff that travel for your business, you are legally obligated to provide duty of care for travellers. One of the easiest ways to do that is book centrally – aka through a Flight Centre Business Travel (FCBT) Manager. All your travellers’ details, their whereabouts and their itineraries can be provided to you quickly by your helpful Travel Manager.

ARE YOU #READYTOTRAVEL?

Think it could be time to speak to a corporate travel expert? Contact our team today and find out how to boost your bottom line savings and travel easier.

If you have a mobile workforce, you need reliable 24/7/365 global travel emergency assistance. Your travellers need someone they can call who can see their itineraries quickly and rearrange flights, accommodation and ground transport efficiently and within policy.

Booking adhoc over the internet makes rebooking a nightmare for your travellers.

When you’re an FCBT customer, your travellers have access to local and experienced travel support no matter what time of day it is and where they’re travelling. A quick call or email and FCBT can help with anything you need. A business travel provider that offers hyper-personal service is what most people want when they find themselves in a sticky travel situation. A Travel Manager can provide fast and personal support to make sure you get to where you need to be safely.

One of the advantages of working with a dedicated SME corporate travel specialist like FCBT, is that our Travel Managers will make sure you’re receiving all the travel benefits you should be.

If you are DIY-ing your business travel, you may be missing out on industry benefits such as:

• Corporate air loyalty programs dedicated to SMEs eg Virgin Australia Business Flyer and the Qantas Business Rewards program

• Airline lounge discounts

• Corporate negotiated hotel and car hire rates

• Exclusive deals and offers available only through a travel management company 

Your Travel Manager is an expert in making sure your business taps into all the cost saving and value driving benefits available to you for corporate travel.

Get in touch today or call us on 1300 797 826