One of the primary goals of any business is to expand. To do this, the company will most likely need to expand to other places gradually. This is extremely exciting but a major step that may bring challenging duties. When travelling to different cities, it is critical to ensure that you understand how to manage various areas effectively.
Corporate travel is frequently packed with its own set of difficulties. On the other hand, identifying these issues might be the first step toward fixing the problem before it turns your company’s trip plans into a nightmare.
Keep reading to understand the challenges faced by corporates in travel and accommodation and how to mitigate them.
Corporate Travel and Accommodation Challenges
Corporate travel may be both thrilling and demanding. On the one hand, you get to go to new areas, but you also have to be prepared and maintain a record of several things like hotel bookings, transportation and total company travel expenses.
Here is the list of corporate employees’ challenges during their business trips.
Managing Several Corporate Stays and Events
Scheduling many travel plans can become burdensome and only possible if you have a professional corporate travel management structure. To alleviate this load, several business owners implement employee self-booking.
Ideally, this should relieve the pressure on management, yet, it may increase travel expenditures.
The Increased Cost of Corporate Stay
Most businesses underestimate the need to look for low-cost inventory when making travel arrangements. Last-minute business-class transportation and hotel accommodations bookings can easily result in excessive travel expenditures, directly decreasing the profit margin they anticipated from their travel plan.
Keeping Track of ravel Investments
Corporate travel planning is unquestionably one of your company’s key performance indicators (KPIs). If you wish to track your travel expenses, you must compare them to the ROI created by your travel plans. Certain travel itineraries must be repeated repeatedly to maximise ROI.
Decentralised Booking
Most hotel reservations on business travels are now paid for on the day of departure with a personal credit card or a corporate card. In any situation, the person must file an expense claim later. However, if the employer pays centrally through a lodging or virtual card, the visitor can avoid having to foot the price.
Employee Well-being
Almost all corporate travel plans strive to improve employee protection and efficiency while minimising expenses. Achieving one of these dual aims without jeopardising the other is difficult. You may save money by making staff travel by bus and stay in backpacker hostels, but this would not satisfy your duty of care responsibilities or ensure the accomplishment of their objectives. On the other hand, corporations cannot afford to put everyone in five-star hotels.
Inadequate Corporate Travel Assistance
One of the most critical business travel problems corporate employees encounter is obtaining business travel assistance on a work trip. Employees who travel for business may have unique issues with hotels or the location itself. For example, if the hotel gives you the wrong room or requires a cab, you may need immediate assistance.
If the organisation only has one travel coordinator, that person may not be able to respond to all employee questions right away. Furthermore, employees may be hesitant to contact the travel coordinator with questions.
Employee Travel Safety
Over the years, organisations have struggled with the safety of their employees. However, the ongoing COVID-19 epidemic has become critical in recent years. Travel rules differ from state to state and change in response to the situation. Furthermore, finding suitable accommodation for corporate employees while taking all essential safeguards is difficult.
Monitoring Travel Policy
It’s one thing to write an excellent policy, but it’s useless if staff don’t follow it. Travel coordinators are sometimes unable to express the travel rules to employees effectively. In other circumstances, the policies are so unrealistic that it is difficult for staff to comply.
Monitoring Corporate Travel Expenditure Fraud
Travel expenditure fraud has long been a source of concern for businesses. Reporting duplicate charges, submitting under the incorrect expense categories, and policy breaches hinder your business travel procedure.
Solution for Corporate Travel and Accommodation Challenges
When corporate employees travel on a business trip, they may encounter unexpected problems. Preparing for such business travel issues is the best approach to tackle them. This entails conducting the study, being aware of alternatives, and having a backup plan.
Hiring a corporate hospitality firm is beneficial in this circumstance. Corporate hospitality agencies will assist you in managing hotel reservations, taxi reservations, and other tasks related to corporate events. A corporate hospitality agency must ensure that the procedure is conducted correctly and in accordance with compliance.
Conclusion
Corporate travel issues will always arise, no matter how frequently you travel for work or how well you believe you’ve prepared. Therefore, it is prudent to be ready at all times. One method to improve your travel preparation is to use hospitality agencies such as Xenial India.
Xenial India leverages its team’s skills to provide first-class corporate accommodations without the high price tags.