Media Releases

Give Your Business a Travel Health Check

SME businesses are being urged to conduct a 'travel health check' on their operations to prepare for the changing economic conditions of the year ahead.

For many businesses, the cost of T&E (travel and entertainment) is the third highest company expense behind wages and the cost of maintaining a business premises.

Shannon O'Brien from SME travel and expense management specialist Corporate Traveller, said that like any other company expense, T&E, including business travel had to be managed strategically. "Business's looking to get more value from their travel budgets should consider implementing an effective travel policy, streamlining their travel booking and approval processes, using preferred suppliers and buying the right type of airfare," he said.

"A travel health check, conducted by industry experts like Corporate Traveller can also help your business identify reasons for missed savings and opportunities for extracting greater value from your travel spend."

Mr O'Brien said the first area to assess as part of a health check was an organisation's travel policy.

"The most successful corporate travel policies are concise, have clear mandates and are 'owned' internally by someone who will work with our travel managers to measure, track and take corrective action for non compliance," he said. "Policies can help organisations streamline their booking processes, book with certain hotels or use Best Fare of the Day to really boost savings."

Organisations can also consider mandating advance domestic bookings to ensure all flights are booked a minimum of seven days prior to departure and using the competitive rates of preferred suppliers. "With industry reports like Dun and Bradstreet's highlighting an increasing number of Australian businesses at risk of financial stress, running a health check on your travel spend is certainly one way to improve your bottom line through smarter travel 'buying behaviour'," Mr O'Brien said.

"At Corporate Traveller we know how to assess individual organisations to understand their travel needs, we provide expert advice and know how to achieve optimum value from a corporate travel budget. "As a rule of thumb, businesses with fewer travellers, lower travel budgets and less resources should focus on buying business travel at the most competitive cost in the most convenient way. We can show you how."