Many organizations rely on Travel Management Companies (TMCs) to book, control, and track their travel spend, achieving significant cost savings in the process.
A good TMC provides the tools and expertise needed to manage travel efficiently, ensuring compliance with travel policies and optimizing travel programs. Here are five key ways a TMC can save your organization money.
A primary benefit of using a TMC to book travel is the ability to enforce travel policies effectively. Chances are your company has a travel policy, but by clearly displaying it in your booking platform your TMC makes it easy for your bookers to follow the rules. This includes applying rules such as booking the lowest logical fares and rates, adhering to rate and cabin limits, and securely managing payment information. Additionally, TMCs streamline the process of redeeming unused tickets, which can save you up to 10% on airfare. By ensuring that all travel bookings comply with your organization's policies, TMCs help prevent overspending and maximize cost savings.
"You can’t manage what you can’t see" holds true for travel management. TMCs provide platforms that track all travel-related expenses, including payments, air/car/hotel purchases, and unused tickets. This comprehensive visibility into your travel spend allows for better oversight and more strategic decision-making. Enhanced reporting and analytics capabilities help identify cost-saving opportunities, ensure travel policy compliance and even benchmark against peer travel programs, leading to more effective budget management.
TMCs leverage their extensive networks and buying power to negotiate better deals with travel suppliers. Whether it's through Small and Medium-sized Business (SMB) programs, full-scale corporate discount agreements or discounts available to all of a TMC’s customers, consolidating your travel spend with a TMC enables you to secure discounts that individual companies can’t easily get on their own. These negotiated deals can range from a 3% discount with the airlines to over 10% with hotels, and up to 30% or more with car rental companies. Additionally, TMCs assist in negotiating these agreements, ensuring that your organization receives the best possible rates.
Access to expert travel advisors is another significant advantage of partnering with a TMC. Travel professionals provide invaluable support, especially for complex itineraries and during unexpected travel disruptions like canceled flights and hotel troubles. With a TMC, you avoid the hassle of waiting in long airport lines or dealing with multiple customer service representatives. Instead, with a good TMC, your travelers receive prompt assistance tailored to their specific needs. This level of service not only improves your company’s travel experience but also minimizes disruptions and additional costs associated with travel snafus.
If you’ve ever been tasked with booking or managing travel for a company, you KNOW time is money. A TMC saves your organization considerable time by streamlining the travel booking and management process. Instead of shopping across various platforms, a TMC consolidates all airlines, hotels, and car rentals into one easy-to-use platform. This allows you to book, manage, and modify travel arrangements in a single location. The efficiency gained from this streamlined approach translates into significant time savings, allowing your travelers to focus on their core responsibilities rather than spending hours on travel arrangements.
Partnering with a Travel Management Company offers financial benefits that go well beyond simple cost savings. By enforcing travel policies, providing comprehensive visibility, securing negotiated deals, offering expert support, and streamlining travel management, a solid TMC helps organizations manage travel more effectively and efficiently. The result is not only a reduction in travel expenses but also enhanced control, better compliance, and a more seamless travel experience for team members. When you leverage the expertise and resources of a TMC it’s a strategic move that can lead to substantial financial and operational improvements for any organization.