Tighter Travel Policy Enforcement

For many businesses, the recent economic downturn created a need, and an opportunity, to negotiate agreements with preferred providers of travel services, accommodations, air travel and rental cars. Many of these businesses also tightened policies that require employees who travel to use these preferred providers.

Now that the economy has begun to switch to recovery mode, you might expect corporate travel policies to loosen, which would allow you more choice in making travel arrangements. Instead, you may find that your employer continues to tighten requirements for compliance with travel policies. Some employers have even discontinued the practice of awarding frequent traveler points to individual employees.

The economic recovery is promising, but businesses are continuing to carefully control and scrutinize costs. To realize maximum savings on travel expenses, employers need be sure that their road warriors are using corporate agreements for travel services, and are not making travel arrangement on their own. That’s because greater compliance with the corporate agreements can return greater savings to the company.

For now, it may be necessary for travelers to put aside personal preferences in hotels, airlines and rental cars. You may be asked to share a hotel room with a colleague, to dine out more economically, to rent smaller cars – or to simply use the hotel’s complimentary shuttle service. You can also expect your employer to require careful, thorough capturing of travel expense data for analysis. This will help ensure that your company is realizing a positive return on its business travel investment.

It’s also important for you to make suggestions to the leaders of the department that handles your corporate travel agreements. For example, if you know that the features of a certain hotel present an advantage over an existing preferred provider, your corporate travel managers will want to know. After all, their goal is to help manage your business travel experience so that you can stay focused on your work.