Common Costly Errors in Business Travel: Insights from a Recent Survey

 INTRO:

         A recent survey involving 255 small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) owners and decision-makers has shed light on the prevalent and expensive mistakes made by businesses when handling corporate travel arrangements. This article presents key findings from the survey and offers insights into avoiding these pitfalls, ultimately saving valuable resources.

Outline:

• Survey Reveals Costly Booking Errors
• Why Businesses Should Consider Outsourcing Travel Management
• Identifying the Top Three Business Travel Mistakes
• Conclusion

Survey Reveals Costly Booking Errors:

The survey, conducted by Corporate Traveller, a prominent business travel management provider, unveiled that more than half (55 percent) of businesses grapple with financial losses due to in-house corporate travel bookings. These losses stem from various missteps in the booking process, which often require additional expenditures to rectify. Corporate Traveller New Zealand's general manager, Angie Forsyth, emphasizes the importance of outsourcing travel management to alleviate these issues.

Why Businesses Should Consider Outsourcing Travel Management:

Outsourcing to a travel management company can simplify, expedite, and enhance the cost-effectiveness of booking business travel. When managed entirely in-house, there's a heightened risk of personnel lacking the expertise to uncover cost-saving opportunities and inadvertently making avoidable errors. These undisclosed travel insights and easily made mistakes are also compelling reasons why many individuals opt for travel agents when planning personal trips.

Identifying the Top Three Business Travel Mistakes:

Corporate Traveller categorized and ranked the most frequent travel booking mistakes based on feedback from surveyed businesses. Here are the three most common errors:

Booking too Close to the Departure Date (22 percent): Nearly a quarter of respondents admitted overspending on bookings due to last-minute reservations, highlighting the financial impact of procrastination in corporate travel planning.

Incorrectly Entering Traveler Details: The second most prevalent mistake involves inaccuracies in traveler details, such as misspelled names or incorrect birthdates. These errors often necessitate valuable time and sometimes additional expenses to rectify, potentially jeopardizing the entire trip.

Failure to Align Travel Plans: Misalignment between flight arrival times and hotel check-in windows can result in significant inconveniences and added expenses. Many businesses confessed to making errors in coordinating various travel services, leading to unplanned costs for last-minute adjustments and bookings.

Conclusion:

While these three mistakes topped the list, the survey also uncovered other noteworthy blunders such as unauthorized bookings, exceeding budgets, opting for subpar travel services, and surprisingly, booking for the wrong destination or date. The latter, despite its apparent implausibility, emerged as the seventh most common mistake, underscoring the need for meticulous attention to detail when managing corporate travel arrangements. These findings emphasize the importance of careful planning and, for many businesses, the wisdom of partnering with experienced travel management companies to streamline the process and safeguard against costly errors.