Hotel stays are often one of the largest and most important components of corporate travel expenses and many companies overlook hotel costs when optimizing their travel expense strategy. Even if you don’t have a travel program, and work with a travel and expense management platform, it’s important to have an understanding of what you want to achieve when it comes to optimizing expenses so that you can make the most out of your travel policy and have it work for you in the background.
This article will show how to effectively manage and integrate hotel bookings into a cost-efficient and aligned travel program.
Hotel stays and what that means for your corporate travel spend
Hotel accommodations account for a big portion of your company’s travel expenses, so ensuring that a hotel booking doesn’t drain your budget and you have a strategic advantage is key. Below are listed some of the common challenges.
Price variability
Rates will fluctuate considerably depending on booking time, location and demand. Prices may also change as employees wait for their trips to be approved. Sometimes there can be a bit of a lag time between the time an employee makes a request for booking and when it gets approved.
Lack of preferred vendors
Another common challenge is not having preferred vendors. Without negotiating relationships, companies can miss out on volume discounts and special travel deals.
Last minute bookings
When employees book at the last minute it can result in higher costs and reduced hotel availability. This is why it’s a good idea to plan ahead and encourage employees to book their hotels as soon as possible.
Integrate hotel stays into your corporate travel policy
Integrating hotel guidelines into your travel policy can help create consistency and control. You can do this by automating your travel policy. Be sure to set clear guidelines, control your approved vendors or choose a travel & expense management platform and to use per diem rates.
- Set clear guidelines: Setting clear guidelines can help define acceptable hotel categories, nightly rate limits, and booking channels. All of this will help control hotel costs.
- Use per diem rates: If you use a travel & expense management platform like GetGoing you can automate per diem rates according to the country. Aligning hotel budgets with standardized per diem or industry benchmarks will help minimize paperwork and approvals and keep expense management transparent.
- Choose approved vendors or platforms: Choose a travel and expense management software like GetGoing that will not only help ensure consistency and control but also help you take advantage of overall savings.
Don’t have an expense policy yet? Get our helpful guide.
Maximize corporate hotel discounts and loyalty programs
It’s a good idea to work with loyalty and rewards programs that allow you to take advantage of repeat stays to get extra benefits for your employees, which increase employee loyalty and satisfaction. You can also work with a travel and expense management platform that allows you to take advantage of discounted negotiated rates, and in the case of GetGoing you have BCD Travel’s global buying power to back up the platform.
Automate and centralize hotel bookings
Centralization on one platform can help improve visibility, spend control and reporting. You can do this with a platform like GetGoing. You can get real-time alerts and prevent over-budget bookings before they happen with automated approval flows.
Monitor and modify the strategy
Once you’ve integrated hotels into your corporate travel & expense strategy, it’s important to keep an eye on spending and update your policy as you go. A flexible and dynamic strategy will help you adapt to industry trends and market conditions that will have a direct impact on hotel prices.
Be sure to regularly review booking data to identify trends and understand which department is spending the most, and identify problem areas and cost-saving opportunities. It’s also important to do a comprehensive analysis of policy compliance tracking to ensure employees and managers are respecting the guidelines. Get input from employees on their hotel experiences so you can refine your selection and keep everyone happy.
Be sure to optimize for traveler convenience and productivity
An important part of business travel is convenience and productivity. This is why it’s important to help travelers balance proximity of the hotel to meetings in order to reduce transport costs and travel fatigue.Early flights often mean no buses, which means your employees are forced to take a taxi, which can quickly cut into your travel budget.
Pro tip: With a T&E platform like GetGoing you can categorize hotels by proximity to your meetings, making more informed decisions about where to stay.
Prioritize hotels that have Wi-Fi, breakfast, and flexible cancellation policies, which is key for business travelers. Standardization also helps simplify booking and approval processes for employees, which means more convenience and more productive business travelers.
Corporate travel hotel expense strategy simplified
Managing hotel stays can significantly improve overall travel efficiency and reduce costs. Treat your corporate travel hotel expense strategy as a dynamic and fluid part of your broader corporate travel policy—not an afterthought.
Audit your current hotel booking practices and identify three quick wins for savings or policy alignment. And if you still don’t have a T&E platform that can help you make hotel stays easy, then schedule a demo today to learn more about GetGoing.