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Whats a Travel Policy? And do I need one?

 It’s easy to let cool hip, things pass you by. We’re happy to admit that at Traveltrust, we only first learned how to “floss” (the dance, not the dental hygiene) last week, and that it wasn’t until a promotional fidget-spinner was handed out at a recent business travel event did we learn the calming effect of gyroscopic movement.

 With that in mind, we thought it best to provide everyone with a refresher of one of the most important elements to business travel – the travel policy.

 What is this “Travel Policy” I hear so much about?

 A travel policy is essential for any company that’s taking part in business travel. Essentially, it is a set of guidelines to ensure that your budget isn’t blown away because Larry from Sales just had to have that suite in the 5 star hotel for 2 nights and wasn’t aware of any reason he couldn’t!

By putting into place some guidelines, you can control your travel spend, as well as give everyone a pretty good feel for where they should set their sights when booking travel. For example, setting an economy only rule protects the company from an unexpected £8,000 business class ticket expense. From hotel distances, specific airlines, to how far in advance flights should be booked, a travel policy is like a fine tailored Italian Suit: it looks good, feels good and helps you sleep at night knowing no one is expensing through the roof.

What if we have a one-off circumstance, can we make exceptions?

But of course! In fact, you can have a two-off and a three-off… With every travel policy you can set policy managers, people who have the ability to “sign-off” permission if someone wants to travel outside of the policy, and will be contacted for approval in case there is an exceptional request. This gives you complete control of the policy and lets you know just why Larry was after those £8,000 flights and Suite.

 

So, do I need a travel policy?

If you’re a small team of 2 or 3, probably not as you will all likely communicate frequently enough to avoid any issues. But if you are starting to develop and have many people booking travel, it might be time to consider implementing a travel policy. It’s hard to track so many different people at once and keep tabs of real-time spend – It can easily get out of control. However, by setting a policy you’re giving yourself peace of mind that people are booking within limits.

Sounds great, but how do I start one, or implement it, is there a great TMC out there that can help with this?

Excellent question, and yes, there is.

Traveltrust provide completely free travel policy creation assistance to our clients. Drawing from our expertise, we can help you create, implement and eventually tweak your travel policy.

We can also enter your policy into our systems to ensure that all options for travel provided to your travelers are within the policy guidelines you have decided work best for your company.

For more information, give us an e-mail at [email protected]