It is so important to keep your eye firmly on the ball when it comes to making travel arrangements, as costs can soon spiral out of control unless you employ some money-saving strategies.
There are a number of tricks and tips that can help you to save money on your travel costs. You may even get some money back when things go wrong, such as obtaining flight delay compensation as outlined in this guide from bottonline.co.uk. So here are a few ways to stay cash savvy.
Flexibility could save you money
There are several ways in which it pays to be as flexible as possible with your travel arrangements, from your hotel booking to how long you stay for.
If you are travelling on business it is not always that easy to be as flexible as you might be able to be if you are going somewhere on a leisure trip and there is not so much pressure on your time and schedule.
If you have some meetings arranged that can’t be changed, it can make you anxious to ensure that you have your hotel and flight deal sorted out as far in advance as possible. Although it can sometimes pay to book your flight early in order to get a good deal, hotel accommodation prices can be quite the opposite.
Hotels will often slash their rates when they have some rooms to fill at the last minute, so it can often make a substantial difference to what you pay if you can be flexible with your booking plans or maybe reserve a room that offers you a free cancellation option.
You should be able to find an option to reserve a room at a site like booking.com, so that you have at least got a room confirmed. Then simply check just before you travel to see if there is a better deal available, even at the same hotel, allowing you to cancel the booking after you have confirmed your new room at a much lower rate than the previous price quoted.
Staying longer could be cheaper
It might sound implausible and counter-intuitive, but there are definitely circumstances where it might pay to consider extending your stay in order to save money.
Staying just one day longer after a conference has finished for example, could allow you to access cheaper air fares and hotel rates, as there is not going to be such high demand after the majority of delegates have rushed off to catch their flight.
If you can extend your stay and spend a bit more time networking or grab some leisure time after a busy week, you could just find that this is a strategy that allows you to save a worthwhile amount of money.
Get someone else to do the legwork
Although you might think that handling all of your own bookings for your business travel arrangements is going to be the most cost-effective option, it might not turn to be the case.
If you can find a good travel management company who can handle all of your corporate travel needs, you could find that any fees they charge or commission they earn might be considered worthwhile, when they can access the best range of options and prices, that are not always available on public travel sites.
A good travel company can often get you a flight on a day where there didn’t seem to be any availability and their buying power can often unlock extra discounts and incentives on fares and hotel rooms.
Getting someone else to do all of the legwork when it comes to corporate travel arrangements, can often prove to be a strategy that either ends up paying for itself or at least, saves you some money with better deals.
Travel costs are an important part of your business and it can make a substantial difference to your bottom line if you are able to come in below budget at the end of the financial year. The way to do that is to economise not compromise where possible, and make use of as many strategies, tips and tricks as possible, to get the best travel deals at the lowest possible rates.
Even a few proven and sensible strategies could help your business to save money on your travel costs.
If you need to grow your business but need to budget, why spend more cash on your flights and hotels than you really have to?
