Travel management is a business that balances employee needs with corporate goals. Travel Management Companies (TMCs) use Global Distribution Systems (GDSs) to give the best fares to their clients. This allows travel players to compare different itineraries and costs by displaying real-time availability, allowing users to access fares for air tickets, hotels and rental cars.
The economic slump has allowed travel players to take centre stage. Travel management has become an important part of every top executive’s strategic planning. Whether employees are required to fly consistently or occasionally, travel is an expensive affair and can be costly if not managed efficiently.
Here are a few ways to simplify travel management:
Airfare Consolidators
Airlines make tickets available to airfare consolidators at a considerably discounted price. Consolidators seek to reach more niche markets and since they are able to offer negotiated fares as opposed to published fares, signing up with them can only help your business grow.
Big players in the airfare consolidation domain have networks across several countries. This enables them to do volumes in ticketing, giving them access to special privileges. With consolidators who have access to fares from multi-country and multi-PCC/OID integrated GDSs, travel players will be able to provide their customers with the best fares from across the globe.
Your airline consolidator will help you make margins outside your region even if you do not have a local presence.
Speaking of making margins, here’s how you can reduce business air travel costs.
Hotel Consolidators
A Hotel Consolidator is a travel company or business that buys a suite of rooms in top destination hotels and resells them at deducted prices to end customers. Global hotel consolidators offer special discounted prices in all major tourist destinations, popular resorts and big cities. Local hotel consolidators focus particularly on a certain geographic area to remain competitive in the market.
Hotels are willing to offer drastically reduced room rates to consolidators because they are certain that it will yield a greater number of reservations. With access to real-time hotel availability that hotel consolidators provide, travel players can share the detailed breakdown of hotel rates to their clients with complete clarity of all inclusions.
The advantage of booking through hotel consolidators is that just a call or a website visit will get you a room at a 20 to 30% discounted price. This helps players from the travel world increase their revenue, get the best hotel content almost instantaneously and deliver quality service to every customer.
Partnership Scope with Other Transportation Leaders
Another important step that can help simplify travel management is signing up with companies that provide complete end-to-end ground transport solutions. This is a crucial step that is most often neglected by travel players.
The tie-up with ground handling agencies can help your customers with airport transfers, tailor-made sightseeing with dynamic packages, value-added Seat-In-Coach (SIC) tours, local shopping and daily needs. Association with car rental services like Uber will also enhance the travel experience for your customers. This will provide maximum flexibility when integrating with your existing travel workflow.
To sum up, the right collaboration with airline consolidators, hotel consolidators and ground transportation and handling services will help you deliver global travel programs for your customers through a network of best-in-market agencies.
Are you a travel player looking to simplify your business model? Take the first step. Sign up with an Airfare Consolidator now!