All The Corporate Travel Booking Tools You’ll Ever Need

Travel is complicated when you’re booking for yourself. Booking travel for your executive? Even more complicated. 

Corporate travel has the potential to get overwhelming, FAST. There are so many minute yet important details that can sometimes slip through the cracks when you aren’t prepared. Your life is busy, so we put together a list of tips and tricks to help make corporate travel as simple as possible. 

After reading this article, you will have three checklists that will prepare you for any type of travel, you will know the difference between online booking and scheduling corporate travel management tools (along with suggestions for each) and you will get 6 additional tips to help make booking travel as easy as possible.

If you want to simplify your corporate travel, read on! 

Creating checklists will save you future stress and allows corporate travel management to simplify over time. We have put together three checklists that should cover almost all the details for your executive’s trip, from seat preferences to loyalty program info and beyond. Just copy and paste the checklists below and start using them today!

Corporate Travel Management Tip 1: Traveler Profile Form

If you have this information at hand, once you are tasked with a trip, you can immediately begin to book without repeating questions to your exec. 

Information for a travel profile form should include:

  • Company
  • Travelers Name, Title
  • Address
  • City/State/Zip
  • Business Phone
  • Home Address
  • City/State/Zip
  • Home Phone
  • Credit Card for Airline Tickets
  • Expiration Date
  • Credit Card for Hotel
  • Expiration Date
  • Business email
  • Home email
  • Business Fax Number
  • Home Fax Number
  • Name of person ordering travel/phone number
  • Department Name

INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL INFORMATION – If your executive is traveling abroad, this is important information.

  • Passport Number/Place of Issue/Expiration Date
  • Citizenship
  • AAA Membership/Expiration Date

AIRLINE SEATING PREFERENCE – When you book flights and have the options to pick, knowing your executive’s preference can win brownie points and ease the stress of travel. 

  • Aisle – Window – Other
  • Airline and Frequent Flyer Numbers
  • Dietary Restrictions

AUTO RENTAL – There are a handful of different rental companies to choose from. If your executive has a specific company, you can rely on them (or their sister companies) to help create a consistent booking experience.

  • Rental Company 
  • Corporate ID Number
  • Individual ID Number

HOTEL ACCOMMODATIONS PREFERRED – Perhaps there is a hotel that has a bed similar to the one your executive has. Take notes of these comforts and try to replicate them on the road as much as possible. If you are able to make traveling seamless for them, they will, in turn, be able to be far more productive. 

  • Hotel
  • Corporate ID Number
  • Smoking Yes/No
  • Individual ID Number

 

Corporate Travel Management Tip Number 2: A Travel Planning Intake Checklist

Now that you have all of the information needed to make booking corporate travel seamless, it’s time to make all of the booking information as easy as possible for your executive to follow. There are a few corporate travel management suggestions throughout this next part, but below you will find the basics. Start by taking the basics for each reservation and compile them into one, easy-to-read document. 

  • Confirmation/reservation numbers
  • Phone numbers
  • Addresses for flights, trains, rental cars, cabs, hotels
  • Estimated travel time from the airport to the hotel or other destinations
  • Weather update

*CORPORATE TRAVEL TIP- Put the reservations with all information into an event on your executive’s calendar.

  • Loyalty Membership Numbers
  • Maps to all locations

*CORPORATE TRAVEL TIP- You can download Google Maps in a specific area so that your executive can still find their way, even if they are in a poor signal area.

  • Parking spots and costs

*CORPORATE TRAVEL TIP – You can use a variety of services, like Spot Hero to reserve parking spots or apps like ParkMe to find parking. 

  • Outline on who takes the lead for conflicts and rescheduling travel
  • Luggage Tags
  • Local host contact information
  • Local spots for food or to relax

*CORPORATE TRAVEL TIP – If you want to really go above and beyond….

  • Packing List

The packing list is incredibly important for any corporate travel management. Take time to look up the weather wherever your executive is traveling and provide a suggested packing list. Is there a chance of rain? Alert your executive and let them know to bring waterproof shoes, an umbrella, etc. 

Corporate Travel Management Tip Number 3: A Travel Itinerary Template

*CORPORATE TRAVEL TIP – Microsoft Excel is perfect for organizing information like this. Feel free to copy and paste this into an excel sheet of your own to help with your corporate travel management. 

  • Departing Flight Information
    • Date
    • Time of departure
    • Confirmation Number
    • Airport
    • Flight Number
    • Airline
    • Arrival
  • Car Rental Information
    • Date of pick up
    • Date of drop off
    • Confirmation Number
    • Location (directions to location if needed)
    • Name of Company
  • Hotel Information
    • Date
    • Name under reservation
    • Confirmation Number
    • Street/City
    • Room Number
    • Check Out
  • Meeting and Events
    • Date of meeting/events
    • Start time 
    • Location
    • Topic
    • Room
    • End Time
  • Return Flight
    • Date
    • Time of departure
    • Confirmation Number
    • Airport
    • Flight Number
    • Airline
    • Arrival

Now that we have gone over the checklists that will keep you organized, here are some tips to help with corporate travel booking. 

6 Tips for Corporate Travel Management

  1. Book early: Last-minute trips always come up but if you are able to book early, the cost will always be cheaper. You will also get more options.
  2. Triple check the travel policy: There is nothing worse than missing a flight and then realizing you didn’t understand the perimeters of the travel policy. Some will allow you to rebook without penalty, but most will charge you upfront for the difference in the new ticket. Make sure you read through the policy and have back up options ready in case a conflict occurs.
  3. Be thorough: Take the time to put the itinerary together and iron out any details before making any nonrefundable bookings. Go through each day in your head and make sure you have everything written down.
  4. Sign up for loyalty programs: The travel industry is extremely competitive, you would be surprised at how many perks you can receive just by signing up for the loyalty programs. They don’t typically cost anything and sometimes, just by being a member, you can get a positive response to favors.
  5. Maximize comfort on flights: Make sure to prep your executive with whatever they need to be able to sleep comfortably on the flight. Planes dehydrate passengers quickly, so make sure to keep your executive hydrated. Rolling the plane pillow underneath the lower back (instead of by the head) can help with potential back soreness and having an icy hot roll stick can help with shoulder and neck tightness as well.
  6. Utilize internet resources: There are a multitude of corporate management booking tools, corporate management software tools and corporate management tools. Below, we outline some of the corporate management tools online.

Now that you have checklists and some additional tips, let’s go over specific tools that can help with your corporate travel management. There are thousands of options online, so we picked some of the best and broke them down for you. Before we go into the different options, let’s discuss the difference between corporate travel management booking tools and corporate travel management scheduling tools. 

 

Travel Management vs. Travel Scheduling 

Corporate travel management tools allow you to do far more than shop, make reservations and complete transactions. They allow you to register the traveler’s information, apply specific policies, automate what potential booking information is displayed and how it is prioritized. It not only prioritizes by the price but by your executive’s preferred hotels and suppliers. Through corporate travel management tools, you can book things like luxury or basic economy, or you can block flights over a certain price (to allow you to stay in budget). You can also store your executive’s personal information in corporate travel management apps so that you don’t have to continue reentering the information. (Still a good idea to have the checklist handy, though!)

When you use a booking tool for corporate travel management, you have two options. You can go directly to the providers or go through agents that resell the booking tool. Sometimes it seems cheaper to deal directly with the providers, but agents will bundle the tool with additional support and maintenance. 

Here are 6 established booking tools and descriptions of their services:

  1. Amadeus Cytric: Provides a personalized and seamless booking experience through business travelers’ preferred channels. Gives control and visibility over travel investment across the entire booking and expense process. 
  2. Egencia: Provides business travelers with 24/7/365 support. Travelers get one-click/one-call support when they need it from their team of corporate travel business agents who know exactly what the travelers want and how to get it for them as smoothly as possible. 
  3. Deem: This software solution is secure and powerful. They help corporate travel managers plan and arrange travel accommodations, build policy-compliant itineraries for any traveling employee, assist employees with travel issues, process expenses, monitor policy and budget compliance. 
  4. KDS Neo: Replaces the traditional linear format of expense claims with a calendar view and allows you to quickly see the expenses in the context of your business meeting or trip. It also allows receipt captures on the go. Optical character recognition and GPS data from the phone help to pre-populate related information and can be automatically entered into your expense claim. It can express your claim, automate approval workflows and accelerate expense reimbursements. 
  5. SAP Concur Travel: SAP allows you to drive policy and regulatory compliance, get visibility into spend and control costs, keep travelers safe and give employees travel tools they will love. 
  6. Sabre Get There: Focused on delivering a user-friendly, efficient traveler booking experience optimized for any device, no matter if it’s on a smartphone, tablet, laptop or desktop. The ability to book, cancel or change flights, hotel, car or rail mid-trip from a mobile device and remain in-policy has never been easier or more seamless for your business travelers.

 

Here are 5 valuable scheduling tools:

  1. Tripit: There is a free version, but you can also upgrade to teams and to pro. It keeps your travel points in one place after you forward travel confirmations. You can store, edit and sync documents and then selectively share the travel plans you want. Trip it is most useful for confirmation numbers for flights, hotels and restaurants. It’s like an all-inclusive personal travel assistant. 
  2. AroundMe: Is perfect for those travelers who like to explore their surrounding areas. With AroundMe, you can explore anything in your proximity from chic coffee shops to banks and hospitals. It is available on Android, iOS and Windows Phone free of charge.
  3. Nextravel: This platform takes care of nailing down all the specifics of your business trips, even down to rebooking canceled flights. It’s great for companies as they are able to manage and track employee travel with one simple to use interface. 
  4. CWT: This single platform strategy ensures all of your employee booking options – phone, online and mobile – reflect your company’s preferred suppliers and rates. We even offer GDS rate audit services to ensure the rates in booking systems are actually ones you want your employees using. And, when your rate isn’t available, their broad array of negotiated supplier deals can still give your company business travel savings.
  5. CTM: Corporate Travel Management (CTM) drives savings, efficiency and safety to businesses and their travelers all around the world. They are “a tailored travel management solution, delivering customer service excellence, innovative technology and a demonstrable return on investment.”

Travel tends to be complicated, but it doesn’t have to be. Now you have checklists to help organize all sides of travel, tips and tricks to help with scheduling and a plethora of apps that will help with all aspects of corporate travel management. 

We hope this article helped you feel better prepared for booking travel as an executive assistant. To all those booking and flying… travel safe and good luck!

You are strong.