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Infographic: rising travel costs for flights, hotels and rentals

How economic uncertainty is impacting corporate travel

3 min
Posted: 04 November 2022
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Rising costs, supply chain issues, staff shortages and global economic instability are heavily impacting the travel industry. Around the world, the average cost of travel will continue to rise in the remaining months of 2022 and throughout 2023. However, cutting back on your travel budget isn’t always an option. Your ability to establish a connected workforce, maintain the loyalty of customers and increase opportunities to connect with potential prospects depends on a thriving corporate travel programme. 

Check out the infographic below and learn how to mitigate high travel costs.

Infographic: Rising Costs of Flight, Hotel and Rentals


As you navigate the uncertainty of corporate travel, there are tools available to reduce the chaos and cost. Check out a deeper dive on four ways to mitigate the high cost of travel.

Centralise your booking

Travel is one of the most difficult of all expense categories to budget. It’s especially difficult to monitor airfare, car hire and accommodation costs if you don’t have visibility over how your employees book travel. Centralising your travel programme improves all areas of business—including risk management, trip cost control and the ability to stay nimble during changing times.

Partnering with a travel management company (TMC) makes it easy to configure travel policy and approval workflows as they evolve. Defining transparent processes and incorporating travel automation tools will reduce manual steps. No more forwarding itineraries, finding receipts and emailing back and forth for approval. You can track travel expenses while gaining insights on preferred suppliers and savings opportunities.

Consolidate your spend

Take advantage of negotiated rates! TMCs provide value by offering you exclusive negotiated rates and additional amenities on airfare, hotels, trains and hire cars. TMCs increase your buying power and negotiate on your company’s behalf year after year.

With a corporate booking tool, you can leverage bigger travel volumes and spending to negotiate lower rates with suppliers to reduce transportation costs.

Act on your data

When you book travel through one centralised platform, you can see the full impact of your travel management programme. Of course, it isn’t just about having access to data—it’s about the quality of data and what you do with it.

Data and associated reporting allow you to track and analyse employee booking behaviour, identify opportunities to improve compliance and see where savings can be increased. Reporting at the touch of a button lets you see the adoption rate of your travel management company’s technology. There is also the added benefit of being able to find and support your travellers on the road quickly in an emergency. You can enjoy cost savings while simultaneously increasing traveller well-being.

Utilise technology

Some corporate travel platforms apply machine learning technology to automatically track price variations and rebook tickets without any action from the business traveller or arranger. When the tool identifies a lower rate within an average of the first seven days of booking, it automatically rebooks the reservation with the same amenities and ticket class. This is especially useful for higher cost travel destinations, like hotel rooms in New York City and round-trip plane tickets for international trips.

Tracking cancellations with technology is another perk. In a recent Egencia survey, nearly three quarters (74%) of business travellers are more likely to use digital tools, like apps and virtual agents, to get disrupted trips back on track since the pandemic. Gaining access to real-time updates was selected as the greatest benefit of using digital tools to manage changes to travel plans by 43% of all respondents.

Save with built-in policy guidance.

Low policy compliance is one of the biggest factors behind the high cost of corporate travel. Built-in policy guidance is critical for cost savings. Visual flags alert both travellers and travel arrangers when a booking is made that is above the cost limit for that specific traveller. You can achieve increased flexibility by setting different types of policies and cost limits for different types of travellers.

Navigating corporate travel is not all doom and gloom.

Alongside these challenges are emerging new trends and ways of adapting. Using the data and research available, industry leaders are seizing opportunities to reshape corporate travel.

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