Business Travel Insurance

If your company is committed to reducing its Business Travel Insurance costs then it is paramount to take a closer look at the bigger picture, rather than just concentrating on specific business travel costs i.e. agent booking fees and self booking tools.

On average only 60% of the business travel budget is under the control of the company travel manager. The remainder is totally discretionary on the part of the business traveller, with questions regarding how this 40% was spent rarely arising! At the end of the period you might well be asking yourself 'Where did all the money go'? Business travel budgets are often consumed within the following areas:

• Business Travel Insurance Premiums
• Air Fares
• Hotels
• Car Parking
• Travel Agent Booking Fees
• Fuel
• Taxis
• Dinners and breakfasts
• Hotel phone costs

A great deal of time goes into trying to reduce business travel agency booking fees by utilising self-booking tools. However, with closer analysis business travel agency spend often only accounts for between 5-10% of total business travel expenditure. Assuming self-booking tools were used throughout the company and savings over agency fees were 100% (not true) then potential savings would only amount to 3-5% of total business travel spend!

Thus by looking at the bigger picture of business travel expenditure and not narrowing the search for cost savings to travel agency booking fees we can start to move away from a myopic 'booking policy' and begin to define and implement a well thought out 'Business Travel Policy'.