If you or your employees need to travel around for business, you could find that these travel costs start to add up. Here are some tips for spending less on travel.
Create A Travel Budget
Your first option could be to create a travel budget to which you and your employees must stick to. This could be particularly useful with employees who tend to go a bit overboard when on a business trip. Sites like RocketTrip can help you to set budgets for your employees that you can monitor.
Spend Your Time Shopping Around
You should go about booking a business trip much like planning a budget holiday. Shop around for transport and hotels to find the best deals. You could consider becoming a member of an international hotel chain – some hotel companies will offer a points or rewards system that allows you to save money with regular stays.
If you’re travelling by air, you may also want to use an airline that allows to collect air miles. Alternatively, you could hunt for business travel bundles to popular commerce locations.
Borrow Wisely
If you need to borrow money to pay for travel, think carefully about your options. Credit cards can be useful to use whilst travelling as they’re often more secure – many credit card companies will reimburse you if you are a victim of fraud and may even refund you for cancelled flights and lost baggage.
This guide to the top credit cards by the Motley Fool is a worthy read. Look out for credit cards with low APR to avoid paying lots of money in interest.
Consider Whether You Really Need To Travel Business Class
Travelling business class could be an unnecessary luxury – many business owners want them and their employees to be able to travel in comfort, but for short flights you may as well travel in economy class. This could knock a lot of money off of flight costs. The same goes for travelling first class on train journeys – weigh up whether it’s really worth paying all that extra money for a cosier carriage.
Don’t Travel At All – Use Videoconferencing Instead
Whilst many of us like the exotic lifestyle of travelling, in this digital age there are many times in which its simply an extravagance. Videoconferencing has made it possible to hold face-to-face meetings with clients across the world cheaply and conveniently. It certainly doesn’t have the glamour, but it could save you a lot of time and money.
On top of talking to clients, you can attend large meetings this way, give presentations, interview employees and even get someone to give you a guided tour using videoconferencing on their phone. Have a look into these top 10 videoconference tools by Capterra to get a good idea as to which software to use. It could also be worth investing in a good quality microphone and camera.