Instead of rolling over a travel budget year after year, take time to review the organization’s travel patterns. Are there standard travel events that happen every year to the same location? Is there an average cost associated with last-minute bookings or travel? What part of a department’s travel fluctuates on every trip, like airfare, and what part remains more consistent, like car rental?

Evaluating such organizational travel patterns as keeping track of the key city destinations, number of travelers per month from each department, and monthly spend on hotels and ancillary costs can help identify specific practices that keep costs lower.

A group of travelers in one department, for example, might be booking a hotel at a higher rate and paying for Wi-Fi and breakfast, while another department might be booking a hotel in the same city offering such complimentary amenities as free breakfast and Wi-Fi.

Taking a detailed look is how more and more organizations are planning travel budgets, thus providing an insight into which practices can be applied across the organization to optimize effectiveness and savings.

Dig Deeper Into Data

Once high-level travel budget trends are evaluated, dig deeper into the data you have. Look for specific instances where ancillary costs are adding up—things like meal expenses, technology costs, and transportation. If your organization is spending dollars on hotel rooms but staff is also paying for breakfast meals, Internet access, and parking, then policy should be changed to drive staff toward lodging options that offer those added costs for free.

These ancillary costs may seem insignificant when looked at separately, but paying $15 for breakfast, plus $20 for Internet access, and an additional $30 for overnight parking really starts to add up per person.

Look to align your organization with brands that offer these amenities at no additional cost and work to implement a policy that identifies them as preferred partners. Staff will also have multiple brands to select from across different price points with different amenities in almost any location they could need.

With air travel, look to establish a relationship with one key partner that may have central hubs in or around your community and key travel markets for employees. I recommend that car rentals, like lodging, be centralized as much as possible to take advantage of volume buying to drive down costs.

Focused Research

All in all, it’s about doing research and centralizing policies and processes. Select a preferred partner travel company across air carriers, lodging, and car rental for your organization and staff. This will help in negotiating better rates while benefiting from added perks.

For lodging, look for hotel chains that can offer per diem rates at most locations and have value-added amenities. Booking travel independently each and every time through different channels wreaks havoc on a travel budget.