What is the salvation for the business travel industry?
Digital transformation. We will even try to say that it is the only salvation for the business travel industry. Why?
Because it solves the main problems facing both companies sending their employees on business trips, and the entire business travel industry.
These problems are the waste of time and money due to general clutter; frequent changes of rules in the countries we travel to, cancellation of flights and hotel reservations, the threat of COVID-19 infection, constant stress… Due to the coronavirus pandemic, chaos in the business travel industry has become a new reality. But thanks to the digital transformation, it doesn’t have to be that way.
What is digital transformation?
In the case of organizations such as companies or government institutions, digital transformation is the growing presence of digital technologies in all aspects of the functioning of a given institution.
For instance, offices, instead of making citizens wait in queues and filling in dozens of forms by hand, accept official letters electronically, and store information in computer databases, not in dusty archives.
In the case of companies related to business travel, a digital transformation is a departure from traditional pre-flight check-in to online check-in. Booking accommodation online is another example. In the current situation, such solutions are not a matter of convenience but of necessity.
Companies that send employees on a business trip should also undergo a digital transformation.
How does digital transformation reduce business travel costs?
Organizing business trips by traditional means consumes huge resources in companies. Travel managers spend their working time, which can be converted into money. The same goes for the employees themselves who are sent on a trip, and often also their supervisor.
Imagine how many customers could a salesperson gain if instead of planning a trip for hours, he did it in no time? And how often does it happen that an employee chooses too expensive hotels or completely uneconomical connections?
Thanks to digital transformation, it is possible to implement systems that will suggest the most optimal solutions. What’s more, you can see into the expenses at the trip planning stage, so you will be able to accept or reject your employee’s travel plan with one click.
How to effectively organize business trips?
The key is to link the digital systems available in the company with the offer of hotels, airlines, and other carriers. This is possible only through digital transformation.
At Hotailors, we use an AI-supported system that allows our clients to organize business trips using top-down options. For example, a manager creates a list of hotels or marks a zone on a map, and the employee has to choose a place to stay in such a way that it fits within the imposed framework. This saves time and reduces travel stress.
How to increase the safety of employees while traveling?
The epidemiological situation is changing rapidly. By using traditional methods it is impossible to keep up to date with threats around the world.
It is possible that, like our customers, you are sending multiple employees on their journey at the same time. How to control the chaos in such a situation? Potential threats include a sudden increase in coronavirus cases at the destination place, new sanitary restrictions imposed by governments, the requirement for quarantine or valid negative SARS-CoV-2 test results, as well as situations unrelated to the pandemic but always present — riots, terrorist attacks, or natural disasters.
At Hotailors, we provide our clients with access to the most recent and reliable information, combined with the knowledge at which stage of the journey the employee or contractor is. This is thanks to the traveler tracking system. Thanks to it, you can immediately see where your employee is. In this case, knowledge drastically increases the safety of the traveler and the entire company – after all, a traveler who becomes infected will be a threat to colleagues at work upon returning.
Thanks to digital transformation, you can limit the chaos – you will reduce the loss of time and money and take care of the safety of your employees. With Hotailors you can:
- approve the employees’ travel plans
- implement a flexible travel policy
- control expenses
- check where travelers are at the moment, and react in crisis situations
And your employees can use a dedicated 24/7 hotline, where they will receive support if they are stuck at the airport or have other problems during their business travel.
You can use the systems that we offer our clients and thus the digital transformation of business trips in your company will be immediate – you will use ready-made solutions.
Digital transformation allows you to optimize costs, and thus your company is able to gain a competitive advantage. Being able to organize more trips for the same budget is a significant saving as well as an opportunity to increase sales.
Always ready to help,
Hotailors team