If your business is based in Washington and you’re looking to better manage your business travel program and save time on repetitive processes, several travel management companies can help you do just that.
Many corporate travel agencies in Washington offer travel technology to facilitate booking processes or have dedicated corporate travel consultants to help you manage business travel.
However, a local travel management company with a physical office is not always the best option for managing business travel, as it simply does not offer all the features you need to optimize your travel program. .
Choosing a travel management agency without these features takes you back to square one with all the same limitations you’ve encountered in the past. Here we look at:
- Top Features to Look for When Choosing a Travel Management Agency
- A Review of the Top Four Corporate Travel Management Companies for Washington-Based Businesses
Features To Look For When Choosing A Travel Management Agency
Below, we detail the essential features you should look for when comparing travel management companies to help you save money, protect business travelers and streamline your entire management program. of travel.
- Extensive travel inventory: It is essential that the travel management company you choose gives you access to comprehensive transportation and accommodation inventories, as well as allows you to compare prices, dates and offers that best suit your travel needs. .
- Integrated approval workflows: Integrating your travel approval workflows and travel policy into your travel management company’s platform helps you increase policy compliance rates and eliminates the need to manage travel and spending via long threads.
- Centralized invoice collection: Some travel management companies do not act as a sole supplier, which means you will still need to collect and collate invoices from various companies. Travel management companies that offer a system that consolidates all of your monthly invoices into one supplier invoice can save you a lot of time and hassle.
- Flexible booking options: Flexible booking options allow businesses to accommodate any last-minute changes to travel dates or cancellations after booking, free of charge or at a reasonable cost.
- 24/7 customer support: Unforeseen events are unavoidable in business travel and you should know that your travel agent will be there to help you if something goes wrong. A quick and easy-to-access customer support function is essential to help your travelers deal with any issues that arise.
- Reporting features: The ability to access travel data broken down by individual business traveler, mode of transportation, booking type, and cancellations helps you drive important spend optimization activities.
The 4 Best Corporate Travel Agencies for Washington-Based Companies
Your business needs a travel management company equipped to meet your needs, your industry and your budget.
Let’s take a look at the four best corporate travel agencies for Washington-based companies.
1.TravelPerk
TravelPerk is a full-service travel management company with an all-in-one digital platform for businesses and their business travelers.
TravelPerk’s 2021 acquisition of U.S. business travel specialist Next Travel has established the company as the best option for managing business travel not just in Washington, but across all of the United States. UNITED STATES.
With traveler self-management at its core, its industry-leading platform manages the entire business travel booking process from start to finish. Every element of business travel can be controlled from TravelPerk’s centralized platform.
Along with access to the world’s largest travel inventory for flights and accommodations, TravelPerk offers the most comprehensive and unique set of business travel features. These include a carbon offset program and FlexiPerk, an add-on that allows users to cancel their travel plans up to two hours before departure with a guaranteed 80% refund.
TravelPerk users also benefit from:
In addition to these comprehensive features, TravelPerk also offers a solution for managing meetings and events and the ability to book alternative transportation options, such as trains and rental cars from the TravelPerk platform.
TravelPerk’s unique and comprehensive features combine to provide you with the end-to-end travel management platform you need to streamline and improve your travel management programs.
As you scroll through this list, you’ll notice that TravelPerk is the only company that focuses solely on managing business travel and your business needs to deliver exceptional travel experiences.
If you would like to learn more about how TravelPerk can optimize your company’s business travel program, contact us today for a free demo.
Find out how TravelPerk makes business travel stress-free
2. Connoisseur’s journey
Founded in 1988, Connoisseur Travel is a Washington-based agency that offers personalized travel services. The company offers three main travel management services: business travel, leisure travel, meetings and events.
Connoisseur Travel primarily supports companies in the legal/legal, financial, consulting, industrial and medical sectors, as well as government contractors, educational institutions, non-profit organizations and public relations offices.
Connoisseur Travel’s key business travel management features and services include:
- Online booking tool and mobile application
- Travel authorizations
- Risk management tools including travel assistance and traveler tracking
- Travel and expense management
- Report tool
- Relations with airlines, hotels and car rental services for discounted services
While Connoisseur Travel offers its customers a range of useful features for business travel, it lacks the flexible booking options that business travelers should be able to rely on. For example, unlike TravelPerk’s FlexiPerk add-on that lets you cancel trips up to two hours before departure, the company doesn’t allow travelers to book a flight, hotel, car, or train at noon. any rate and can be canceled at any time.
Additionally, the company does not offer a carbon offset program or third-party integrations with expense tools.
Finally, while Connoisseur Travel offers security alerts and traveler tracking, unlike TravelPerk’s TravelCare, it’s not a comprehensive tool that allows travelers to travel with peace of mind.
3. WAX trips
Based in New York, CIRE Travel is a travel agency that supports clients in all industries and has offices in Washington, Boston, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Washington, DC, Miami, Kennebunkport and Maine.
The Company provides travel management for business and leisure travel, meetings and events, group travel, and honeymoon and wellness travel.
Although CIRE Travel is not solely a business travel management company, the company offers the following corporate travel services specifically for business travel:
- Business travel organizers
- Traveler Tracking
- Relations with airlines and hotels for discounted services
- Monthly and quarterly trip reports
CIRE Travel focuses primarily on luxury travel and saves companies money on business travel on advance purchase rates, room upgrades and change fee waivers for traveler name changes.
While it’s important for companies to save money on business travel, a travel management company should do more than just offer discounted rates. For example, with CIRE Travel, you don’t have access to TravelPerk’s vast inventory that includes low-cost carriers and Airbnb. You also don’t get access to TravelPerk’s event management tool to help you book and plan event-based trips.
Unlike TravelPerk’s FlexiPerk add-on that lets you cancel trips up to two hours before departure, the company doesn’t offer any functionality for business travelers to make flexible bookings. In fact, CIRE Travel does not provide the sophisticated technological solution that modern companies need to ensure that their employees can travel safely and flexibly.
4. Global Travel Service
World Travel Service is a travel planning and management company that provides services to business and leisure customers.
The Company’s corporate travel agents and travel professionals tailor their services to business needs when booking flights, hotels and transportation.
In addition to World Travel Service Travel Experts, they provide the following business travel management features:
- Online tools to access routes and reports
- Online booking platform
- Traveler Tracking
- Travel spend analysis
- 24/7 emergency assistance
- Corporate retreats
While World Travel Service offers a good range of features to support travel programs, the agency does not offer as large an inventory as TravelPerk with better corporate rates. The company also doesn’t offer as much flexibility as business travelers need — for example, it doesn’t offer companies the option to cancel reservations with a full refund.
Finally, World Travel Service does not offer a complete solution for managing meetings and events.
Improve your business travel experiences with TravelPerk
Optimizing business travel doesn’t have to be complicated. TravelPerk’s comprehensive travel management platform covers all your business travel needs.
If you would like to learn more about how TravelPerk can streamline your organization’s business travel program, help you save money and protect business travelers, contact us today for a free demo.
