Travel Management

What Does a Travel Management Company Do?

A travel management company (TMC) is a specialized travel agency that offers comprehensive business travel support to organizations of all sizes. As a TMC with 70 years of industry experience, here are five key ways that Christopherson Business Travel assists organizations with their managed travel program.
September 6, 2024
What Does a Travel Management Company Do?

1. Simplifies and Streamlines Your Workload

Corporate travel management can be complex. As a travel manager, you juggle many responsibilities—from tracking employee travel preferences and plans to managing unused tickets. Keeping it all organized can feel overwhelming. That’s where a travel management company like Christopherson comes in. We streamline your processes and enhance your business travel program with a combination of service and technology.

Christopherson understands that technology is key to simplifying your workload. That’s why we developed our cutting-edge, proprietary software platform. It offers customizable dashboards for  travel managers, giving them the tools they need to efficiently manage travel programs and individual trips. This platform helps you easily manage risk, track spending and savings, manage profiles and travel plans, utilize unused tickets and booking options, and more.

Each traveler can create a unique profile within our travel management platform that securely stores travel preferences and loyalty program details. This integration ensures a smooth and convenient booking experience. When working with Christopherson, travelers can book trips online or with an expert travel agent, depending on your specific service requirements. Additionally, your company’s travel policy is integrated into the platform to ensure all bookings are compliant.

In addition to technology, Christopherson offers personalized guidance through account management. Account managers collaborate with you to carefully analyze your program, identify strengths and weaknesses, and create a customized management plan. This consultative approach allows travel managers to lean on the expertise of seasoned industry professionals and achieve their goals more efficiently.

2. Helps You Manage Risk

Duty of Care refers to the legal and moral responsibility organizations have to protect employees from potential threats. These might include extreme weather or natural disasters, political strikes and civil unrest, car accidents, theft, personal attacks, or terrorism—the list goes on. As a travel manager, how do you maintain confidence that you are upholding your obligation to protect and care for your travelers?

In a GBTA study, only half of the travel managers surveyed expressed confidence in their ability to locate their travelers within two hours of an emergency. If your travelers’ plans are not stored, managed, or accessible from one centralized location, trying to locate employees during a crisis could be a chaotic and stressful task with potentially disastrous consequences.

Christopherson can help you quickly identify threats in areas where your travelers are located and support your response efforts. Our risk management tool provides travel managers with a real-time list of who is traveling and where they are  located. It also allows you to quickly determine if your travelers are in or heading toward an affected area. Travel alerts notify you of events that could impact employee travel or compromise their safety, with the option to click through to news sources for more information. For added security, you can set up auto-alerts that send texts and emails directly to travelers, allowing you to quickly verify their safety.

3. Reduces Your Travel Costs

Partnering with a corporate TMC can significantly reduce your overall travel costs. With deep industry experience, Christopherson leverages expertise and relationships to negotiate contracts with your preferred vendors, ensuring you receive the best possible rates.

Business travel plans often change or get canceled. In fact, nearly 11% of all business travel airline tickets go unused. As a travel manager, how do you ensure those funds from unused airline tickets are used before they expire? Keeping track of all the changes in your travelers’ plans could be a fulltime job in and of itself.

A reliable TMC ensures your unused tickets don’t negatively impact your bottom line. Christopherson’s unused tickets tool automatically captures unused airline tickets and prompts their reuse during the booking process, whether online or with a full-service advisor, saving you from lost funds.

Additionally, working with a business travel agency ensures that employees book within your company travel policy. This guarantees that’s you’re benefiting from your corporate rates, avoiding overspending, and streamlining expense tracking and reporting.

Lastly, partnering with a TMC saves you time. Every hour spent solving travel-related issues is time taken away from other important tasks. With Christopherson, you don’t have to troubleshoot flight delays, manually track itineraries, or pull reports from multiple locations. Travelers can quickly find information, make last-minute updates, access 24/7 support from a trusted travel expert, and locate all expense receipts in one location—making travel management easier and more efficient for everyone.

4. Supports Your Travelers 24/7

Corporate travel is crucial for closing new business, nurturing client relationships, and fostering internal connections. To ensure your travel investment delivers results, businesses must prioritize the traveler experience and prevent burnout. This is where Christopherson excels.

By utilizing our new Andavo mobile app, travelers can:

  • Manage air, hotel, and car itineraries all in one place
  • Get real-time updates about flight arrival times, terminal and gate changes, and baggage claim information
  • Edit their profile and access passport numbers, known traveler numbers, loyalty program information, and payment preferences
  • Coordinate trips with team members and share trip information with family and friends

Now, let’s take a closer look at the booking process. Whether your travelers like to book online or with a travel agent, partnering with the right TMC can offer significant advantages.

First, compliance with company travel policy becomes seamless. Regardless of which booking option travelers use, they’ll only see options that align within your policy. Plus, traveler preferences are also automatically integrated and considered before any bookings are confirmed, helping each traveler have the best experience possible.

Most importantly, a TMC should offer around-the-clock expert support and consultation. We all know that travel disruptions happen—flights get delayed or canceled, or hotels are overbooked. Access to an expert travel advisor means your travelers have someone they can turn to when issues arise, day or night.

Unresolved travel issues can create frustration and resentment toward employers. With Christopherson, your travelers have a trusted ally to handle unexpected challenges quickly and effortlessly. This allows them to focus on their work, confident they’ll be supported in their journey.

5. Provides Integrated and Centralized Data Reporting

Finally, let’s explore how a TMC can benefit both the travel manager and the finance department. Many businesses struggle with data analysis because information is scattered across multiple departments and software platforms. Christopherson’s travel management platform solves this problem by consolidating your data into a centralized, meaningful dashboard.

With our suite of reporting and analytics tools, you can easily identify which departments or individuals spend the most on travel, pinpoint travelers who book outside of your policy, and spot trends that reveal opportunities for cost savings. Clear, concise reporting ensures accountability across all departments, helping you make better-informed, data-driven decisions.

Beyond benchmarking and analytics, Christopherson  offers a Value Summary tool that shows you exactly how and where Christopherson is saving you money. And because every travel program is unique, reports can be customized to fit your specific needs, ensuring the insights that matter most to your business. The result? Cost savings and a well-managed, efficient travel program.

Want to learn more? Request a demo to see how Christopherson can help optimize your travel program.  

► You’ll also like: 5 Sources of Corporate Travel Leakage (and How to Fix Them)

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