Updated: Guide to writing your own business travel policy
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Updated: Guide to writing your own business travel policy
If you’ve never heard of a company travel policy, or you think it’s time you updated the policy you have, here is a guide from Flight Centre Business Travel to help you write a simple business travel policy.
Table of Contents
4 WHY YOU NEED
A TRAVEL POLICY 10 DUTY OF C ARE
GUIDELINES
5 STAKEHOLDERS
YOU SHOULD INVOLVE 11 FREE TEMPLATE:
COMPANY TRAVEL POLICY
6 OUR FEES
12 QUICK TIPS:
QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER
7 WHAT TO INCLUDE
IN YOUR TRAVEL POLICY 13 ABOUT FLIGHT CENTRE
BUSINESS TRAVEL
Why do you 04
need a company
travel policy?
A travel policy guides your employees through Small things like booking in advance can save you a
the travel booking process. lot on your travel spend. Business travellers can pay
a lot more for airfares purchased one day out
By ensuring your employees book their travel from travel.
according to your process, you can take back the
control when it comes to how much they spend, By working with your FCBT travel expert to
reducing travel costs and ensuring duty of care. implement an advance purchase strategy and
including it in your travel policy, your business can
By defining procedures for business travel and ensure access to the best fares every time and
guidelines for reimbursement you can monitor reduce the bottom line impact from seasonal and
your travel expenses and make sure your market fluctuations.
budgets are accurate.
Who should you 05
involve in writing
your travel policy?
When creating your travel policy you need to think Don’t forget to speak to your travellers too!
about how strict your control should be to suit your
company culture and business objectives. If your Speaking to your travellers will help you understand
business has a fairly relaxed culture then your policy how business travel impacts on their business and
should be more flexible. their personal lives, which is crucial when
deciding what travellers should be entitled to.
Speak to all your stakeholders who are affected by
travel and consider how it may impact them. Consider factors like frequent flyer programmes,
For example your accountant will worry about upgrades or added extras for long haul flights,
the travel costs and spend where as your general lounge access etc.
manager will be more interested in risk
management and keeping your most frequent
travellers happy.
Our fees: 06
Air, accommodation,
transport & general
Service type Unit Transaction fee Notes
Air
Domestic Airline Ticket Per Ticket £12
European Airline Ticket Per Ticket £15
International Airline Ticket Per Ticket £ 20
Low Cost Airlines Per Ticket £ 20return £10 one way
Changes/Amendments Per Ticket Free Excluding airline costs
Refunds Per Ticket Free Excluding airline costs
Hotel
Reservations – Free –
Changes/Amendments – Free –
Car hire
Reservations – Free –
Changes/Amendments – Free –
Rail
Eurostar & Continental Rail Per Ticket £ 20 –
Eurotunnel Per Ticket £ 20 –
Changes/Amendments Per Ticket Free Excluding third party costs
Refunds Per Ticket Free Excluding third party costs
General
Emergency Assistance – Free –
Passport & Visa – Free Excluding third party costs
Car Services (e.g. Chauffeur, Taxis) – Free & consulate fees
Reporting – Free Standard suite reporting
What to include 07
in your travel
policy?
Here is an easy guide to create
these for your company in HOW TO PAY?
How you pay for your business travel will vary
more detail... depending on whether you use a TMC like Flight
Centre Business Travel or if you book online or
offline direct.
WHERE TO BOOK TRAVEL If you are a customer of FCBT you will have a vari-
The first question to ask is how much do you use ety of flexible payment options which may include
your Travel Management Company (TMC) e.g. Flight payment on account or charging back. This is a
Centre Business Travel, vs how much you let your service where we cover all your travel costs for
employees make their own bookings online accommodation and car hire, consolidate the costs
or offline. for you and then bill it back to your company so
you don’t have the hassle of dealing with lots of little
If you use FCBT then we can track and report on a expense claims after a business trip. It’s a great way
lot of your employees travel which gives you a to reduce any fraud and control your travel spend
better overall view of your travel costs. It provides because you can set limits on the extras that
you with the additional security of knowing you employees are allowed to spend during a
have an expert to help in keeping travellers business trip.
compliant by booking with those hotels, airlines or
travel providers that have the right price or pref- If you don’t use a TMC then your travel policy will
erence for you. A TMC like Flight Centre Business need to state company credit card limits, personal
Travel will be on hand to update any travel plans card limits and travel expenses that you will and
when those last minute business changes come up. won’t cover and how to recoup all those costs and
how to do reconciliations.
If you don’t use a TMC you will need to outline in
your policy how you will keep track of all the
different bookings, what hotels, trains and rental car
companies travellers may use at what price and how
to manage emergencies and last minute changes.
08
THE APPROVAL PROCESS HOW TO CLAIM THEIR
Give your employees a clear process to follow when EXPENSES
booking their travel. This should include everything It’s vital to include your policy on expenses and how
from authorisation required before they are allowed you will handle them. This section of your travel
to book, to their choices of supplier and the policy must include the expense your company will
approval of their expense claims. and won’t cover as well as the claiming process,
how long they must keep receipts for and how long
One of the benefits of using Flight Centre Business employees will wait to be reimbursed.
Travel is that we can enforce your policy for you.
We ensure your employees only book with service When using a TMC such as Flight Centre Business
providers you allow, at the right price and prevent Travel, you can use chargeback to assist with this.
over spending, especially in the case of last minute This allows your employees to travel and all
changes or emergencies. expenses will be charged back to your company
by us. This means you will have no receipts to hold
If you manage your travel in-house, you’ll probably onto and it gives you a consolidated view of all your
have an internal process where someone in the travel expense making it easy for reporting and
business approves all the trip’s. eliminating mountains of paperwork.
Don’t forget to include links to any forms travellers
may have to complete prior to booking and make
sure there is an audit trail of approvals for your
records.
Hotels
BOOKING GUIDELINES Be clear on the maximum limit your travellers may 09
Your company travel policy should include spend for a hotel, taking into consideration that a
how to book the below: 3 star hotel can often cost the same as a 4 star.
• Flights
State your negotiated rate if you have one, with any
• Hotels
preferred hotel changes and what the benefits are
• Trains/Bus/Transfers
of using them. If you use Flight Centre Business
• Car Rentals
Travel your employees could benefit from getting
FREE added value options when booking our added
Be as clear as possible to avoid your employees
value hotels such as late checkout, free Wi-Fi and
making non-compliant bookings.
breakfast inclusions.
Here is what to outline for each of these
Don’t forget to include your added expenses that
categories:
your company will allow – for example, can your
employee get room service? Mini bar? Use the
Flights in-house laundry?
You should specify what class your travellers may
book and for what kind of destination. Do you have Ground Transport
a policy for using low cost carriers? Full service Your business travel policy should include;
carriers? First class? Business class? Economy? • Car rental agreements or what car companies
your travellers can book through.
For example
• The class of the car they may hire
TICKET A £50. (there can be large differences between
Economy low cost carrier – no refunds, no changes, a 4WD vs a small economy car).
no bags. • How to claim petrol costs
• How you will manage the insurance and any
TICKET B £130.
deposits paid at pickup.
Economy regular full service airline – no refunds,
changes for a fee. Bag included. • If you will cover a taxi or an Uber?
TICKET C £250. Flight Centre Business Travel already have
Economy regular full service airline – agreements in place to manage car rental companies
fully refundable, free changes, bag and meal included. on your behalf which ensures your employees don’t
incur extra costs around things like insurance and
If your travel policy says the traveller must travel in pickup deposits.
economy class, the traveller could legitimately book
ticket C and the cost to the business for option C is Travel apps
£200 more than option A to the same destination Does your company have any preferred travel apps
for the same trip. But if your business does make a that your employees may book through? Trip Ad-
lot of last minute changes, or suddenly needs to take visor and other online booking tools can be handy
some sales collateral or heavy bags, you may prefer but how do you know which one is good as there
this cost up front. are so many to choose from. Can you check-in
online with your app? Can you see your transfers?
Does it account for any time differences between
countries?
If you book with Flight Centre Business Travel, our
new app will take all this into account and deliver
your itinerary on your traveller’s smart device.
If you don’t use a TMC then ensure your travel
policy outlines exactly what your company policy is
on these types of booking and travel apps.
Duty of care 10
This section needs to include
vital information on what your
employees can do to ensure
their safety while travelling.
It should outline: Consider the destination your business travels to
• How will you keep in touch with your and classify which are high risk for your company.
employee and vice versa when they are Your travellers need to know about these risks
travelling (if you are a customer of FCBT before they travel.
this information would be automatically
added to every booking).
• How you will keep track of everyones DR AF TING YOUR COMPANY
where-abouts
TR AVEL POLICY
• The process to follow in case of an
emergency If you need help drafting your company
• How many travellers can fly on the Travel Policy please contact your
same flight Flight Centre Business travel expert
or visit us at
• Travel insurance and if its mandatory
flightcentrebusinesstravel.co.ukFree Template: 11
Company
Travel Policy
Train
INSERT YOUR COMPANY Specify what classes are allowed, e.g. Standard class
NAME HER E should be booked for all rail travel unless agreed in
advance with your line manager.
1. Type in your rules of travel here, for example,
You only need authorisation to travel if you are out of Restricted / Advance rail tickets should be purchased
policy or booking for a third party i.e. a photographer whenever possible.
2. All booking requests to be submitted via
Hotels
authorised bookers
Greater London: Give guidance on price per night
3. Book as far in advance as possible to obtain allowed, e.g. £250 per night inc breakfast and VAT.
lowest fare
Rest of the UK: £200 per night inc breakfast and VAT.
4. Book the correct class of travel Meeting & Conference Bookings Facilities at Client X
premises should be used as first option.
5. Book hotels from our preferred hotel directory
through Corporate Traveller Meeting & Conference Bookings: Facilities at Client X
premises should be used as first option.
6. Check Insurance & security for high risk* countries
Ground transport
Car Rental: Explain how to book car hire, car
bookings and the size of model allowed, for
HOW DO I TR AVEL? example car bookings to be made offline with
Travel Desk. Car should not exceed Ford Mondeo
Flights 2.0 or equivalent. Full comprehensive insurance
Explain what airline carriers and cabin classes are should be arranged with car supplier.
allowed, for example, Lowest Economy fare unless
approved by line manager and above British Airways, Public Transport/Taxi: Use most cost effective
Virgin Atlantic, Air France & KLM should be used if method of travel.
available on route/destination.
4 E ASY STEPS
1 2 3
1 Contact your
travel expert 2 We will send you
3 options 3 Pick one option which
fits with trip and policy 4 Book it in via your
travel expertQuick Tips: 12
Questions
to Consider
Air Bookings Rail and Land transportation
• Economy v Business class? • Class of travel – standard or first
• Length of flight or overnight– travellers are (wifi complimentary in first) Length of travel
allowed to travel business class on flights over a determines class of travel?
certain duration. Example: set minimum flying • Restricted / open tickets
time at six hours, allowing business class for long • How would you like your employees to get
haul trips but economy for short haul. around their destination - Taxi’s or ubers?
• Personnel – travellers at a certain level of Chauffeur cars? Public transport?
seniority in the company can fly business class. • Overnight travel/early morning/late night -
• Reason – travellers fly business class according taxi/pre-arranged transfer?
to their reason for travel. Example: restrict
business class to employees flying with Travel Insurance
customers or those working on day of arrival. • Who is your current company travel
• Consider Premium Economy or as a insurance provider?
combination. Can Premium out and Business • When is it due for renewal and does it cover
return solve the issue of sleep vs. productivity all employees?
vs cost?
• Loyalty schemes, are their specific airlines
your company should be using for points? Other travel spends to consider
• Expense limits – Maximum spend per meal?
Hotel Bookings • Limits on entertaining clients?
• Is there a preferred list of hotel chains? • Do you cover mobile phone charges abroad?
• What star rating are employees allowed to Or access to Wifi?
stay in? • Country specific costs like inoculations,
• Should there be a certain room type? visas, local charges?
• Should there be a price cap? Fluctuations • Traveller experience – Sleep vs Productivity.
between cities – London, Moscow, NY…higher Do you want your travellers arriving in the
• Should all hotels come with breakfast and wifi morning and going straight into the office?
as standard – local costs much higher If so, should you consider Business Class?
• Can they book Air B&B or similar? • Is it better to pay more for a hotel that’s closer
to the office or one that is cheaper but a long
commute each day?
Car Rental
• Preferred Supplier of cars?
• Certain category of car?
• Refuelling?About 13
Flight Centre
Business Travel
FCBT is part of one of the
world’s largest travel
companies, Flight Centre
Travel Group. With our global
negotiating power this helps
your local travel expert to
deliver better cost savings to
you and add value to
your business
No contract 24/7 emergency assistance
We will never bind you to a contract, unless Operating 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, our
you require one. This means we’re only as good as Emergency Assistance team are always on-hand to
our last booking which maintains our excellent help, wherever you are in the world.
service standards.
Account Manager
Simple fee approach An Account Manager will be assigned to your
Pay one clear fee with no hidden extras. account where additional analysis and insight is
required.
Flexible payments
Pay on credit card or account to best suit Reporting
your needs. To ensure you’re getting the best return on your
travel investment, your travel bookings are recorded
Duty of care and regularly reviewed. We will provide you with
We can help support your duty of care with monthly reporting and recommendations to
proactive traveller tracking and full emergency assist streamline your travel programme further.
around the clock.
Service level agreement
You’ll receive three travel options within two hours.
We answer the phone in three rings and reply
immediately to emails, so you’ll never be kept waiting.020 7788 4757 I enquiry@flightcentrebusinesstravel.co.uk I flightcentrebusinesstravel.co.uk
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