Juggling business trips can be a nightmare–from booking flights and hotels to managing receipts and keeping track of expenses. But fear not; a whole arsenal of business travel management software exists to streamline this process and make your life easier.
Let’s explore some of the top contenders to help you choose the perfect fit for your company’s needs.
Corporate Travel Booking Tools
A business travel booking tool goes beyond simply finding flights and hotels. They offer a one-stop shop for booking, managing, and tracking all aspects of your business travel.
1. TravelPerk
Imagine managing every aspect of your business travel in a single, user-friendly platform. That’s the magic of TravelPerk! This all-in-one business travel management solution streamlines your booking process to ensure that everything from flights, trains, and hotels is brought under one dashboard and ensures compliance with your company’s travel policy.
Their handy mobile app keeps you organized and in control, providing real-time flight updates, paperless confirmations of all your bookings, and easy access to your entire itinerary.
TravelPerk also understands that flexibility is key in the business world. That’s why their FlexiPerk feature allows you to cancel trips easily and get 80% of your money back–no questions asked!
Pricing
TravelPerk offers a free "Starter" plan with five monthly bookings, perfect for small businesses or trying out the platform. Paid memberships provide more features and increased booking limits. Here's a quick breakdown:
- Premium: $99/month + 3% booking fee
- Pro: $299/month + 3% booking fee
- Enterprise: Custom pricing for high-volume businesses
Did you know TravelPerk integrates directly with Fyle, a travel expense management software? This means:
- Automated expense creation: Book your trip through TravelPerk and watch as Fyle automatically creates a corresponding expense report–no more manual data entry!
- Effortless expense reconciliation: Fyle integrates with major credit card networks (Visa, Mastercard, American Express) to automatically sync and reconcile your expenses. Reconciliation on autopilot? Yes, please!
- Smart expense categorization: Map payment profiles and booking types to ensure expenses are categorized correctly in Fyle.
- Cancellation tracking made easy: Fyle automatically tracks and records cancellations and refunds made through TravelPerk, saving you the hassle of managing them manually.
2. Airbnb for Work
Airbnb for Work goes beyond traditional hotels, offering a curated selection of unique spaces around the world that cater specifically to business travelers. This platform provides a win-win for both employers and employees. Companies can leverage Airbnb for Work’s suite of tools to streamline booking, manage travel spend, and ensure compliance with company policies.
Employees can access various accommodation options, from modern apartments to charming boutique hotels, all designed to foster productivity and comfort during business trips.
Pricing
- Typically based on the stay, similar to booking through the regular Airbnb platform.
3. TravelBank
TravelBank joins the ranks of business travel management superstars, offering a comprehensive platform to streamline your corporate travel experience. Similar to TravelPerk, TravelBank is a one-stop shop for booking flights, hotels, and ground transportation for your employees. It goes beyond booking though, offering features to manage expenses, enforce travel policy compliance, and prioritize traveler safety–all within a user-friendly platform.
TravelBank boasts seamless integration with various business tools, including Slack, meaning you can book trips or submit expense reports directly from your preferred communication platform. This level of convenience translates to real time-saving benefits.
TravelBank empowers businesses with features like cost-saving tools, streamlined processes for booking and expense management, and clear visibility into travel spend for informed budgeting.
With its feature-rich platform and focus on saving you time, money, and stress, TravelBank is a strong contender worth considering for your business travel management needs.
Pricing
- Travel: $25 User/month
- Expense: $10 User/month
- Custom Pricing: Contact
4. Egencia
Egencia is a seasoned veteran in the world of business travel management. They offer a comprehensive suite of tools designed to elevate your corporate travel experience far beyond just booking flights, hotels, and ground transportation.
Egencia boasts features like itinerary management, robust reporting for informed decision-making, and duty-of-care services that prioritize traveler safety with features like 24/7 customer support and real-time travel alerts.
Egencia's extensive industry experience and global network of travel providers make it a trusted choice for businesses of all sizes. They understand the importance of traveler well-being and offer features that keep your team informed, supported, and on track throughout their journeys.
Their focus on experience, expertise, and traveler well-being makes them a compelling choice for managing your corporate travel program with confidence.
Pricing
- Pricing made available on request
Tools for Travel Expense Management
Travel expense reports can be a nightmare for both employees and finance teams. Travel expense management tools streamline the process, ensuring accurate record-keeping, policy compliance, and efficient expense reimbursements. These tools can handle a mix of corporate and business credit cards, cash advances and facilitate compliance with tax regulations. Here are some of our top contenders:
5. Fyle
Fyle emerges as a champion in the travel expense management category. This user-friendly platform automates the entire process, transforming tedious data entry and receipt sorting into a breeze.
Fyle accepts receipts through various methods, such as text message, email, or its mobile app. Its intelligent data extraction then automatically creates expense reports, minimizing manual work and saving valuable time for both employees and finance teams.
Designed for seamless integration, Fyle connects with popular accounting software, allowing for effortless expense categorization and streamlined reporting. This eliminates the need for manual data transfer and ensures all your financial data is consistently organized.
Fyle also offers an additional perk: an integration with TravelPerk. This powerful combo allows you to manage both the booking process and all related expenses within a single, unified system.
Fyle effectively streamlines the entire travel expense experience, keeping your team focused on core business activities and free from the burden of manual expense reporting.
Pricing
- Standard: $6.99 per active user*/month
- Business: $11.99 per active user*/month
- Enterprise: Custom pricing
6. ShoeBoxed
If you're looking for something that isn't feature-packed like Fyle but can do simple tasks like receipt management, Shoeboxed is a good option. Shoeboxed offers two ways of managing receipts: you can either send them in a prepaid envelope to their processing facility or use its mobile app to scan them.
By using OCR, they can scan and convert the paper receipt into a digital version that is also searchable. This makes tracking and organizing receipts easier. Shoeboxed also integrates with Wave accounting, Xero, FreshBooks, Intuit, and more.
Pricing
- Startup: $22 /month
- Professional: $45 /month
- Business: $67 /month
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Some Additional Business Travel Management Tools
7. TripIt
Tripit is a travel planner app that consolidates bookings into an itinerary. As soon as you book a flight, hotel, or other travel plan, you need to forward all the confirmation emails to their email. Tripit will automatically create an itinerary you can access while on the go.
Tripit Pro also has a seat and fare tracker that can help you choose the best seats and update you about dropping fares after you book.
Pricing
- The basic app is free while Tripit Pro costs $49/year.
8. Google Travel
Google Travel is an aggregate site that consolidates all elements of trip planning into one platform. You can book flights, find a hotel, or check out vacation rentals without switching between multiple sites and tabs.
Input your destination, add your dates, and let Google search for you. It will help you compare dates, set notifications in case of price drops, and even show when it's on or off-season.
The best part is that since all your bookings will be made using your Gmail, everything will be automatically added to your Google account and itinerary.
9. Booking.com for Business
Booking.com for business is a go-to website for all your business travel bookings and management. You get exclusive business rates, cash in on loyalty points, and 24/7 support from CWT, one of the leading travel management companies.
It's free to use and has over 3 million listed properties across 150,000 destinations.
10. PackPoint
PackPoint is an easy-to-use app that helps you organize your travel luggage based on the type of visit, the number of days, and the activities planned.
For example, if you're going on a business trip, you can input the location and the number of days, and PackPoint will automatically create a list of things you need to pack to make your travel less stressful. You can also customize the list and share it with others.
PackPoint integrates with TripIt and can auto-create packing lists based on travels you booked using TripIt.
Pricing
The app costs $2.99
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Conclusion
These tools address businesses' specific challenges with booking travel and managing travel expenses. However, there's no universal solution. Start by identifying the major bottlenecks in your business travel management process and the essential features you need. Once you have this clarity, review the tools available here to determine which best suits your business. Take advantage of demos, weigh the pros and cons, and select the tool to effectively streamline your travel expense management.
