10 Essential Features of a Corporate Booking Tool

A corporate booking tool is an indispensable resource for businesses aiming to optimize their travel management processes. To ensure seamless travel arrangements and enhanced productivity, a robust corporate booking tool should encompass many essential features.

Employees often experience stress during business trips due to their choice of flights, accommodations, car rentals, and other corporate travel products. They expect employers to allow them to book their choice of business travel products. Also, they look for options to choose from a wide range of business travel solutions.

Your organizations meet the expectations of work travelers by investing in corporate travel booking tools. The HR or finance team can implement travel and expense policies while configuring the corporate booking tool. Employees can use the corporate booking tool to compare and book business travel solutions according to the preset policies.

It should boast a user-friendly interface that simplifies the booking process for employees. A streamlined interface enables effortless navigation and reduces the need for extensive training or support.

The tool should offer a wide array of travel options, catering to diverse needs. Alongside flights and accommodations, the inclusion of ground transportation services, such as car rentals, is crucial. This feature grants employees the convenience and flexibility to arrange their transportation as per their requirements.

To exemplify the benefits of a comprehensive corporate booking tool, consider exploring Blink Mobility’s car rental services for car rental using the corporate booking tool, businesses can easily incorporate this eco-friendly transportation option into their travel plans.

Integration with various payment gateways is essential for a corporate booking tool. This allows for smooth financial transactions, ensuring that payments are processed securely and efficiently.

A robust search and filtering system is vital for a corporate booking tool. This feature enables users to quickly locate desired flights, accommodations, or car rental options, saving time and effort.

The tool should possess comprehensive reporting capabilities. It should generate detailed reports on travel expenses, bookings, and other relevant data, enabling businesses to analyze their travel spending and make informed decisions.

Seamless integration with travel policy guidelines is crucial. By aligning with the company’s travel policies, the tool can enforce compliance and ensure that employees adhere to established guidelines.

A corporate booking tool should provide real-time availability and pricing information. This feature allows employees to make informed decisions based on up-to-date data and helps avoid booking conflicts or unavailable services.

In addition to boosting employees’ booking experience, leading corporate booking solutions make business travel products available at lower than market prices.

The right corporate booking tool will boost their work travel experiences by enabling employees to book their choice of flight, accommodation, and car rental. But you can ensure a great travel booking experience only by implementing a corporate booking solution that provides the right features.

But corporate booking tools differ from each other primarily in one aspect – features. You can ensure a great booking experience only by investing in a corporate booking tool that comes with these essential features.

10 Features You Must Look for in a Corporate Booking Tool

1. Type of Booking Tool

You have the option to choose from a wide range of corporate booking solutions and platforms. Some of these tools enable users to book flights, hotels, and cabs directly by accessing travel inventory. At the same time, many tools require users to book essential travel products through intermediaries like travel agencies, travel merchants, and website aggregators. Hence, you should decide on the right type of corporate booking software according to your organization’s needs and policies.

2. User Interface (UI)

Most users abandon web-based applications they cannot access and navigate seamlessly. You can make employees use the corporate booking software regularly when they interact with it seamlessly. You need to check the tool’s user experience based on its user interface (UI). You need to ensure that employees can access the online booking solution using computers and mobile devices. Also, you need to check if they can use the software complete business travel booking in minutes.

3. Customization Options

Your business cannot control costs when employees do not book business travel products according to organizational policies. You must clearly convey the travel and expense policies to employees traveling for work. At the same time, you need to ensure that the corporate booking solution shows and recommends only in-policy travel solutions. That is why; you need software that can be customized according to your organization’s needs and policies.

4. Seamless Integration

You can streamline business travel management by integrating the travel booking solution with existing enterprise solutions like expense management software, accounting software, or enterprise resource planning software. The integration will help you ensure policy compliance and speed up travel expense reimbursements. Hence, you should opt for cloud-based corporate booking solutions that can be integrated with existing systems using APIs.

5. Report Generation

You need the travel and expense data of employees to control costs and make strategic decisions. Some corporate booking tools help employees generate automated expense reports. Also, they share employees’ expense data in consolidated formats.

But you can leverage the data when the software supports expense report generation. The feature will help you get actionable insights by generating reports for specific employees, teams, departments, and destinations. Also, you should generate custom reports using the same booking tool.

6. Extensive Travel Inventory

You cannot boost the business travel experience of employees without providing them with options and choices. Your organization must allow employees to book their choice of flight or accommodation without violating preset travel and expense policies. That is why; you should prioritize business booking solutions that enable employees to access extensive domestic and international travel inventories.

7. Negotiated Rates

Your business cannot control business travel costs when employees book travel solutions at market rates. You should explore ways to control costs by getting corporate rates for flights, hotels, and cabs. Many corporate booking software providers allow users to book business travel products at discounted rates. Likewise, many providers create opportunities for employees to leverage great offers and best deals. Hence, you should check if the corporate booking tools help your business get the lowest rates.

8. Multiple Payment Options

Some companies provide employees with corporate credit cards, while others reimburse travel expenses incurred by employees after business trips. Likewise, many employees these days prefer digital wallets and virtual cards to conventional debit or credit cards. Hence, your business needs a corporate booking tool that allows employees to use their choice of payment option.

9. Data Security

While making a business travel booking, your employees will share personal and financial information. The sensitive employee information can be used by cyber criminals to execute identity thefts and financial fraud. Hence, you need to ensure that the information shared by employees remains 100% safe. It is always important to check what encryption technologies and security measures the travel booking tool uses to safeguard sensitive data.

10. Customer Support

First-time work travelers need both information and assistance to book the right corporate travel products. Likewise, work travelers need assistance to alter or cancel bookings. You can boost employees’ travel booking experience only by ensuring that they can get the required support on demand. Hence, you need to check if the corporate booking tool provider offers 24/7 customer support through multiple communication channels.

Conclusion

However, you should not ignore corporate travel management software while comparing corporate booking tools. In addition to providing corporate booking tools, the robust travel management solutions feature experience management solutions, virtual travel consultants, and duty-of-care solutions.

Hence, you can automate corporate travel management completely by implementing the right travel management software. The software will help you make business trips successful by keeping employees safe and stress-free during business trips. Also, it creates opportunities for your company to control travel costs by getting corporate rates, ensuring policy compliance, and preventing travel expense fraud.