A new survey shows 55 per cent of assistants and team members who book travel for their bosses have made mistakes that have inconvenienced or financially impacted the business, highlighting why booking with an agent is always a good idea.
Corporate Traveller gleaned insights from 255 small-to-medium (SME) business owners and decision-makers and found some common missteps made by in-house staff when arranging travel.
Rookie mistakes included missing out on travel deals (40%), incorrect travellers’ details on bookings (27%) and choosing the wrong time to book (24%).
These missteps could have a drastic effect on budgets as well as business reputation, said Corporate Traveller NSW/ACT Head of Customer Success Saskia Boxem.
“Not only are there financial implications to rectify the mistakes but an organisation’s corporate reputation could suffer damage if a traveller arrives late to a meeting because of a simple booking mistake,” she said.
Travel mistakes that bug bosses
The top error from in-house travel bookers was missing out on travel deals due to last-minute bookings.
Incorrectly inputting traveller’s details, misaligned flights that leave people stranded or inconvenient departures or hotel locations are also high on the list of slip-ups.
Surprisingly, 20 per cent of booking mistakes involved the wrong destination or date and 15 per cent had incorrect names or numbers of people – a costly error if tickets cannot be changed or refunded.
“Booking business travel can be a complicated process, especially when arranging travel for large groups or booking last minute,” Ms Boxem added.
“As assistants do their best to juggle travel bookings alongside their other, often higher-priority, tasks they can sometimes be more prone to making mistakes.
“To help alleviate the pressure, team assistants should consider using travel booking platforms and travel management companies.”
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