Self-booking travellers: is everyone happy?
Traveller involvement
Travellers know exactly what they want. If the trip is booked by a secretary, there are often different options which first need to be presented before a final booking can be made. When the traveller is involved in the booking process more, this means that lines of communication can become shorter. Travellers can request quotations and book trips themselves. This results in the possibility of better traveller profiles, because travellers can manage their own profiles and the travel offering can better match the wishes of both the individual traveller and the company.
An adjustment for the secretary
The secretary no longer needs to present all the information but can oversee the bookings and choices made by the traveller. There are technical developments which make this possible, thereby creating a more efficient working procedure. The secretary is no longer a link in the booking process but instead watches over the interests of the company. Secretaries are taking on an important role because they have an overall view from which to monitor processes, analyse management information and – possibly together with the Travel Management Company – propose savings.
Innovation within the booking process
Most large companies have drawn up policies to be followed when booking a trip. This avoids repeated consultations between booker and traveller, but it also means that travellers know where they stand when they book their own trips. An innovative development is that these days, offline bookings made by the Travel Managemefffnt Company can be integrated and displayed together with online bookings made by the company itself. This not only provides a further check that the policy is being followed, it also creates a clearer picture for the company because everything remains within one system.
Smart use of online monitoring within AVA
In summary, in the future travellers will organize their own trips and secretaries will take on a new, coordinating role within the booking process. This change in the division of roles can yield benefits for a company: shorter lines of communication, greater involvement, improved efficiency and even cost savings. Will that make everyone in an organization happy? That will obviously be different for everyone. Technology can help to make changes easier. Our company developed the travel management tool AVA a number of years ago. Because technology has evolved, we are now able to offer you new functions to optimize the booking process. These increase your control over your company's bookings because everything is easy to see at a glance within the AVA environment.
If you are interested in how you can optimize your booking process, please contact us.
