How can better business travel management become a competitive advantage for your company?

Take travel administration off the desks of your key people.
Introduce a clear process, reduce hidden costs and allow your team to refocus on their core work.

Every business trip has a visible and an invisible side. The visible side consists of completed meetings, signed contracts and successfully delivered projects on site. The invisible side is the operational burden that occurs before an employee even starts the journey.

In a business environment where team focus directly affects results, the way you manage this logistics becomes an important factor. When travel organisation is left to ad-hoc arrangements, companies lose valuable time dealing with operational administration. By establishing a clear and predictable system, this burden is removed from the office, allowing key people to remain focused on their core responsibilities.

1. Why does business travel organisation often become an invisible problem within a company?

Logistical challenges rarely appear overnight. They gradually become part of a company’s operations as the number of employees and projects grows, eventually turning into a daily burden for the office.

When a company has only a few employees, arranging a trip to a business meeting abroad can take five minutes. Everything is handled internally, through a single email or a quick message. However, when an organisation grows to 20, 50 or more people, ad-hoc arrangements become a serious operational obstacle.

On the surface, everything may appear to be working. Employees reach their destinations, meetings take place and invoices are eventually paid. But a closer look at the everyday reality of the office reveals who is actually handling the operational tasks:

Key engineers and consultants spend working hours searching for flights and accommodation instead of working on client projects.
Sales managers interrupt preparation for an important meeting to deal with unexpected issues and changes related to the trip itself.
Office managers and administrative teams spend a significant part of their day dealing with cancellations, schedule changes and collecting documentation.

Business travel organisation without a clearly defined system creates a cost that you will not see as a separate line item in the balance sheet. That cost is paid through reduced efficiency and the loss of focus among employees who should be concentrating on the work they are qualified to do.

However, the intensity of this problem is not the same for every company. It depends entirely on the stage of growth your company is in and the volume of business travel you currently handle.

2. How many business trips does your company actually organise each year?

The number of business trips often provides a clear indication of whether your current way of organising travel is still sustainable. What works without difficulty when a company organises only a few trips per year can become a significant administrative burden as the number increases.

However, the numbers themselves are not the only criterion. The more important question is what happens inside your office when business travel becomes a recurring process.

If you have only a few business trips per year, there is a good chance that most of the logistics are handled on an ad-hoc basis. Employees coordinate among themselves, someone from administration takes care of the necessary bookings along the way, and accounting processes the documentation afterwards.

As the volume grows, different symptoms begin to appear:

1–10 business trips per year

"You still feel that everything is under control."

At this volume, the problem is rarely noticeable because there are only a small number of cases. However, employees are already quietly spending part of their time searching for options, coordinating flights and dealing with individual requests.

10–30 business trips per year

"The first operational problems begin to appear."

Business travel starts generating a noticeable amount of administration. Schedule changes, cancellations, additional documentation and a growing number of expenses that need to be monitored begin to appear. Administration and accounting become increasingly involved in the process, even though business travel is not their primary responsibility.

30–100 business trips per year

"Administration gradually becomes a job in itself."

Business travel is no longer an occasional task. A clear need emerges to define who approves trips, which budgets apply and how expenses are monitored. Without agreed rules, different employees start organising similar trips in completely different ways.

100+ business trips per year

"Without a standardised process, the system is no longer sustainable."

At this volume, it becomes difficult to maintain efficiency if every trip is handled separately. The need for a clear system is greatest here because more people are involved in organising, approving and administering travel, while mistakes and unnecessary steps become increasingly costly.

These figures are not strict thresholds after which a company must change the way it operates. What matters more is recognising the actual symptoms within your organisation: employees are spending increasing amounts of time organising travel, administration is constantly dealing with travel-related matters, accounting is manually processing a large number of individual invoices, and no one has a complete overview of how many resources the entire process actually requires.

You cannot simply apply the same organisational approach that worked for five trips to fifty. As volume grows, so does the cost of every unnecessary step in the process.

And when those steps add up over the course of an entire business year, we arrive at the key question: how much time and money is your company actually spending on business travel administration?

3. How much time and money is actually being spent on business travel administration?

When discussing business travel costs, companies most often look at the amounts that are easy to identify on transport and accommodation invoices. However, there is another type of cost that is much harder to see: the time employees spend organising travel and handling the related administration.

That time is not free simply because it does not appear as a separate item on supplier invoices.

If an employee whose primary role is sales, project management, engineering or team management spends several hours organising a business trip, the company is effectively paying for that time through the employee’s regular employment cost. At the same time, during those hours they are not doing the work they were hired to do.

When the process is broken down by department, it becomes clear that the problem quietly affects the entire organisation:

Project managers and engineers: coordinate travel dates with on-site schedules and check logistical details instead of solving technical challenges.
Sales managers and commercial teams: spend time coordinating and changing itineraries instead of preparing for meetings and communicating with clients.
Office managers and administrative teams: handle a large number of individual requests, schedule changes and communications with hotels.
Accounting: subsequently collects, reconciles and manually processes a large number of individual invoices and card statements.

The problem arises when each of these tasks is considered in isolation. One email takes a few minutes. One schedule change takes ten minutes or so. On their own, these steps do not appear to represent a significant cost. But when the same process is repeated dozens of times throughout the year and involves multiple people, the total time invested becomes a significant resource.

That is why it is more useful to look at the total cost of the process rather than only the price of the flight or accommodation.

If we use an internal labour cost of €50 per hour for illustration, an employee who spends four hours on the administration of a single business trip represents €200 in internal cost. This is an expense incurred before even considering the value of the work that person could have generated for the company during those four hours.

As the volume of business travel increases, this problem multiplies progressively. More people become involved in the process, which means more communication, more changes and more administrative steps. However, the direct financial loss resulting from those working hours is actually only the visible part of the problem.

A much more important question for the business is: what happens to productivity when your key people have to interrupt their core work to deal with travel logistics?

4. The biggest cost of business travel is not the price of the flight, but the loss of focus

Employee time is not only spent on organising the trip itself. The problem also arises every time an employee has to interrupt their primary work to deal with an operational detail related to travel.

For an engineer working on a project, a manager preparing a strategy, or a sales professional preparing for an important meeting, such an interruption is more than just a few minutes on the phone. Once the issue has been resolved, they need to regain focus and return to the task that was interrupted.

Without a clearly defined process, these interruptions can occur at different stages of the journey:

Before the trip: Instead of preparing for a meeting or working on a project, the employee checks different options, coordinates schedules and handles organisational details.
During the trip: A delay, schedule change or other unexpected issue requires additional communication and coordination, meaning the employee often has to take on the role of the person handling the travel logistics on the ground.
After the trip: Documentation needs to be collected, expenses reconciled and any remaining administrative obligations related to the trip resolved.

Each of these tasks may seem insignificant on its own. The problem arises when they are repeated across dozens of trips and involve people whose time is needed for other business activities.

The biggest cost is therefore not necessarily the amount paid for transportation or accommodation. The cost arises when a skilled professional has to interrupt work that creates value for the company in order to deal with an operational task that is not part of their primary role.

For this reason, some companies try to address the problem by introducing new booking tools and travel management applications. Technology can simplify individual steps, but it does not answer the more important question: who is responsible for the entire process, and according to which rules is it managed?

5. Why the problem is not booking, but the lack of a process

Today’s self-booking tools and travel applications are designed to be fast and easy to use. This can sometimes lead companies to believe that the business travel process is solved simply by giving employees access to such platforms. However, the ability to make a reservation does not solve the organisational side of the process.

The problem is rarely whether booking a trip is difficult. The real challenge lies in everything that happens before and after the booking itself, who makes the decisions, according to which rules, who approves the expense and who takes responsibility when circumstances change.

When a company does not have a clearly defined business travel management process, every new trip is organised from scratch and largely depends on the individual judgment of the employee. In day-to-day operations, this creates several concrete problems:

No clear rules (Travel Policy): Without predefined guidelines, employees have to determine for themselves which expenses are acceptable, which options comply with company policy and when additional approval is required. The result is different decisions and different costs for similar trips.
Approvals depend on individuals: When there is no clearly defined approval process, every request requires additional communication between employees, managers and administration. The more trips there are, the more unnecessary steps this approach creates.
Unexpected situations put the problem back on the employee: When a schedule changes, a trip is cancelled or another unexpected issue occurs, the traveller often has to find a solution themselves or involve administration and other colleagues.

Technology and travel applications can be useful tools for individual parts of the process. However, these platforms do not, by themselves, define internal rules, responsibilities or how business travel should be organised.

Business travel management is therefore not simply a question of where and how to book a trip. It is a business process that needs clear rules, responsibilities and a defined way of operating.

If you would like to take a closer look at what organising business travel looks like when that process is handled by an external partner, you can find more information on our Business Travel management page.

Once the process has been defined, the next question is who can manage it, monitor it and adapt it to the company’s changing needs over the long term.

6. Why do companies choose a long-term partner for business travel management?

Once a company decides to introduce a clear process, it faces the question of how to maintain that process operationally. One option is to handle every trip separately, sending inquiries to different agencies or leaving employees to search for options themselves. The other is to choose one long-term partner.

An ad hoc approach can work when the number of trips is small. However, as travel volume and business complexity increase, it becomes increasingly important to have a partner who understands how the company operates and can manage the process consistently.

Working with one long-term partner creates value through continuity and a deeper understanding of your company:

Understanding internal processes: A long-term partner understands your company’s structure, knows who within the organisation is authorised to submit requests, who approves them and how those internal processes work in practice.
Implementing travel policies: Instead of having your managers spend time checking whether each employee is staying within the agreed budget, the partner can prepare options that comply with your internal rules.
Understanding traveller preferences: When trips are repeated on the same routes or within the same team, the partner becomes familiar with your employees’ specific requirements, from preferred routes and airlines to specific accommodation needs.
Predictability for accounting: A long-term partnership makes it possible to establish a standardised approach to documentation and expense reconciliation that fits the way your accounting department works.

The purpose of this model is not simply to purchase a flight or book accommodation. The goal is to have an extension of your own office – someone who understands how your company operates and what its operational priorities are.

If you are interested in how this approach can be further adapted to the specific needs of your company and individual trips, you can learn more on our Personalised Business Travel page.

This principle of deeply understanding our clients’ needs is at the core of how we build partnerships at Away. We do not operate simply as a service you contact whenever you need a flight. Our goal is to take responsibility for the agreed part of your travel logistics and ensure that your rules and processes are followed consistently, allowing your team to focus on its primary work.

And what does this type of partnership look like in everyday practice?

7. How does the cooperation work in everyday practice?

For this model to work effectively, cooperation needs to be simple and predictable for your team. The goal is not to add another step to the travel organisation process, but to remove part of the operational workload from your office.

In day-to-day operations, the process can be reduced to three clear steps:

1. Sending a request

Your employee or the person responsible for organising business travel sends the basic travel information: destination, dates, approximate times and any specific requirements. There is no need for the employee to search multiple platforms independently or compare a large number of options.

2. Preparing and selecting travel options

Based on the information received and the previously agreed rules and preferences, Away prepares suitable options. Your team receives a clear overview of solutions that match the specific trip, and once an option is selected, we can proceed with the arrangements without repeating the entire process.

3. Travel arrangements and documentation

Once the option is confirmed, Away handles the agreed booking and organisational activities, including ticket issuance and confirmation of accommodation and transfers. Supporting documentation and invoices are delivered according to the process previously agreed with your company and adapted to your internal requirements.

The value of this model is not that employees will never have to communicate about travel again. The value lies in the fact that they no longer have to manage the entire operational process themselves, from searching for and comparing options to communicating with different service providers and dealing with changes.

Instead of every employee organising their own trip from scratch, there is a defined process and a partner who already understands how your company operates.

Once this way of working is established, the question is no longer simply how much time you can save on an individual trip, but what this change means for the day-to-day functioning of your company in the long term.

8. What does your company gain by entrusting the operational organisation of business travel to a dedicated partner?

Establishing a clear process and having a dedicated partner take over the operational organisation of business travel does not simply mean less administration. The greatest value lies in ensuring that the time and responsibility associated with business travel are no longer scattered across different people and departments.

When the process is clearly defined, your company gains several tangible benefits:

More time for core business: Engineers, project managers and sales professionals spend less time organising business travel and can focus on the responsibilities that make them essential to the business.
Fewer work interruptions: Travel-related operational details do not have to be handled from scratch across different departments every time, reducing unnecessary interruptions throughout the working day.
Clearer responsibilities: With a defined process and a known point of contact, employees know who to turn to, while internal responsibility for approvals and travel policies remains clearly established.
Simpler administration: Documentation and communication are organised according to a predefined workflow, making it easier for accounting and administration teams to track and process travel-related costs.

The value of this model for your employees lies in the fact that they no longer have to manage the entire process themselves, from searching for options and coordinating schedules to handling changes, confirmations and related administration.
This is precisely why a long-term partnership becomes valuable as the number of business trips and the complexity of the business increase. The process can adapt to the company’s actual needs, while the operational workload does not repeatedly return to the same desk within the office.

Let's talk about your process

Every company has a different organisational structure, approval process and traveller requirements. That is why there is no single model that works equally well for everyone.

If you would like to see whether your company’s business travel process can be simplified, let’s talk about how you organise travel today, where the greatest administrative burden occurs and what cooperation with an external partner could look like in practice.

No complicated procedures and no need to change the way you work in advance. The first step is simply a conversation.