Benefits of online booking travel technology

Are you looking to improve the efficiency of your company’s travel policy? Perhaps you’re seeking a way to reduce your corporate travel spending?

A centralised travel booking process provides significant advantages for businesses to improve their productivity and drive greater cost savings. The modern-day business traveller may carry multiple devices; therefore, it is increasingly important for companies to invest in travel technology that meets the needs of their business and travelling workforce. Whether you’re a travel booker, approver, traveller, or all three, online booking travel technology can provide the answer to your travel management needs.

Online booking travel solutions save time and money

OBTs are designed to save you time and support your company’s travel policy and programme to drive better booking behaviour, maximising your travel budget. With features such as visual pop-ups to alert bookers to more cost-effective options and the ability to capture ‘reason codes’ when booking out-of-policy, OBTs can help guide bookers to make smarter travel choices.

By ensuring all travellers and travel bookers book through a preferred OBT, you can ensure you are capturing all travel data, which helps support the strategic direction of your travel programme.

CTM’s proprietary OBT, Lightning, provides an end-to-end booking system, allowing users to book air, hotel and car hire all in one place underpinned by their travel policy, eliminating the need for multiple web pages and long phone calls.

Increase employee efficiency

An OBT provides efficiency through automation and compliance, allowing office professionals to focus on their day jobs and travellers the autonomy to book their travel no matter what time of day or where in the world they might be.

Leading travel management companies, such as CTM, provide training to ensure everyone understands the OBT features, so companies can be sure they are getting the most value from their travel management solution.

Inbuilt approval features ensure no time and money is wasted on unapproved travel. This can be set up to allow different levels of authority for different users (travellers, travel managers, travel arrangers). Intuitive technology means all user information is stored within the OBT, leaving less room for error when it comes to entering frequent flyer numbers or spelling a traveller’s name correctly.

Lightning stores the required personal information for each traveller, such as unused ticket credits, frequent flyer information and preferred suppliers. Different filtering options allow for customized content display options. Whether you prefer your content displayed in lists or maps, you can personalize your display to what best suits your company.

Ensure duty of care

Pre-trip approval features allow companies to designate different levels of approval and functionality to users. Responsibility is then delegated appropriately, and decision-makers are accountable for their travellers. Traveller tracking and risk alerts allow companies to easily locate and contact their people promptly to warn them of any potential threats. Lightning is highly configurable and can help support mandates to in-policy buying, such as airlines and hotels that meet your duty-of-care commitments.

Book on-the-go

You no longer need to worry about spur-of-the-moment requests for travel. With the development of apps like CTM Mobile, you can now take the functionality of your OBT on the go, with the full OBT experience replicated on your mobile device. The ability to complete end-to-end bookings on your mobile means you can immediately book a flight, hotel or car, no matter where you are: a taxi, rail, or connected with in-flight Wi-Fi. Travel arrangers can book after hours with ease, saving time and costs, while in-app notifications keep travellers informed every step of the way.