Travel After Travel Managers

Posted on: December 12, 2023

Navigating the Resurgence of Travel After Parting Ways with Your Travel Manager: What’s Your Next Move?

In the wake of the unprecedented challenges brought on by the global pandemic, many companies were forced to make difficult decisions. One decision may have been to let go of their travel manager. Since then, the world is getting back to business as usual, and travel is regaining momentum. You might be faced with new questions and uncertainties. So, what do you do now?

1. Assess Your Current Needs

Your first step is to evaluate your current travel requirements. How often will your employees need to travel? What destinations are on the horizon? What types of trips are you planning? Are these trips essential or not? These questions will form the foundation of your next moves.

2. The Hybrid Approach

If hiring a full-time travel manager is not a viable immediate option, consider the benefits of a hybrid solution. Partnering with a Travel Management Company (TMC) like Campbell Travel who offers you access to experienced travel professionals as needed. They can provide expertise in managing your travel program without the overhead of a full-time hire.

3. Technology Solutions

Invest in travel management tools and platforms that streamline booking and expense management. Partnering with a TMC often includes access to state-of-the-art technology, making it simpler for your team to make travel arrangements efficiently.

4. Policy Updates

Review and update your travel policies to reflect the evolving landscape. Ensure your policies are clear, flexible, and tailored to the current needs and expectations of your travelers.

5. Training and Support

If your team is now responsible for booking their own travel, provide training and resources to ensure they can do so efficiently and within the company’s guidelines. TMC’s like Campbell Travel offer comprehensive training and support for your employees, ensuring that they can confidently book travel in line with your organization’s guidelines.

6.Continuous Monitoring and Adaptation

Regularly monitor your travel expenses and the effectiveness of your new travel management strategy. A TMC can provide valuable insights and recommendations for cost savings and optimization.

Letting go of your travel manager may have been a necessary decision during challenging times, but it doesn’t mean you’re left to navigate the travel landscape alone. Partnering with a TMC offers you a powerful solution that combines your organization’s needs with their extensive expertise. As your business grows and travel becomes more integral to your operations, you can lean on the insights, knowledge, and support of a TMC to navigate the complexities of the ever-evolving travel requirements.

5 ways to improve travel program adoption

Posted on: November 8, 2023

Change management is difficult, especially when you are introducing a program accompanied with new technology. Implementation and education are just the beginning, afterwards, when everyone is left their own devices, will they adhere to the new rules?

What about when new travelers come on board, will they be ready to book and manage their own travel when the time comes?

You have invested a lot of time and money into making a change for the better, but to make a program great you need traveler buy-in. Here are some tips to help make your program a success and drive user adoption.

1. Make it easy to understand and accessible

Travelers are much more inclined to adhere to policy if they know exactly what it is they can and cannot do. Often, employees are given a handbook at the beginning of their employment and the travel policy is hidden somewhere in there, but where? Often by the time they begin traveling they usually can’t find it or don’t look for it.

Consider a dedicated link on your company portal or app. If you have an online booking tool, many have customizable links to policy where you can add yours along with incorporating it directly into the online booking tool.

2. Effective communication

As aforementioned, employees may have been informed about travel procedures and policy at the beginning of their employment, but by the time they need to travel they have completely forgotten.

Keep travelers engaged with the program by sharing information that’s fun and upbeat! Some ideas to of monthly mailers to keep travelers interested:

• Online booking tools are always adding updates, sharing what’s new with staff to keep them up to speed.
• There are many helpful tools & apps travelers may not know about like Tripcase or Flightview. What’s your go-to travel app? Sharing these with the team is a great way to bring up your travel program.
• Share a list of travel accessories! Recently we shared a list of must-have accessories in our newsletter. It’s a great way to engage travelers with relevant info to bring up your program or policy. You could even offer an item as an incentive.
• Bring travelers in, let them know why the policy is the way it is and how much the company is saving by booking in advance or utilizing your preferred vendors.

Give updates via company newsletters, monthly communications, or on company calls.

3. Incentives & Rewards

Traveling can be a lot. The irregular schedules, being away from family, and the inevitable stress that comes along with dealing with airports. Let your employees know that you appreciate what they do and show them their sacrifice is appreciated with a reward or incentive.

We at Campbell Travel have an in-house leisure division and it’s a great option to utilize for travel gift cards. You could also look at bliesure incentives, allowing travelers to enjoy their time in new cities. Just be careful with the gray areas in policy when it comes to these types of incentives.

Alternatively, you could put travelers with good behavior in a points raffle. Prime Numbers, a partner of Campbell Travel, has a great scorecard feature to rank your travelers and award points based on advance bookings, lowest fare acceptance, least number of voids & exchanges and more. Awarding travelers’ points would help keep them engaged and understand how policy drives real savings.

4. Ease of booking

This is a big one. If travelers don’t like your booking tools, they probably aren’t going to use them. It’s more important than ever to give travelers tools that are up-to-date and user friendly.

If you want to drive adoption, find a booking tool that’s right for your travelers. If you are looking for something that is brand new that will excite your travelers you may want to consider something like Cytric Easy, a brand new booking experience integrated directly into Microsoft Teams. Travelers can easily book, share and manage their trips all in a dashboard on MS Teams.

If your travelers are phone heavy users, Deem has a great phone app with a 4.7 rating in the app store. It’s intuitive to use and has a great UI giving travelers a one stop shop for air, hotel, car and even rideshare.

5. Preferred suppliers

Establish and promote relationships with your preferred suppliers. Review your current relationships and interview your travelers to understand what value they find in your current preferred suppliers, maybe it’s time to switch it up or inform them of perks they didn’t know they had!

Survey your team and ask them where they see added value. Is it the service, the discounts, are there added perks like breakfast or drink tickets? Find suppliers that align with your travelers perceived value.

TMC’s can also help you manage these relationships and make sure you are getting all the perks your company deserves. They can help you renegotiate agreements, add to your program, and enhance your program by flagging preferred vendors in your OBT and adding program numbers on the back end to make sure you are accruing points.

And don’t forget about a traveler’s OWN points. If you are going to switch up your preferred vendors, make sure your travelers’ personal program won’t suffer. Look into status matching programs like United or Hilton Honors or reach out to the hotel or airline directly to see if you can offer travelers anything up front for making a switch.

Ultimately, adoption of your program depends on your travelers. Get to know them and what they like and dislike about your program. Send out regular surveys and adapt based on what you’ve learned.

Red, White and Blues… an American road trip!

Posted on: August 11, 2023

As someone who travels extensively for work, the simplicity of a good, old-fashioned road trip is always an adventure.  As Matthew McConaughey said, “Road trips are so good for us – the head, the heart and the spirit.”

We started our trip in Des Moines, Iowa and made the decision to veer off I-80 in favor of country highways through the beautiful fields and small towns.  Our first stop… Eldon, Iowa, home of the famous painting American Gothic.  It was so much smaller than I had expected but was classic and fun to see one of the most famous images from Iowa.

From there we headed south through Missouri and stopped for a quick bite in St. Louis.  Always an amazing site to see the St. Louis Arch – our gateway to the west from long ago.  Once we arrived in Memphis, we checked into our hotel, dropped our bags, and headed to Beale Street! It never disappoints!  Live music is everywhere. We absolutely loved Rum Boogie Café’s Blues Hall, an old-fashioned Juke Joint!  The music was phenomenal, and the atmosphere was everything you hoped you to see on Beale Street.

After hitting Beale Street, we began our first full day in Memphis at the famous Arcade Restaurant, established in 1919.  I had the Elvis sandwich and sat in ‘his’ booth!  The food did not disappoint!  It is across from the old rail Center Station, now a Curio by Hilton property.   After filling our stomachs with comfort food we made our way to Graceland.  I absolutely loved everything about it.  They have done an amazing job of creating a true destination for anyone who loves Elvis, young and old. I had once gone in the early 90’s and boy have things changed!  Now there is a luxury hotel adjacent to the property, The Guest House at Graceland.

The plaza that was built 7 years ago walks you through all the various phases of Elvis’ life: his awards, jumpsuits, historic artifacts, and an exhibit of other artists’ contributions and tributes about how Elvis influenced their lives. The newest exhibit shows a complete movie display with costumes, scripts, etc. I believe the hype around the movie Elvis renewed interest in a life that started with so very little and ended way too soon to enjoy the impact he had.  It was wonderful to see young people there carrying on his legacy.

Day 3- I love finding a good breakfast!  We succeeded with a great little place called The Liquor Store.  Small, beachy vibe with a great menu located in… you guessed it… an old liquor store. Afterwards we visited the epic Bass Pro Shops Pyramid.  It is a site! If you make the trip you can even stay in the hotel located in the pyramid!

We spent the afternoon listening to live music on the patio at Silky O’Sullivan’s, followed by drinks at BB King’s Blues Club.  The evening wrapped up with dinner in the upstairs portion of BB King’s at a place called  Itta Bena’s (named after his hometown). It is a speakeasy vibe that transports you back in time with live jazz music. I highly recommend it!

As our long weekend was coming to an end, we found another little breakfast place across from the Peabody.  Our host at Automatic Slim’s made sure to recommend a famous dive bar,  Earnestine & Hazel’s.  A former brothel owned by two sisters, said to be haunted and that serves up great burgers and live music. We finished up and made sure to be done in time to take in all the pomp and circumstance of the duck march.  It happens every day at 11AM and is a delight, especially for the little ones.  They go above and beyond to make them feel welcome and ensure they have an up-to-close view!  For the grownups – grab a seat at the bar and order one of their specialty drinks complete with a little rubber ducky! We finished our day doing a Mojo Music tour around the city.  It offered up a tour of Sun Records, while visiting historic sites as well such as the Lorraine Hotel and Elvis’ teenage home at the Lauderdale Courts.  For those that really want an Elvis to experience their former home is now Airbnb.

The people we encountered everywhere we went in Memphis were friendly, gracious, and more than willing to offer up tidbits and tips to make our trip better.  The BBQ was great no matter where you were some spots are Corky’s, Rendezvous and Central BBQ.  All the locals have an opinion on which they like best.  You will have to decide what your favorite is!

For me, I think one of the things that really hit home was the history.  Whether it be civil rights, music, or the significance of the Mississippi River, we loved our stay and can’t wait to head back to Memphis!

Campbell Travel Attends IHG Ignite

Posted on: August 11, 2023

The travel industry continues to evolve and change. As we go forward it’s critical that we stay connected to our partners and be at the forefront of change. Teri Goins, our President, was in attendance at IHG Ignite in Mexico City and the Amadeus NDC Forum in Dallas recently.

IHG updated us on all the exciting changes being made with their 18 brands. They showcased their expansion of the luxury brands and the renovations happening in their legacy brands such as Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express. We met with representatives across all the brands, had an exciting sessions with Michelle Poler discussing her 100 day journey to say “Hello Fears”. If you aren’t familiar with the book/movement, check it out! We stayed at the amazing Intercontinental Presidente Mexico City. The city was beautiful, the architecture, food, service and people made it a wonderful stay!

Amadeus, a leader in travel technology, did a great job creating a forum for peers to discuss the NDC (New Distribution Channel) capabilities, challenges and opportunities. We continue to move forward as an agency to work with partners that innovate, create and embrace new technologies, ideas and services. We held the event at the Kimpton Pittman Hotel. The hotel is a great boutique property that emulates Texas warmth in the Deep Ellum area of Dallas.

We look forward to updating you more through the journey with our suppliers. If you have any questions, or would like to discuss in more detail, please reach out to accountmanagement​@campbelltravel.com.