5 must-have features of a travel program

Putting together a travel program that benefits your business and your people can be challenging for companies of all sizes—and it’s even harder for small and medium-sized businesses with limited teams and resources.

But company size shouldn’t get in the way of having a great travel program. You’re never too small to tap into travel’s many advantages, from deepening business relationships and driving sales to empowering employees and expanding your reach.

So, what are the key ingredients of a transparent, efficient, and nurturing travel program? Let’s take a look.

1. Clearly written protocols

A strong travel program starts with strong communication. At best, vague protocols confuse your people. At worst, they create costly slip-ups and keep employees from pursuing travel opportunities.

Every travel policy needs clearly written guidelines on approved accommodations, transportation options, and other details, including:

• Booking processes
• Travel-class decisions
• Per-diem spend
• Accommodation limits
• Traveler safety measures
• Expense reporting and reimbursement
• Approved platforms

The program must also clearly define each participant’s roles and responsibilities, including a designated owner who can justify each decision and communicate parameters to employees. Explaining the reasons behind policies fosters trust and encourages adoption, empowering employees to travel with confidence, clarity, and support.

2. Methodical budgeting and expensing

Precise accounting is the fuel behind your travel program, essential for hitting your financial goals and building a program that lasts. Though setting the [optimal travel budget](https://www.uber.com/ca/en/business/articles/corporate-travel-budget/) may seem overwhelming, it doesn’t have to be. Developing a viable budget comes down to the following steps:

• Analyze past travel data for trends and savings
• List your program’s objectives, such as forming hotel partnerships
• Group expected expenses into categories like transportation, meals, and accommodations
• Assign a budget for each category
• Establish an appropriate approvals process
• Monitor and tweak the program based on new information
  
  

Now that you have a budget, how do you stick to it? Technology is a big help. Travel management platforms like Uber for Business can automate tedious tasks like expense tracking, helping you save time, eliminating the need for paper receipts, and allowing for visibility into ground-travel spend.

For travelers, features like Uber’s business profiles separate business and personal expenses, helping ensure that, whether they’re the traveling employee or a member of the Finance team, no one has to find and upload receipts or deal with reimbursements on personal cards. For travel managers, the Uber for Business platform simplifies accounting and reduces friction by integrating with leading expense integrations like SAP Concur, Coupa, and Navan to automate receipt forwarding.

3. Data on a centralized dashboard

When key travel information—like ground-transportation and meal-delivery data—is scattered across different platforms, it’s nearly impossible to keep tabs on it all, especially if you’re the only one on the job. The result? Safety suffers, spend runs rampant, and suppliers fall under the radar.

A centralized platform puts important travel data in one convenient place, helping leaders justify the value of travel, protect travelers, and flag out-of-policy expenses. The Uber for Business dashboard, for example, provides a unified view of trips and meals, carbon emissions, and expenses. Travel managers can use the dashboard to identify travel patterns, set rules and limits, benchmark metrics against industry standards, and analyze supplier performance.

4. Support for employee well-being

Business travel is a disruptive experience, and employees feel every jolt and time change. That’s why your travel program must include policies and perks that turn work trips into more than an obligation.

A good travel program helps travelers expand your business and their personal horizons. Through customization, rewards, and leisure, the following features do just that:

• Food and transportation options. Each traveler has unique needs, from diets to accessibility. Your travel program can accommodate these differences through various delivery and rideshare options. This all goes towards helping your organization fulfill its duty of care—while looking out for your team’s mental and physical health.

  
  

• Travel incentives. Making it easy for employees to travel as a group is one way to increase morale. Another way is to offer travel incentives—helping them connect to airline or hotel loyalty programs, for example, or offering them gift cards or extra vacation days.

  
  

• Bleisure opportunities. Bleisure—moments of recreation during business trips—is an increasingly popular element of travel programs. By giving employees time to recharge, explore a new destination, or visit friends and family, you can reduce burnout and decrease travel costs.

5. Regular reviews and updates

The final piece of the puzzle? Adaptability. Even the best travel programs must continually accommodate new priorities, employee needs, customer trends, geopolitical tensions, and partnerships. Annual reviews confirm that each policy is still relevant, cost-efficient, and safe.

Stay on the lookout for insights that can help you update your travel programs. Surveying employees who participated in the program is one way to surface helpful feedback. Likewise, data in your travel management platform can uncover what’s creating traveler headaches or forcing managers to do extra work. By building a culture of continuous feedback and implementing change as needed, you can make each trip more fulfilling than the last.