6 Steps To Earn Corporate Travel Discounts And Lower Costs

Travel discounts are one of the biggest advantages of owning your own business. These types of discounts can save your business a ton of money in air travel, hotel stays, car rentals and more. Unfortunately, finding travel deals and discounts is not quite as easy for small business owners as it is for large corporations who have a business advisor dedicated solely to that cause. If you are a small business owner who does a lot of traveling, you know this fact all too well. Learn below how to find travel discounts for small businesses to save that precious capital.

Reach Out

Reach out to the hotel director of sales and marketing who can offer great customer service. These management professionals are the ones best suited to give out business travel discounts for hotel stays. Hotel discounts are traditionally negotiated based on the amount of business your promise to send their way in a given year. Relay your expected hotel travel needs to this individual. Make sure to choose the hotel with the most convenient locations available for your business travel plans. When you reach out to the hotel sales and marketing directors directly, you can score hotel discounts for business travel easily for your small business.

Sign Up For A Credit Card

Sign up for a business owner’s credit card. Business travel credit cards offer one of the easiest ways to score travel discounts for small business travelers. These travel rewards credit cards can be used to purchase day-to-day operational supplies for business or to offer financial business help when needed. That way, you can easily and quickly rack up business travel rewards. Those credit card rewards will often provide discounts on hotels, apartments for rent, airline tickets, car rentals and much more. Consider opening a business credit card with travel rewards to score discounted travel amenities for small business.

Negotiate The Rates

Of course, you should additionally negotiate the rates when seeking corporate travel discounts. Even small businesses can successfully negotiate with major hotel chains, airlines, and rental car providers. In many cases, these businesses will impose minimum requirements. For example, you may be required to rent a car for at least one-hundred days a year. Certainly, this is a major thing to know before renting a car. In other situations, you may be required to spend at least $5,000 at hotels every year. Whatever rates are imposed, be sure to negotiate a little bit. Also, you should be consistent throughout the barter process.

Avoid Discount Travel Websites

Avoid discount travel websites when booking travel for small business. These cheap business travel websites will not provide you the lowest possible price as a business owner. They are tailored to consumer travelers. Most often, you can get much better business travel discounts and savings by calling airlines and hotels directly. That is why you really want to avoid travel discounts websites if you own a small business. When you travel, you will save much more money using corporate hotel rates and airline prices.

Consider An Upgrade

Consider making upgrades on your business air travel. For some business trips, upgrading airline tickets will actually save your business money. That can greatly improve the success of your enterprise resource planning. Business upgrades can often be bought with a corporate discount, whereas economy flights may not provide those same types of business travel discounts. In the end, that will wind up costing you more money for less legroom. If you want to travel in style and same business money, consider upgrading to receive exclusive corporate travel discounts and perks.

Patronize Small Business

Patronize small travel businesses like your own. These small travel businesses will be much more likely to offer travel discounts for small businesses. After all, they are small operations themselves and need to benchmark their hospitality service. Small travel industry businesses, like boutique hotels and privately-owned car rental companies, afford you the opportunity to speak face-to-face with decision makers for the business. That increases your odds of scoring small business travel discounts. If you want to save money on business travel, shop small whenever possible.

Travel With Rewards Partners

When you are trying to get corporate travel discounts, stretch every reward point as far as you can. From flight miles to rental cars, corporate rewards programs add up for loyalty. While it might cost an extra $20-$50 to stay with a specific brand, it could pay off in the long run with rewards points and discounts. When combined with credit card rewards, you could find yourself taking “free” trips that are paid with reward points entirely.

If you are a small business owner, it is probably harder for you to get access to business travel discounts than it is for larger corporations to do the same. That is why you need to learn the tactics tailored specifically for small business owners to score deals on business travel. Corporate travel discounts are available for small business travel. You just have to find them. Use the corporate credit card to earn points. Upgrade when you can. Look out for smaller hotels. Then, stay loyal to a major brand or chain to lower your costs with rewards. Make sure to use the business travel tips above to score travel discounts and savings for your small business.

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