Is your company still using outdated methods such as spreadsheets, email threads, and Slack conversations to manage crucial business travel arrangements?
Utilizing a wide array of technologies that aren’t designed for the management of modern, frequently complicated business trips is not only time-consuming and labor-intensive, but it also exposes you to the risk of making many costly mistakes. In addition, if you do not have a centralized travel management solution, you have no idea whether or not your travel budget is being spent effectively, nor do you know how and where you could save money.
Thankfully, there are a number of travel management companies in Dubai that can assist your organization in better managing your business travel needs, saving time on time-consuming processes, and enjoying discounted travel rates. If your organization is based in Dubai, and you are looking to better manage your business travel needs, save time on time-consuming processes, and enjoy discounted travel rates.
We have compiled this guide, which includes a list of travel management companies in Dubai, for businesses who are interested in centralizing and streamlining the processes involved in the administration of their business travel. This guide covers the following topics:
• The advantages of employing the services of a travel management company for the booking and administration of business travel
• The essential qualities to search for when selecting a business to manage travel arrangements
• An analysis of Dubai’s leading six corporate travel management providers
To what end does employing the services of a travel management business contribute?
Regardless of the number of business trips that your workers take, there is a good chance that a sizeable percentage of your budget is allocated to cover the costs of travel, including airfare, lodging, and other associated costs.
Without adequate management of the costs associated with travel programs, your travel budgets, and consequently your plans for future business travel, are at risk of being curtailed. In point of fact, it is quite common for businesses that do not have a centralized travel management solution to run into many business travel challenges. Some examples of these challenges include inaccurate expense reporting, overspending, and high levels of non-compliance with business travel policies.
The following is a short list of the ways in which modern corporate travel management companies in Dubai can help streamline the processes involved in travel management for your company:
• Management of corporate travel that is centralized Rather of relying on haphazard spreadsheets and convoluted email chains, travel management businesses may assist you in centralizing all of the processes that are associated with business travel. A travel management company that is up to date and current should give its own platform to ensure that their clients have the greatest possible visibility over their spending, invoices, business travel plans, and travel policies.
• Self-booking engines: Once again, modern travel management businesses should make it possible for your staff to make their own travel plans using a self-booking engine, which will help to streamline the processes involved in scheduling travel.
• Make decisions based on data: When you use a travel management company to handle the arrangements for your business travel, all of your travel data is centralized in one place. This allows the travel management company to assist you in making suggestions regarding how you can most effectively optimize your business travel plans.
• Pay attention to the requirements of your business travel: Companies who do not hire a travel management company to handle their business travel typically choose an existing employee to be in charge of this responsibility. However, this person also has primary tasks and priorities, which results in business travel management being poorly managed a significant portion of the time. The needs of your company’s business travel are the exclusive focus of travel management businesses; they pay no attention to anything else.
• Save money on the costs of travel and accommodations: Travel management companies will negotiate the best corporate travel rates on your behalf and can even assist you in establishing long-term partnerships with hotels and airlines to help you save money on an ongoing basis. This will allow you to save money on the costs of travel and accommodations.
• Optimize your travel budgets and spending Travel management companies will produce trip and expense reports on your travel spend. These reports will break down your expenses according to team, department, or project in order to assist you in optimizing your future budgets.
• Simplify the process of complying with travel policies: Even with companies that have travel policies in place, there is still a risk that employees will make business travel arrangements that violate the guidelines outlined in your travel policies. By highlighting and/or preventing any unauthorized bookings, travel management solutions can assist you in ensuring that all of your business travelers are adhering to the guidelines outlined in your company’s travel policy.
When selecting a travel management business, it is important to look for the following features:
You need to be aware of the important elements that a strong travel management business will offer in order to make an informed comparison of the travel management firms in Dubai.
When selecting a business to manage your travel arrangements, you should be certain that the organization is able to successfully navigate the complexities of corporate travel programs. Travel management businesses that don’t offer the fundamental features necessary to enable corporate travel management will have many of the same constraints as organizations who administer their own travel programs. This is because core features are required to support corporate travel management.
In the following paragraphs, we will go over the major aspects that you should keep an eye out for to assist you in better managing your travel program, ensuring the safety of your business travelers, and streamlining travel so that it is more cost-effective:
• Extensive travel inventories: Having access to a diverse selection of travel and lodging providers enables you to compare costs, dates, and offers to choose which ones are the most suitable for the requirements of your business journey.
• The availability of flexible booking choices: The availability of flexible booking options enables businesses to accommodate any last-minute changes to travel dates or cancellations after booking, either at no additional cost or for a cost that is significantly reduced.
• Collection of invoices in a centralized location: Because certain travel management organizations do not function as a single vendor, you may still be required to collect and compile invoices from a variety of businesses even if the company handles the collection of invoices. You may save a lot of time and avoid a lot of headache by working with a travel management company that provides a system that combines all of your monthly invoices into a single invoice from a single vendor.
• Approval workflows that are already built in: The ability to embed travel approval workflows into the system that your travel management firm uses is a feature that should not be overlooked. This functionality not only allows you to save time going back and forth between locations, but it also gives you the ability to personalize the processes to suit the needs of each business traveler.
• Outstanding customer service: Unanticipated events are a natural part of business travel, and you need to be able to trust that your travel management company will be there for you to give the assistance you require once things take an unexpected turn. Forget about automated phone calls; what you really need is a customer support function that is staffed by real people and is easy to get in touch with whenever you or your travelers have questions or concerns.
• Capacity to reserve multiple modes of transportation simultaneously: Not all companies conduct business on an international scale; hence, the capacity to reserve multiple modes of transportation simultaneously, such as rental cars and trains, is a very useful feature.
• Integration with travel policies: Travel policies that may be built into the platform of a travel management company enable organizations enforce compliance while also enjoying cost savings on business travel. This is possible because of the integration with travel policies.
• Reporting capabilities: Businesses are able to identify and implement spend optimization activities with the assistance of travel management companies that compile reports that break down travel data by each business traveler, transport type, booking type, cancellations, and recoverable VAT. These types of reports are compiled by travel management companies.
Dubai’s top six corporate travel management providers and their respective rankings
Now that we’ve looked at the elements that a good travel management firm offers, let’s have a look at a few of the corporate travel businesses and online booking tools that are equipped to fulfill the specific demands of your business, as well as your industry and your budget.
The following is a list of the six best travel management businesses in Dubai, as chosen by us.
1. TravelPerk
Corporate travelers may take advantage of TravelPerk’s comprehensive digital platform, which was built specifically with their needs in mind. Traveler self-management is at the basis of its revolutionary platform, which manages the full business travel booking process from start to end. Every facet of corporate travel can be managed from within TravelPerk’s centralized platform.
Users have access to TravelPerk’s other one-of-a-kind corporate travel services, such as a VAT recovery solution, a carbon offsetting program, and FlexiPerk, a cancelation policy that allows users to cancel business trip arrangements up to two hours before departure with a guaranteed refund of 80%. In addition to access to the world’s largest travel inventory for flights and accommodations and a huge catalog of integrations with third-party software, users have access to TravelPerk’s other one-of
In addition to these benefits, users of TravelPerk also benefit from the following:
• An online booking tool that is straightforward and easy to use; all of the traveler’s information, preferences, and loyalty points can be saved and accessed anytime they are required.
• Assistance with business travel around the clock and a response time of 15 seconds or less
• Relaxation thanks to TravelCare, which is an all-encompassing and up-to-date safety and travel alert system
• Automated travel policies and an in-app approval system, which includes approval workflows, the capability to record trip data for later use, and the capability to modify the level of strictness for each workflow
• A unified billing system for all business trips, eliminating the need to send multiple invoice requests and reminders
• Extensive possibilities for reporting, as well as dashboards for tracking expenses
• A streamlined method for handling costs associated with travel
You can rely on this end-to-end travel management platform to assist you in optimizing and streamlining your existing travel management programs because it is comprised of all of these aspects working together.
Even though TravelPerk’s platform and support function are not yet available in Arabic, international businesses with international travelers who are comfortable using the tool in English can still benefit from TravelPerk’s intuitive, easy-to-use tool. This is because TravelPerk’s tool is designed to be used in English. Changi and Drakken, situated in Dubai, are just two examples of highly satisfied TravelPerk customers.
You’ll find that TravelPerk is the only company on this list that is exclusively dedicated to meeting the requirements of businesses in terms of corporate travel management. If you are interested in learning more about how TravelPerk can help simplify the business travel program at your company, click here.
2. Sky Line Travel
Sky Line Travel is a travel and tourist business that has been in operation for more than three decades. In addition to that, the organization provides a solution for managing business travel.
The following is a list of the primary corporate travel management features offered by Sky Line Travel:
• Large airline inventory, including over 220 low-cost carriers and more than 400 traditional airlines
• Inventory of more than three million hotels and bed and breakfasts
• A booking application for businesses (including travel policy validation, trip requests, approvals, and bookings)
• A automobile rental service available worldwide
• Professionals who are solely devoted to business travel consulting
• Assistance with the formulation of travel policies
• A management information system that allows for the creation of travel reports, including the identification of “rogue” trip approvers, late bookers, and slow approvers.
Sky Line Travel is not an end-to-end solution for businesses because it does not provide any support for invoicing or travel expense reporting; it does not have approval workflows in place to ensure compliance; and it does not provide key features such as a VAT recovery feature or a carbon offsetting program. Despite its many useful features, Sky Line Travel is not an end-to-end solution for businesses.
3. Omeir
Omeir is a travel management business with headquarters in Abu Dhabi. The company provides customers with individualized travel solutions and has a specialized division dedicated to the administration of corporate travel.
Although Omeir is not only a company that manages corporate travel, it does provide a variety of corporate travel services that are geared primarily for business travel, including the following:
• Dedicated account manager for each client
• Individualized support in the process of making travel arrangements
• On-site office amenities (located on the premises of clients in order to serve specifically to the personnel of each company about their travel needs)
• A website that facilitates the booking of airline tickets online
• Making reservations for lodging
• Administration of travel itineraries
• Reports and analyses on money spent on travel
• Event management
• Travel risk management
Corporate travelers miss out on the opportunity to book all of their travel arrangements via one centralized platform because Omeir only offers an online portal for booking flights. This means that users will have to deal with a lot of platform switching, despite the fact that Omeir offers a good range of corporate travel features. Omeir offers a good range of corporate travel features.
4. Al Naboodah Travel
In addition to being a travel agency, Al Naboodah Travel is also a provider of corporate services in the city of Dubai. The organization has been in operation for the past 60 years, and its mission is to provide “high quality and innovative customer service” while also “blending professional guidance with innovative travel items at low pricing.”
The following is a list of the primary corporate travel management features and services provided by Al Naboodah Travel:
• Travel policy integration
• An examination of the costs of travel
• Organization of conferences and other meetings
• Reservations for airlines, hotels, automobile rentals, and trains
• Traveler tracking
• Assistance with urgent travel arrangements outside of normal business hours and on holidays
Despite the fact that AL Naboodah Travel provides its customers with a wide variety of useful corporate travel services, the company does not provide a centralized travel management platform, support for invoicing and travel expenses, or a VAT recovery solution.
5. AMR Travel
A young travel and tourist company with its headquarters in Dubai, AMR Travel was founded in 2009 and offers assistance with corporate travel management. The company specializes in travel and tourism.
Customers that are involved in corporate business are offered the following services by AMR Travel:
• Administration of measures to ensure the safety and wellbeing of travelers
• Data management
• Credit card handling
• Successfully negotiated discounted rates for the company’s flights and hotel accommodations
Although AMR Travel does provide some features for corporate travel, the company is not solely focused on providing services for corporate travel, so it does not provide support for invoicing, a customer support function that is available 24/7, or any reporting capabilities. Therefore, it does not provide the comprehensive platform that businesses require for dependable travel management.
6. Al-Futtaim Travel
In addition to its status as a major travel management company in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Al-Futtaim Travel is also a provider of business travel services.
Despite the fact that the company’s primary focus is not on corporate travel management, it does include a number of vital features for business travel, including the following:
• Management of accounts on a one-to-one basis
• Service available around the clock, seven days a week, with a dedicated after-hours crew for urgent matters and impromptu adjustments
• An instrument for global reporting
• the formulation of travel guidelines
However, there are several limits to Al-Futtaim Travel when it is used as a tool for managing business travel. For instance, the organization does not have an integration with travel policy that ensures 100 percent booking compliance, any integrations with third parties, or a significant inventory of flights or accommodations.