travel agent vs. internet

njmhr1109

Hello,

I've been asked to research what other companies are doing as far as travel for employees.

We use a travel agent who charges a $30 booking fee for each trip booked. Many times employees have done their research over the internet and know the exact fight number,etc. then call the agent who books the trip, and gets $30.

We have thought about assigning this task to an employee wo would research the trip and book it.

Is there anyone who has gone from an agent to in-house? Any suggestions/comments?

Thanks,
njm

San Francisco

Hi, it sounds like a good idea to try it in-house. It worked well for us though only when booking trips scheduled far enough in advance. The "in-house" person would need a profile on everyone who travels in order to book preferences such as aisle/window seat etc. But, it didn't work well when we had to schedule quick trips, such as having to leave the next day. In those cases,it was quicker for me to go through our travel agent myself. I also had trouble with the in-house person booking the hotel and type of room I preferred. I guess it all depends upon what you need and how good your person is. PS. to make matters worse, our agency is in Hawaii. Figure that one out.

Elizabeth

marc

We allow both, but encourage use of the internet. Some of our ees do not have credit cards and the company only gives credit cards to a very few managers with a fairly small limit. This forces quite a few transactions toward the travel agent.

RobS

At our company, the ees can either have someone in the accounting office handle their reservations and booking their trips (in most cases she goes directly to the travel agent and has them handle it) or they can book the travel themselves using the internet. It comes down to how much time they have to spend on searching for the best deals and their comfort level in booking their own trip. Some of them just don't want to worry about it. Others would rather book it themselves - I'd fall into that category and even though I don't have a company credit card I still like to book the travel on my own and earn the mileage on my credit card for the purchases which will be reimbursed by the company.