Hospitality Management
Article | July 18, 2023
A recent study stated that the travel industry faced an estimated $519 billion loss in 2020 due to the pandemic. Some of the challenges that most companies came across are managing travel expenses, maintaining travel and expense process flow, using the right expense management solutions, and more. As the travel industry is getting back in business, it is overcoming challenges sturdily.
To simplify travel and expenses process flow, managers need instant and effective travel and expense management solutions to organize travel plans, submit expense reports, and control overspending on their travels. Before you dive into details about solutions that can improve the travel and expenses process flow and logistics of your company, here is a brief about travel and expense management solutions.
An Overview: Travel and Expense Management Solutions
Travel and expense management solutions are only relevant businesses that need to control the travel-related expenses of their employees. These solutions help you in understating the integrated spend data and deliver a better user experience. Other than this, these solutions can also help with:
Making clearer and smarter data-driven decisions
Encouraging policy compliance automatically into travel and expense process flow
Saving time to collect data from expense reports automatically
Simplifying budgeting
Forecasting a more accurate data of the spend
How Can You Streamline Your Travel and Expense Management Process?
Automated travel management software can help your employees and finance team use the travel and expense management solutions for their benefit. But how? Here are the reasons to support:
Employees could:
Effortlessly manage receipts and submits the details of corporate travel
Submit digital travel and expenses report instantly using a centralized travel and expense software
Maintain compliance with the existing reimbursement policy for corporate travel and expenses in your company
Finance teams could:
They can create transparency in corporate spending reports by using travel management software and its automatic function.
They can have better control over their travel expenses.
5 Ways Travel and Expense Management Solutions Can Help Companies
Travel and expense management solutions give all travel and expense management services easy access to align in one place. By doing this, you will be able to gain more control over services and enforce compliance. Here are five ways your business can effortlessly adopt new travel and expense management solutions and help you win challenges faced during the pandemic.
Review the Selected Solutions
Before you implement a travel and expense management system, it is vital to review preferred travel and expense management solutions that your business requires. This will help the travel expenses workflow align seamlessly and make employees understand what it takes to manage the entire travel expense scenario accurately.
Conduct Surveys
If you are going to switch the old travel expenses method and adapting advanced travel and expense management solutions, it is crucial to survey the users who have used the solution and know its performance. This survey will help your employees to know if the chosen travel management software suits your requirements. The next step is to keep an eye on the most frequent and critical users, which will help you to have a clear insight into new trends that are being followed in terms of managing the workflow efficiently. By this, you can also implement it in your company. It also helps identify where your process needs refinement to facilitate efficiency in the expense management system.
Prioritize the Must-haves
The next step should include the collected input from the survey for setting up the foundation of priority of needs. In this case, creating a checklist is an ideal option. Prioritizing the best travel management software with apt travel and expense management solutions according to your workflow can help you select the right travel expense software for your organization.
You can select travel and expense management solutions that consist of:
Report building automation
Auto fill options
Remote access
User-friendly interface
Helpful support
Mobile functionality
Quick international payment
Introduce Demo Sessions
If you use an advanced global travel and expense management system, it is recommended to provide demo sessions of the preferred travel and expense management solutions to your team. The demo sessions could be an opportunity for your team to witness travel and expense management services created from reputable travel management software in action. With this, you can know about a host of details about the implementation of travel expense software, integrations, user training, travel and expense process, and its flow. This contributes towards the successful adoption of a travel expense system and proves the abilities of the travel and expense management solutions selected by you to scale your business as it grows.
Choose a Solution
Once you have organized multiple demo sessions of various global travel and expense management solutions, it's time to choose the best travel expenses management software that fits your company's culture and requirements. Take a good look at the pros and cons of the final travel expense planner you consider for integrated expense management solutions to combat your existing challenges. Being cautious while choosing the right global travel and expense management solutions will benefit your employees, and they will be able to use it for the company's advantage at a much faster pace.
Frequently Asked Questions
What you should know about expense management software?
Here are some benefits of an expense management software:
Ease of access
Minimum manual intervention
Higher cost savings
Faster reimbursements
Eco-friendly process (no paperwork)
A simple process that simplifies workflow
Encourages errorless work and delays
Your employees can find the best travel and expense management solutions using various expense travel management software.
How to manage travel expenses?
There are several travel and expense management solutions to manage travel expenses. Here are some ways in which you can manage your travel expenses:
Keep a track of expense details
Plan ahead before setting a policy
Stay aware of the policies
Have an effective approval process of expense
Organize spend data
Why use an expense management software?
An expense management software helps a business ease expense reporting, manage other aspects, and deliver the right travel and expense management solutions. It offers efficient workflow to the finance teams while recording expenses, data, approvals, controlling costs, and more.
What are the most crucial features to manage expenses?
The most crucial features to manage expenses are:
Real-time policy checks
The seamless expense reporting process
Digital audits
Advanced level of data analyses
Easy approval process
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Hospitality Management
Article | June 29, 2023
Discover insights to overcome hospitality management challenges of the dynamic travel industry. Elevate customer experiences, optimize operations, and thrive in the hospitality and travel industry.
Contents
1. Importance of Hospitality in Tourism Industry
2. Key Management Challenges in the Hospitality Industry
2.1. Personalizing Guest Experience
2.2. Seasonality of Hospitality
2.3. Rapid Shift in Market Trends
2.4. Retaining, Hiring & Managing Staff
2.5. Protecting Online Reputation
3. Significance of Implementing the Right Solutions
4. Conclusion
1. Importance of Hospitality in Tourism Industry
Today, the culture of hospitality holds paramount importance, focusing on outshining businesses by delivering exceptional service quality. To achieve this, hospitality industries must prioritize providing superior and satisfying products to their customers. Hiring managers should seek individuals with an excellent service-oriented mindset, while the training process should center around cultivating a strong service culture within the organization. Graduates of tourism and hospitality management programs are increasingly occupying key positions within the industry. These professionals view themselves as dedicated individuals entering the realm of hospitality management. Their roles demand specialized knowledge and skills, ongoing professional development, and a commitment to benefiting the community and society.
Hospitality and travel industry revolves around extending friendly treatment to guests and tourists, making it an indispensable sector within tourism. Understanding consumer behavior becomes crucial in making informed marketing decisions for tourism products and activities. To fully leverage the potential of the tourism industry, it becomes imperative to comprehend what challenges may and how to overcome them to make better decisions.
2. Overcome Key Management Challenges in the Hospitality Industry
2.1. Personalizing Guest Experience
Personalizing the guest experience has become an increasingly crucial challenge in the hospitality and travel industry, particularly as traditional B&Bs face competition from emerging players like Airbnb. To stay competitive and retain guests, it is essential to go beyond providing basic services and amenities. Today's travelers seek unique, tailored experiences that resonate with their preferences and needs.
By personalizing the guest experience, hospitality establishments can create a lasting impression and build strong customer loyalty. This involves understanding guest preferences and anticipating their needs before they articulate them. It can include personalized greetings, offering amenities or services that align with their interests, and providing recommendations tailored to their tastes. Effective communication is vital before, during, and after the guest's visit. Leveraging guest data and preferences allows targeted marketing campaigns, personalized offers, and follow-up communication that nurtures the relationship and keeps guests engaged.
2.2. Seasonality of Hospitality
One significant challenge is personalizing the guest experience, especially when considering the seasonality of the hospitality and travel industry. During peak seasons, although businesses may thrive, there is often added stress on staff to cater to a high volume of guests. Effective stress management measures and caring for the team's well-being are essential to delivering exceptional experiences consistently. In contrast, during off-peak seasons, it is an opportune time to utilize the team's talents for activities such as enhancing social media platforms, updating the website, reviewing security measures, conducting staff training, and staying abreast of industry innovations. This proactive approach helps maintain competitiveness and prepares for the next peak season.
2.3. Rapid Shift in Market Trends
In hospitality and travel management, a critical challenge is the rapid shift in market trends driven by technological advancements. The advertising and marketing landscape has undergone significant transformations, rendering previously successful strategies ineffective. To navigate these transformations successfully, it is crucial to maintain updated websites, actively engage on social media platforms, promptly respond to online reviews, and develop compelling advertising campaigns. Hospitality industry managers can collaborate closely with either an internal marketing team or a marketing agency to ensure that their brand voice and mission are accurately conveyed and represented across all social platforms. Consistency, accuracy, and responsiveness are paramount in achieving marketing success in the dynamic world of hospitality.
2.4. Retaining, Hiring & Managing Staff
While retention, hiring and effective staff management is a challenge that extends beyond the hospitality and tourism industry, it holds particular significance in roles that involve direct interaction with the public, as they play a crucial role in delivering exceptional guest experiences. Hospitality and tourism establishments rely on staff members of the highest caliber at all levels, be it front desk, housekeeping, maintenance, tour guides, wait staff, or kitchen personnel. In addition to possessing the necessary skills, staff members must embody essential qualities such as integrity, compassion, and empathy to provide guests with the finest service. Regular training programs are crucial to align new hires with the vision and mission of the hospitality business. Furthermore, fostering a strong team culture is essential for retaining staff members who consistently go above and beyond for guests.
2.5. Protecting Online Reputation
In the contemporary hotel and tourism industry, where customers openly share reviews, opinions, and complaints on online platforms such as OTA websites, Google, Facebook, TripAdvisor, and social media, safeguarding and managing online reputation has become a critical challenge.
With 96% of Tripadvisor users considering reviews critical in their travel planning and hotel booking decisions and 83% referencing reviews before booking, effective reputation management is paramount. Thoughtful and timely responses to customer reviews are crucial, as 85% of TripAdvisor users agree that it positively influences their perception of the hotel.
(Source: Xotels)
Maintaining a high review score on OTA sites is essential to prevent potential guests from filtering out hotels with lower scores. Additionally, leveraging positive reviews and customer feedback on social media platforms can be done by showcasing average scores and using customer quotes on the hotel's website. Importantly, customers understand that mistakes can happen, but how a hotel responds to them matters. Swiftly addressing issues, providing courteous and considerate online communication, and rectifying problems extensively safeguard the hotel's reputation.
3. Significance of Implementing the Right Solutions
Implementing the right solutions holds immense significance in hospitality management. It is essential to address various challenges effectively, such as personalizing the guest experience, managing seasonality, adapting to rapid market trends, retaining and hiring staff, and protecting online reputation.
By implementing tailored solutions, hospitality professionals can strengthen their hospitality management businesses. Understand the significance of the solutions to be implied to overcome management challenges.
Enhanced Guest Experience: The hospitality and travel industry thrive on delivering exceptional guest experiences. By addressing management challenges effectively, such as streamlining operations, optimizing customer service, and personalizing guest interactions, the right hospitality solutions can significantly enhance the overall guest experience. This, in turn, leads to increased customer satisfaction, loyalty, and positive word-of-mouth, all of which are crucial for the success of any hospitality business.
Improved Operational Efficiency: Hospitality management challenges often revolve around optimizing operational processes, managing resources, and ensuring a smooth workflow. Implementing the right solutions, such as advanced technology systems, automation, and efficient management tools, can significantly enhance operational efficiency. This results in cost savings, reduced errors, improved productivity, and better utilization of resources, leading to overall business growth and profitability.
Effective Staff Management: The hospitality industry heavily relies on its workforce to deliver quality services. Staff scheduling, training, communication, and performance management challenges can be effectively addressed through the right solutions. Employee management systems, training programs, and communication tools improve staff organization, engagement, and productivity. When employees feel supported and empowered, they are more likely to provide exceptional service, leading to a higher guest satisfaction.
Data-Driven Decision-Making: The hospitality industry generates vast amounts of data related to guest preferences, booking patterns, revenue streams, and operational metrics. However, deriving actionable insights from this data can be challenging without the right solutions. Implementing data analytics tools, performance tracking systems, and guest feedback platforms enable managers to make informed decisions based on real-time data.
4. Conclusion
To achieve long-term success in the travel and hospitality industry, it is necessary to overcome hospitality management obstacles that businesses face. Through strategies such as personalizing the guest experience, effectively managing seasonality, adapting to market trends, retaining and hiring the appropriate staff, and protecting online reputation, hospitality businesses can differentiate themselves and develop customer loyalty. Through the strategic implementation of customized solutions, managers can navigate these challenges, enhance their guests' experiences, and drive long-term growth in the dynamic travel industry.
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Hospitality Management
Article | June 20, 2023
Despite the global pandemic controlling business travel headlines for the past twelve months, there are quite a few other topics top of mind for travel managers today in North America.
Egencia has taken a dive into the other important topics that are weighing on the minds of travel managers, and we’ve taken a look at what’s creating a buzz in the industry and within the Egencia travel manager Connect Community.
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Travel Technology
Article | February 12, 2021
Technology advancements have changed the way we travel. And some of the new developments promise an improved day-to-day operation and interactive experiences for the customers. With the help of technologies, thousands of companies have transformed their conventional accommodation and traveling experiences.
Travelers have gained free access to chart their journey, arrange required services, and enjoy hassle-free traveling. And the best part of this is, the ability to acquire all without leaving the comfort of home.
However, there has been a paradigm shift in the travel industry with the development of some emerging techs around the world. So let’s check out what these technologies are, how they are going to impact, and the way it is going to change the entire traveling experience.
Key Tech Trends In Traveling
1. AI Chatbots
Chatbots powered by artificial intelligence is the most sensible investment. It helps users to talk with chatbots through messaging platforms like Facebook Messenger, Skype, or Slack. With the data stored in these chatbots, they recommend the best locations, tips, and price-alerts, thus, impact the decisions of the customers. During the trip, it would prompt the traveler about check-in updates and flight delays. Some of the booking sites that use chatbots include Skyscanner, Kayak, Booking.com, etc.
2. AR & VR
Thanks to the development of augmented reality and virtual reality, potential customers can now take a virtual tour of the resort or hotel from anywhere around the world. It assists not only the customer to choose the best option for them but also helps the hotels to promote their facilities. With AR and VR, the possibilities in the travel industry are infinite.
3. Recognition Technology
Due to the Covid-19 crisis, one of the biggest fears a customer faces is coming in contact with an infected person. But, the recognition technology assists in both check-in and check-out from the hotel with the help of retina scanning, facial recognition, and other biometric identifications.
4. Smart Rooms with IoT
A wide number of hotels have moved towards the Internet of Things for their rooms. It enhances the entire customer experience via customized and potential control to the rooms while detecting any problem that can be faced by them.
5. Contactless Payment
Last but not the least, contactless payment is another form of advancement in travel tech that allows companies to process payments quickly and saves time for the customers who don’t have cash or access to their debit or credit card.
What’s Next?
For every company that is operating in the travel industry, it is important to keep up with the technological trends. Understanding and using the tech mentioned will help in providing a better experience for the customer and optimize business along with the overall performance of the business. If you want to know more about these technologies and their adoption then have an IT consultant from experienced experts and acquire the in-depth information.
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