this is a sponsored guest post.
The modern world and the drastic improvement in digitalization have not affected the need of a company taking corporate travel planners on business travels and tours. It has somehow become a trend in the industrial world and a company can show off its strength and profitability because of its ability to pay for a travel agent. They don’t come in for that cheap you know.
Booking a travel agent
Initially, booking a travel agent meant going through all the directories of the relevant industry and contacting several companies through phone or paying them a visit. Nowadays, the process is quite easy and simple. Book it online or visit them after looking at their reviews. Anyway, we can say that having a business travel agent can really help you out in your corporate trips.
Impact of a TMC on Corporate tours
We can say that having a travel planner for your business trips is an extremely prompt and straightforward way of keeping your entire business trip in order. No matter how many gadgets you use or how tech-oriented you become, a trip organized and planned by the human mind never ceases to betray you.
Risk in the investment
With an emerging trend comes emerging frauds. Since it is obvious that many companies are considering having a business planner for their trip, several scammers have also emerged in the market for obvious reasons.
You must ensure whether the company of your choice is registered and known for providing genuine services or not. Here are a few not so difficult steps on checking the legality of a Travel Management Company and helping you reduce the percentage of possible scam you can face.
Tips for Spotting Fake Travel Management Companies
Registration and License
The company you are looking forward to booking in your next corporate trip has to be genuine and authorized by the regulating bodies. Checking the license of the company you are looking forward to collaborating with gives you the peace of mind and ensure that you are at the right track when the legality of a company is concerned.
Different countries have different ways of licensing travel management companies that are operational by the law. This guarantees the consumers of the service that they are in good hands and it is safe to travel with the company they chose.
Recommendation and Reviews by Acquaintances
Reviews and recommendations are still one of the best ways to find out how a company is. If there are no recommendations or reviews for a company that you just came across and are considering because of their discounted deals or unbelievably low rates, then you might need to have second thoughts about it.
Companies who claim to offer a fantastic and irreplaceable experience with rates that are lower than what you are expecting might be offering extremely poor services of just scam you and leave after taking your money.
Consider the companies that people in your actual life have had a promising experience with. This guarantees that you will have exactly what you are looking for leaving a little margin behind for errors.
Payment Schemes
Travel management companies who claim to ask for full payments, no refunds or pricing strategies that are lower than the basic travel costs can be a situation where you alert your brain towards the incoming fraud.
Even though these companies offer great deals and discounts for their clients, we must make sure that the cost of our business travel is at least equal to the accommodation, conveyance and travel costs. A quick internet survey and a visit to sites that provide information on travelling can be beneficial to look at and will provide you with a head start and an idea about how much it will cost.
Physical Office and Portfolio
A genuine company will have an office located in the industrial sector of your city instead of a one-man-band being operated at a nearby house building. Instead of using fake pictures from the internet and using unnecessary advertisement is also shady as too much self-promotion without genuine proofs is kind of an eye-opener.
With no registered office and no portfolio of what they have been doing so far is a visible trap for people. Whether you fall in the ditch of fake people offering to cater to your requirements on your next corporate tour or you are simply going to get extremely poor service. Paying more to obtain quality service is much better than getting yourself scammed.
Follow up and Confirmation
Leaving everything in the hands of your business travel planner is somewhat not a good idea unless and until the journey has initiated. Before you pay your company for the bookings and ticketing charges they claim to ask you, it is fair enough for you to check them on your own before transferring the amount.
Scammers are attracted to companies who do not take interest in such petty matters or the owners and management think they are too big and busy to deal with everything on their own. Showing signs of responsibility and interest in what the agency is up to and how your corporate travel planners are dealing with the current scenario will put pressure on them to perform.
Legal Contract and Paperwork
Finishing off the deal with legal contracts and stamps can allow you to claim for compensation anytime you want to. Before you sign off the deal, make sure to check their company contact details, names and identities of the owners as described to you verbally.
Better Safe than Sorry!
To prevent yourself from the fraud and later on loss at the last moment, it is convenient to keep in touch with your travel management company and also consider going for genuine companies recommended by genuine people around you.
It is alright to spend some extra bucks on your hand to obtain the type and quality of service that you would like to experience on your next business trip.