Finding the right online booking tool (OBT) can feel like looking for a needle in a haystack. But choosing the right fit for your business doesn’t have to be complicated. With a clear understanding of your needs and what’s on the market, you can find an OBT that will see everyone singing your praises. Here’s our quick guide to choosing the right tool for your unique needs.
Start with your needs
The best OBT isn’t the one with all the bells and whistles. It’s the one that fits best into your existing ERP, HR, finance, and management systems. For example: Does it integrate with SAP, Oracle, S4 Hana, or Concur?
Ask yourself some key questions: What’s your typical booking volume? Are your travellers mostly domestic, or do you have a lot of international trips? Do you need robust reporting capabilities, or is basic data enough?
Understanding your specific requirements will help you narrow down your options quickly. You don’t want to pay for bells and whistles you’ll never use, but you also don’t want to choose a bare-bones solution that leaves you scrambling when your program grows.
User experience is everything
Here’s a truth: if your travellers don’t use your OBT, you won’t see a return on your investment. The best OBTs have intuitive interfaces that don’t require a PhD to navigate. Easy-to-use tools will shorten training time and increase adoption rates.
We live in a mobile-first world, and your travellers expect to manage their trips from their smartphones, so the OBT should be accessible from every device. Travellers should be able to search, book, modify, and cancel trips from their phones. Access to mobile boarding passes, real-time flight updates, and easy access to itineraries are must-haves.
Integration capabilities
Your OBT doesn’t work in isolation. It needs to talk to your other systems, including your HR module, accounting and expense management platforms, and travel risk management solutions.
Look for OBTs that offer strong API and integration capabilities. The system must also have the ability to manage secure online payments and integrate with popular payment gateways.
The easier it is to sync data between systems, the less time your team will spend on administrative tasks and the more accurate your reporting will be.
Travel policy compliance
A top reason for implementing an OBT is that it automates travel policy compliance, helping businesses to control travel spending.
You want your tool to build your travel policy into the booking workflow, flag out-of-policy bookings, and manage multiple approval and cost flow limits by traveller level or department.
The best OBTs strike a balance between control and flexibility, guiding travellers toward compliant choices without making them feel like they’re in a straitjacket.
Content is king
If your travellers can’t find the flights, hotels, or rental cars they need, they’ll abandon the tool faster than you can say “booking fee.”
Make sure the OBT you’re considering has comprehensive content coverage, especially for the regions where your company travels most. Does it connect to the major Global Distribution Systems? Does it offer direct connections to airlines and hotel chains? Also make sure that the tool can highlight your preferred suppliers to support your corporate discounts.
Reporting
Your OBT should provide reporting that makes it easy to understand booking patterns, spending trends, and policy compliance. This kind of data can help you negotiate better rates, identify cost-saving opportunities, and make strategic decisions to improve your travel program.
Service support
Before committing to an OBT, find out what kind of support it offers via the OBT and from the TMC. Is there 24/7 customer service? Is first-level support provided in-country? How quickly do they respond to issues? What are their service level agreements (SLAs)?
Establish what OBT training will be provided to travellers, travel bookers and travel managers.
Cost structure
Finally, let’s talk rands and cents. OBTs typically charge a per-transaction fee, as well as a hosting fee. Make sure that you understand what you’ll be paying and remember to factor in additional costs like implementation and training when you do your sums.
The bottom line
Choosing the right OBT for your travel program doesn’t have to be overwhelming. Work with your Travel Management Company (TMC) – after all, they understand your travel needs and work with a variety of OBTs, so they are well-positioned to help you drill down to what is needed for your travel program now, and as it evolves.
Rennies BCD Travel is consultative, and we’ll recommend the right OBT to support your corporate online booking strategies. We work with GetThere, SAP Concur, Thomalex and Zoho solutions for booking and expense management, and partner with many OBTs and global suppliers to make sure you choose the right option for your program. Talk to us to help you find the right fit for your business travel needs.