Making travel arrangements for business people is one of the regular tasks of the admin department. Travel related work is facilitated by a travel desk within the admin department. It includes the following:
Air, Train, Bus Ticket Booking
• The booking of such tickets should be coordinated through a requisition by an employee, which is duly authorized by an appropriate authority.
• The requisition must include details regarding date, class of ticket, starting and ending point, boarding point, name, age, identification of traveler, meal preferences etc.
• The booking is done either directly by the company or through an agent, depending upon the volume of the need, cost and convenience.
• If the company is doing the booking, various usernames and passwords of booking sites must be known to all the persons who man that activity.
• Some special credit/debit/expense card must be used for the payment of such bookings.
• The travel desk persons must also track the cancellations done and their refund (if any) received.
• The booking persons must be made aware of various rules, regulations and standard practices in booking and cancellation processes.
• If any tickets are wait listed, admin must track their confirmation status and must inform the traveler well in advance.
• Somebody must regularly cross check all the bookings done.
Hotel Booking
• For national or international travel, admin is asked to book hotels or other accommodation.
• They must be made familiar with the web sites or agents useful in the activity and with the process involved for the same.
• All the check-in, check-out timings, hotel inclusions and exclusions must be explained to the travelers properly.
Vehicles Booking
• Admin is occasionally asked to book vehicles for luggage carriage or for passenger movement.
• A set database of such service providers must be ready with the admin persons.
• If possible and if required, a regular arrangement with some vendor should be made to ensure faster availability of vehicles.
• Various terms and conditions regarding the hiring must be known to the admin persons and should be intimated to the travelers.
• Radio cab facilities can also be used for such short or sudden trips when office vehicles are not available.
Pick-up and Drop
• Admin is regularly asked to pick up or drop office employees or guests to/from airports, stations etc.
• Either company resources or some radio cab or car rental services can be used for this purpose.
• The company vehicle used for such a purpose must be kept clean and equipped with necessary things like sign boards, tissues, water, umbrella, universal mobile charger etc.
• Many times, such pick-up/drops are at odd hours. The attending staff must be alerted about the exact timings, locations, terminals, stations, platforms etc. to avoid confusion.
• The mobile phone numbers of the traveler and the pick-up person must be shared with both the parties.
Foreign Travel
• Various dates of departure, arrival, change-over etc. must be confirmed before and after booking.
• The foreign currency required for foreign travel must be obtained from the authorized agencies and their bills and usage must be properly recorded.
• Surplus foreign currency should be safely kept or should be properly encashed after the completion of the tour.
• The admin must ensure proper travel insurance of the people traveling abroad. Most of the insurance companies have innovative travel insurance plans. It is advisable to cover the travelers properly during such travels.
• Some ready-to-eat food packets or instant meal packets must be provided to ensure familiar food availability in unexpected circumstances or at odd hours.
• For international phone and Internet connectivity, appropriate solution must be found and provided to the traveler. Different countries have different options for such communication needs.
• The travelers must be informed or educated about various procedures required to be followed before or after the travel.
General
• The admin must follow a practice of giving a travel kit to the traveling persons which contains all the tickets, booking documents, currency etc.
• The staff attending travel desk activities must be trained properly for the use of technology for the purpose.
• Extra care must be taken to keep track of the names of the places, the dates and various time zones involved. These are the sources of some potential errors.
(Expert advice to GROW your business wherever you are, whenever you want.
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