Corporate Travel Destinations

Corporate travel planners are well-versed in working with budgets and are pros at finding exceptional deals and negotiating their way into cost savings for their events. Now more than ever, saving money wherever possible is critically important, particularly as many small businesses and large corporations are facing shrinking budgets and closer public scrutiny. It can be a bit of a challenge to cut costs without cutting quality, but with a little time and effort it is completely doable.

One of the keys to successfully cutting costs without losing quality is properly determining which aspects of your event can weather some cutbacks without being significantly affected. Once you have determined which components can handle some cutbacks, the trick is to find ways to cut these costs that will not be noticeable to your attendees.

For example, you might opt for a lunch event, instead of a dinner event, or you might go with an off-brand digital camera, rather than a name brand camera for an incentive travel pillow gift. You can also opt for business class for flights, or bypass flying entirely and opt for train travel, or a bus charter if the event is close to home. Some planners have also found having servers pass appetizers, rather than having a buffet-style set up, provides significant savings, as folks tend to eat less when they are served in this manner.

When it comes to transportation, there are several ways you can cut costs without giving up too much quality. In fact, if you sell it right, your attendees will never even know the changes were made to save money. For example, many meeting and event options that are eco-friendly also offer significant cost savings, which makes these options even more appealing for corporate planners.

One example is choosing to hold your corporate meeting or event closer to home. This allows you to avoid paying for expensive airfares and allows you to use more cost-effective transportation options, such as train travel and bus charters. Because air travel has a huge environmental impact, it is easy to sell the avoidance of flying to meetings as an eco-friendly measure. This allows your employer or client to benefit from the positive public sentiment green meetings encourage, as well as the cost savings this option allows.

If you cannot avoid flying to your destination, you can still save money by offering only business class or coach seating, or by holding your event near the airport to save on ground transportation. While airport hotels were once considered a less-than-ideal option, many have undergone considerable renovations or have added enticing extras to make these locations far more appealing.