What on earth does a corporate travel manager do?

Some companies may not have a corporate travel manager and some have entire teams that manage the corporate travel program. Regardless of size and structure, the typical corporate travel manager’s activities are usually similar across companies.  Here are some of the highlights:

• Travel Supplier Management:  A corporate travel manager negotiates and manages your company’s contracts with airlines, hotels and car rental providers and more.  This requires a great deal of analysis and tough negotiations.  Even tougher is making sure the travelers are getting discounts on what they need most and buying what is discounted.
• Reporting and Analysis:  Next to payroll and real estate, travel is often a significant expense to companies and most measure the spending behavior very closely. Your travel manager spends a good deal of time monitoring data related to purchasing, contract savings, policy adherence and program performance to start.  Then, they spend even more time creating context and analysis for their senior leadership.
• Duty of Care:  If you travel for business, your employer has a duty to ensure you are safe.  Most travelers are not aware that corporate programs have tools that track itineraries so that they are accessible in the event of an emergency.  Your travel manager is monitoring these tools and is a key player in most corporate protocols related to disaster recovery.  Most travel managers are acutely aware of geo-political events, major market disruptions, aircraft/hotel/rail incidents etc and have detailed plans on how to handle each.
• Customer Care:  Your travel manager is often involved in resolving specific issues for travelers–which may involve negotiation when resolution costs are high. Sometimes a corporate travel manager is simply calling an airline representative to “make something happen” for a VIP traveler.  Oftentimes, the corporate travel manager is interacting with you, the business traveler, answering a question or connecting you to the right information.
• Managing the call center/online booking tool processes:  Someone has to work with the travel management company (like ours, BCD Travel) and the online booking tool to establish and implement good policies, procedures and vendor agreements.  Decisions on travel policy, contract pricing, booking methods and procedures are all managed and implemented by your corporate travel manager (with input from company leadership).

If there is any time left over in the day, you’ll commonly find your travel manager:

• Learning about new aircraft, airline services, hotels etc and how they relate to your company needs
• Learning about transportation networks, airports, rail services in the areas your company travels to.
• What have I missed?

This in no way is the limit to what a Travel Manager does.  While some companies don’t even have an official travel department, many travel managers do much, much more.  Some day, I’ll dive deep on some interesting things travel managers do. If you book your business travel with BCD Travel, we probably work with your travel manager all the time.  We’ll put in a good word for ya!  ;)

Miriam Moscovici, BCD Travel

At BCD Travel we understand that despite the economic climate, traveling is still an important aspect of doing business today. With this in mind, we have created a series of mini-city guide podcasts to help the budget-conscious business traveler. Our series of podcasts provides you with some helpful hints and tips on how you can save money.

Visit BCD Travel Podcasts to listen, download or subscribe!

At BCD Travel we understand that despite the economic climate, traveling is still an important aspect of doing business today. With this in mind, we have created a series of mini-city guide podcasts to help the budget-conscious business traveler. Our series of podcasts provides you with some helpful hints and tips on how you can save money.

Visit BCD Travel Podcasts to listen, download or subscribe!

At BCD Travel we understand that despite the economic climate, traveling is still an important aspect of doing business today. With this in mind, we have created a series of mini-city guide podcasts to help the budget-conscious business traveler. Our series of podcasts provides you with some helpful hints and tips on how you can save money.

Visit BCD Travel Podcast to listen, download or subscribe!

At BCD Travel we understand that despite the economic climate, traveling is still an important aspect of doing business today. With this in mind, we have created a series of mini-city guide podcasts to help the budget-conscious business traveler. Our series of podcasts provides you with some helpful hints and tips on how you can save money.

Visit BCD Travel Podcasts to listen, download or subscribe!

Ever wonder how to spin a positive light on all of the miles you put under your belt?

Carol Margolis has an excellent resume for the frequent traveler.

At BCD Travel we understand that despite the economic climate, traveling is still an important aspect of doing business today. With this in mind, we have created a series of mini-city guide podcasts to help the budget-conscious business traveler. Our series of podcasts provides you with some helpful hints and tips on you can save money.

Visit BCD Travel Podcasts to listen, download or subscribe!

At BCD Travel we understand that despite the economic climate, traveling is still an important aspect of doing business today. With this in mind, we have created a series of mini-city guide podcasts to help the budget-conscious business traveler. Our series of podcasts provides you with some helpful hints and tips on how you can save money.

Visit BCD Travel Podcasts to listen, download or subscribe.

Boston’s landscape has changed visibly with the addition of ultra-modern architecture and innovative urban planning projects. Culturally, the city’s à la mode reputation has grown, as artists, literati, thespians and filmmakers rediscover the city’s rich resources.

Boston is full of stylish hotels, trendy shops, and cutting-edge restaurants rivaling those in New York and Chicago. Unlike those more geographically expansive cities, though, Boston is small enough to navigate with a pair of comfy shoes.

Getting there
Boston Logan International Airport sees more than 400,000 flights per year. Located in the inner harbor, Logan is accessible via subway, bus, taxi, limousine, rental car and water transport. The newly renovated Airport Station train terminal includes free shuttle buses to all airline terminals and the water transport dock. Airport Station connects to Government Center Station, a train hub for the green and blue T lines.

Getting around Beantown
Unless you have business in the suburbs, driving is not recommended in Boston. The roads are not laid out in a comprehensive manner, making them difficult to navigate.

Walking is not the only way to get around Boston. The “T” is Boston’s extensive subway and bus system. It is the most efficient and economical option to travel around Boston and serves most areas of the city, Cambridge and outlying suburbs.

Taxis are plentiful, although more expensive than in many other cities, but luckily most destinations are within city limits, including Logan airport. “Trolleys” (buses made to look like trolleys) are aimed at visitors and can be a fun way to get around the city. Simply buy a day pass and hop-on, hop-off as you please.

There are also a number of water shuttles, water taxis and public ferries available from several ports and the waterfront area.

Don’t miss…

The Freedom Trail
Walking the two-and-a-half-mile Freedom Trail between Bunker Hill and the 50-acre Boston Common (central park) is a great way to get acquainted with Old Boston. The mostly brick red line passes 16 major historic landmarks, including the King’s Chapel & cemetery, Faneuil Hall, Old North Church, USS Constitution (Old Ironsides) and Bunker Hill. Allow three hours to walk the entire trail at a leisurely pace. Ninety-minute guided tours with guides dressed in 18th century costumes also are available.

Boston Public Garden
Created in 1837, the Public Garden is the oldest botanical garden in the United States. The park includes 24 acres maintained in the Victorian style in the heart of Old Boston bounded by Arlington, Boylston, Charles and Beacon Streets. Arlington Station is the closest “T” stop (on the green line). Cut through the park for a pleasant stroll between destinations. Recommends BCD Travel senior corporate travel consultant Fran McGeough: visit the depiction of children’s book Make Way for Ducklings; or (between April 18 and Sept. 20) take a 15-minute excursion in the lagoon in one of the famous Swan Boats (US $2.75 per adult), still operated by the Paget family since the 1870s.

Fenway Park
Founded in 1912, Fenway Park is the historic home of Boston’s Major League Baseball team, the Red Sox. Attending a night game at Fenway, home of the iconic 37-foot-tall wall in left field (the Green Monster), is a quintessential Boston experience that offers the opportunity to sample a plump, juicy Fenway Frank, sip a beer and mix it up with 39,000 of baseball’s most intense fans.

Where to eat
Boston has experienced a culinary revolution, with a dining scene now on a par with cities like San Francisco, Chicago and New York. Here are some of our top picks:

Oleana
134 Hampshire Street, Cambridge
Tel: +(617) 66-0505
Owned by award-winning chef Ana Sortun, Oleana serves innovative food with a strong North African influence. Tantalizing starters include whipped feta with sweet peppers and tamarind-glazed beef with smoked aubergine purée, followed by mains such as a meltingly tender Turkish lamb.

647 Tremont
647 Tremont St.
Tel: + (617) 266-4600
Tremont, where “the waiters are all wearing pajamas, and the brunch is awesome.” Entrees include gingerbread pancakes and Andy’s Huevos Rancheros. Owner Andy Husbands is famous for his barbecue, and executive chef Owen Tilley draws inspiration from Latin and Caribbean “hot zones.”

Mikes Pastries
300 Hanover Street
Tel: +(617) 742-3050
Heaven on earth exists in this tiny bakery located in Boston’s “Little Italy” on the North End of town. Lines of sweet toothed patrons wrap the block at all hours of the day and night. Although Mikes is known for their cannoli’s, you will surely be satisfied with any selection.

Shopping

Boston rivals better known destinations when it comes to shopping—with boutiques & unique shopping experiences as well as malls, department stores and chains. Striking in the interesting mix of brownstones and more modern architecture lining it, Newbury Street has evolved from its college-town origins into a diverse shopper’s paradise, mixing tourist traps, bohemian avant-garde and high end—Boston’s equivalent of New York’s Fifth Avenue. The district is also a favorite of antique aficionados.

For the mall-shopping experience try Copley Place. Located two blocks south of historic Copley Square, Copley Place Mall offers high-end retail and designer stores (Gucci and Christian Dior) within minutes of Boston Public Library, the Hancock Tower and Trinity Church. Attached to Copley by a walkway is Prudential Towers, which bills itself as New England’s #1 shopping & dining destination with more than 75 shops and restaurants.

Quincy Market (Faneuil Hall Marketplace) sits adjacent to the 250-year-old Faneuil Hall and includes indoor retail stores, outdoor carts and kiosks and a cosmopolitan atmosphere punctuated by street performers (jugglers, clowns, magicians, mimes and musicians). Nestled near the waterfront, financial district, North End and Haymarket (farmer’s market), it is a great place for both shopping and dining.