1. Get Negotiated Rates
Maximizing your profit and optimizing your costs requires time — and a lot of it.
Assuming you don’t have the time to call each individual hotel to negotiate separate discounted agreements for each one, you’re likely paying more than you should be.
Online booking websites often advertise competitive rates, but they can add an assortment of surprise charges and service fees to the final bill. You may also find yourself limited to low-grade discounts if you’re part of a lodging discount program that has a restricted number of in-network hotels.
Assuming you don’t have the time to call each individual hotel to negotiate separate discounted agreements for each one, you’re likely paying more than you should be.
Online booking websites often advertise competitive rates, but they can add an assortment of surprise charges and service fees to the final bill. You may also find yourself limited to low-grade discounts if you’re part of a lodging discount program that has a restricted number of in-network hotels.
2. Wasting Less Time
When it comes to managing crew travel expenses, time is of the essence. This can often become an issue if you receive a last-minute request to book hotel rooms for multiple people.
Does this sound familiar? Probably.
That’s because most booking processes are done manually, which is a liability for you and your crew. Sometimes it involves multiple spreadsheets, which become problematic to track.
The more time and energy you put into managing crew housing expenses, the larger the project cost, and the smaller the profit.
Does this sound familiar? Probably.
That’s because most booking processes are done manually, which is a liability for you and your crew. Sometimes it involves multiple spreadsheets, which become problematic to track.
The more time and energy you put into managing crew housing expenses, the larger the project cost, and the smaller the profit.
3. Accurately Managing Your Invoices & Projects
Crew travel expenses are hard to accurately estimate. If the spending isn’t clear, the budget won’t be clear either. A crew’s direct costs are sometimes underestimated or completely overlooked, which causes a discrepancy in the final budget.
In another scenario, you may forget to issue a credit card authorization form. If your crew doesn’t have the booking credit card on them, they won’t be able to check-in. To make matters worse, when your crew returns, you notice an incorrect billing charge.
Without the ability to properly manage and estimate travel expenses, your team will be left with extra or unaccounted-for costs and scrambling to fill in the blanks.
4. Better Reporting
Proper reporting takes time and we know that time is money. If you’re putting all of your efforts into manually entering individual data points, collecting invoices, or running information from different systems, you are losing time and money.
Whether it’s sharing raw data with your teams or calculating your budget spend, you need to be able to depend on the accuracy and accessibility of your reporting tools. Visibility matters and can go a long way in managing your crew’s funds, whereabouts, and accommodations.
Whether it’s sharing raw data with your teams or calculating your budget spend, you need to be able to depend on the accuracy and accessibility of your reporting tools. Visibility matters and can go a long way in managing your crew’s funds, whereabouts, and accommodations.