Business Trip for a Group of Employees: Booking and Things to Keep in Mind

Contents

• Booking a Group Business Trip
• Types of Group Business Trips
• Potential Issues Booking a Group Trip
• Booking Tickets and Accommodation for a Group
• Things to Remember

Booking a Group Business Trip

A group business trip is a trip involving several company employees traveling to pursue a corporate objective. It could be about a team from headquarters going to a local branch in another location or area to audit the branch office. 

Travel service companies, agencies, and providers, hotels, and airlines have different definitions for “group trip” but frequently refer to purchasing airline tickets for at least 10 people and a minimum of 5 hotel rooms. 

You can use Roundtrip to self-book services for 9 employees, and if there are more people, a request must be made in the Offline Requests sections. A manager will help book airline or train tickets as well as rooms for the entire group in the same hotel. If a selected flight or hotel does have enough availability for the entire group, a Roundtrip specialist will propose alternatives, such as flights or hotels near each other.

A group business trip is a trip involving several company employees traveling to pursue a corporate objective. Photo: PeopleImages.com – Yuri A / Shutterstock.com

Types of Group Business Trips

Depending on corporate needs, there may be several types of group business trips. Let’s look at some of them.

Going to an Event. A corporation may send several employees to a large forum or conference. This kind of business event includes many useful panels and roundtables at the same time; therefore, a corporation may send a group of employees to visit most of the event’s sessions. 

Negotiations. When there is a large and complicated transaction, a delegation may include lawyers, financial specialists, and other types of company experts in addition to top managers.

Training. Some team members from a branch office may travel to headquarters for training if a company is introducing new work-related regulations throughout its organization.

Corporate Outing. This could be a team building event to bring team members closer together or celebrating a company anniversary. An organization may also take a group of its top employees to a strategic session to define corporate plans and objectives for the year.

When a transaction is major or complicated, a delegation may include attorneys, financial specialists, and other experts to address all matters.
Photo: Gorodenkoff / Shutterstock.com

Potential Issues Booking a Group Trip

When several co-workers go on the road together, travel managers and other employees may have a problem compiling a single budget and obtaining supporting documents. But there may be other difficulties that are described below. 

Compiling a Budget. Let’s say that employees from different levels go on the same trip, and the corporation is willing to spend more on top managers. To avoid misunderstandings, a corporation must develop a travel policy, which is a regulation that describes every aspect of a business trip. For instance, it will specify the amount of per diem for every level of employee as well as the highest fare class and hotel category available to employees in different departments.

Emergencies. When there is a group booking, it is possible that someone will need to be removed or replaced because of illness, for instance. This means urgent arrangements will have to be made with the carrier and hotel regarding the change in the travelers without losing the money already paid for tickets or accommodation.

Obtaining Supporting Documents. After the trip, employees must account to a bookkeeper for their expenses by providing tickets and boarding passes as well as any receipts and hotel invoices. If some document is lost, the carrier must be contacted for a copy of the ticket or the hotel for the original receipts and confirmations.

After the trip, employees must account to a bookkeeper for their expenses by providing tickets and boarding passes.
Photo: PeopleImages.com – Yuri A / Shutterstock.com

Booking Tickets and Accommodation for a Group

There are certain things to keep in mind when booking tickets and accommodation for a group. Here is an example from Roundtrip. 

Airline Tickets. If the group has 9 or fewer people, it is possible to purchase airline tickets in a single booking. If it has more, an extra booking will have to be made.

Train Tickets. When planning a business trip by train, you can self-book up to 36 tickets in a single order but the number of passengers cannot be greater than 9. Tickets may be round-trip and may include connections. If there are more passengers, you can go to the group booking area or create several bookings.

Hotels. A single Roundtrip booking can include up to 9 rooms in the same hotel. If you need more rooms, you will need to create a purchase order under your account or send an email request to the group booking department at [email protected]. It is important to remember that if a member of the group cannot travel, you will need to cancel the entire booking. 

When planning a business trip by train, you can self-book up to 36 tickets in a single order but the number of passengers cannot be greater than 9.
Photo: Rawpixel.com / Shutterstock.com

Once the business trip is complete, supporting documents for the tickets and accommodation will appear in your account for all bookings. Employees can also generate, print, and/or email their expense reports to accounting.

Things to Remember

• Different companies will have different ideas regarding what a group trip is. For example, a booking for 2 to 5 people. Hotels and travel aggregators normally define a group as a team of over 9 people.
• There are different types of group trips. Employees may be dispatched to a conference or forum, to negotiate with business partners, to take part in corporate training or skill upgrade sessions, as well as to parties, team building, and strategic sessions. 
• Issues may be encountered in booking a group business trip. It may not be easy to compile a budget for all travelers, replace a team member because of illness or other emergency, or obtain supporting evidence after a business trip. These issues can be overcome, some using the Roundtrip platform.
• The platform enables you to make a group booking quickly and conveniently in the Offline Requests section. After the trip is complete, all supporting documents will automatically appear in the customer’s account area.

A Roundtrip group booking specialist will offer a suitable flight and hotel for all team members, book a single transfer, and rent a hotel conference room for a corporate event.

Go on a group business trip

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