WASTING MONEY ON TRAVEL

Research carried out for Gates Business Travel by the Advantage Group, has revealed that Small to Medium Enterprises (SME’s) are wasting over £175 million each year through letting staff book rail, flights and hotels themselves on the internet. This wasted cash is made up not only of the staff time taken to search out and make bookings but also the actual cost of the travel itself.

“The internet is most certainly not the holy grail of cost savings that many people think it is”, said Nick Chaloner, Managing Director of Gates Business Travel. “Not only that but internet sites cannot provide assistance during emergency situations, while we offer our clients a 24 hour, 7 day per week help line service”.

Established over 75 years ago, Gates Business Travel provides a comprehensive travel management service to over 200 clients across Cumbria and more widely, including organisations such as Cumbria County Council, The University of Cumbria, Groupama Insurance, Lakeland and several NHS PCT’s. Gates Business Travel has a dedicated business travel team located in a purpose made business centre in Kendal.

“We understand that every business has to balance the need to travel in order to conduct business with the need to manage the costs of business travel”, continues Chaloner. “We aim to provide a highly personalised service and the very best value possible without sacrificing the quality our customers expect. Our dedicated team cut through the complexity of travel to save time and money”

Having invested in the latest technology, means that Gates Business Travel consultants have access to more than 400 airlines, 76,000 hotels, 28 car rental companies and 220 tour operators. Gates Business Travel is also unique in the UK as the only travel management company operating Fujitsu’s STAR rail ticket retailing system. This is a very powerful and comprehensive system designed for high-volume ticket issues and is used by many train operating companies.

“This means we can often save our clients between 20-48% on the cost of their travel” concludes Chaloner, “which is important at any time but especially so in the current economic downturn.” ENDS