As travel managers and admin professionals know, booking business trips can get messy pretty quickly… and that’s assuming you’re only booking for a single person. Add in the complexities of booking for a group, and you have a recipe for confusion and frustration.Not to worry, though—there are plenty of tools and services out there that can help you organize things, so that the travel planning for your next team event can go off without a hitch. Here’s a guide to help you prepare for your next group travel experience and make your travel program a success.

There are already several things to think about when booking local or global business travel for just one individual. When starting the

business travel booking

process, you’ll need to consider:

Another option for organizing group travel for business is a traditional travel agency. Many companies opt to book via a

corporate travel agency

specializing in business travel. Others choose to use a local travel agent who works mainly with consumers.Booking through a travel agency has some benefits over self-booking. For medium-sized or large groups, travel agents might be able to secure group rates on transportation or accommodation.  Like travel management platforms, travel agents will typically be able to arrange group bookings so that everyone stays together during the trip. They may also be able to book group activities in the destination.Using a corporate

travel management company

(TMC) is often more suitable for businesses than using a local travel agent with limited inventory. This is because some corporate TMCs offer services such as expense tracking and

travel policy

management.However, many corporate agencies require strict one-year contracts and have complicated fee models. Between all the various booking fees and transaction fees, using a corporate travel agency can really add up—and it also doesn’t offer your business much predictability over travel spend, pricing, and overall costs.If you use a travel agency, once your bookings are made, your team won’t have any flexibility to modify them for “bleisure” travel or changes in plans. Every time they want to make a change, they’ll have to contact the travel agency again—leading to the same long email chains you were trying to avoid in the first place. The travel agency will also have to manually chase down traveler information from all event attendees. Because of these complications, travelers will often simply avoid using the agency, instead choosing to book their travel themselves.Overall, travel management software is a better solution than either a corporate travel agency or a local agent. Booking group travel through an agency is much more complicated than using a digital platform, especially if travelers are located in different places. Trying to coordinate between an agency and a distributed team can easily lead to confusion and mistakes.Many travel agencies only offer customer support during office hours, whereas a travel management software like TravelPerk will have 24/7 human support available online, via chat, or by phone. This can be a lifesaver if unexpected circumstances arise.

Finally, you also have the option of booking via consumer websites, like Booking.com or Skyscanner. As the travel manager, you could do all the online bookings yourself, or you could arrange for each traveler to self-book individually.