Ah, the moment when your boss walks up to you and says you’re in charge of organising the upcoming company getaway. No big deal, right?. You just have to handle group reservations like flights and hotels for 85 people from London to Barcelona.Breaking a sweat at the thought?. Group travel booking is a bucket of stress. Between everyone's differing stay requirements, setting travel dates that suit the most people, finding the best hotel rates, and trolling the internet for the best travel package deals or special offers, it can be a handful.If you’ve found yourself in a similar situation, then you’ve now found yourself in the right place. We sat down with TravelPerk’s Group Travel and Events Team and have laid out all of their group travel tips and tricks in this interview. First up, meet your experts. We spoke to: Together, the trio are unstoppable. Claudia and the team are in charge of booking huge numbers of group trips for teams of every size, while Ester oversees TravelPerk’s MICE strategy. Plus, with Lucy on-side, you’re about to receive TravelPerk’s very best booking secrets. If anyone asks, you didn’t hear it from us!

Group bookings for flights can be tricky. Let’s see what tips our MICE experts have to offer.

“Airlines class a group booking as any request that comes through for 10 seats or more with the same carrier, route and date. That said, each airline has differences in what they consider as the minimum amount to provide group fares from.", says Claudia. "This all depends on the time of the year you decide to travel as it will be affected by market conditions and major events taking place—for example, The Olympics—and the current demand for your specific flight.Different airlines (like Southwest Airlines, Delta, American Airlines, United Airlines, for example) will have different fares and benefits for you depending on your specific group booking requirements.”

“Airlines don’t necessarily offer special pricing when it comes to groups. What they do offer is assurance that everyone in your group will get on the same flight and they’ll guarantee the same fare for the entire group—no surprises here or fare fluctuations.Let's say you're flying from Houston to Hawaii for your corporate retreat. Airlines will do their best to guarantee that everyone going is on the same flight, and if the flight cancels, the airline will provide the best alternatives for your group to ensure they all still travel together—subject to   ticketing availability, of course!”

“Great question. One key thing to know is that most airlines don’t offer group fares directly to individuals, only to travel agencies. This means you’ll be at a disadvantage if booking it yourself as you won’t benefit from a group rate nor will have flexibility when it comes to making the numerous changes that groups often require. Booking individually will also translate into not having a guarantee that everyone will get on the same flight. Plus, most businesses don’t splurge for free cancellation, so you are locked into those dates and times, and those specific travellers.On the other hand, with group booking that has been negotiated with the airline, they typically give you time to make changes. It’s different for every carrier, but usually, you’re allowed to add or remove 10% of the passengers up to a month beforehand, and you don’t have to give their names at the time of booking—which I’m sure you can imagine, is incredibly useful.”Thanks, Claudia. Ester, anything to add to that? “Certainly! Group booking flights can also become quite a tedious and time-consuming process as it requires longer handling time and the knowledge of an expert to make sure the right arrangements and terms and conditions are in place for the group. At TravelPerk, the team understands booking group flights may not be your day-to-day responsibility, this is why we have a dedicated team of experts to assist you with that. It’s important to know that unlike direct booking online,

group bookings

follow a manual process and can be a little slow as we contact multiple airlines to get different pricing options to ensure we capture the best deal. But, the outcome is always worth the input.”

“Remember, if you do decide to book the flight tickets online with individual rates, there is no guarantee that you can get all travellers from the group on the same flight since the online tickets are open for sale for everyone. You might get to the last group of five or eight flyers, and there could be no availability. If you’ve planned enough in advance, this is very rare, but it is still a risk. So, you have to be willing to risk that some travellers will need to take a different route or carrier if you want to get the best, lowest travel deals that day.

“

Group flight bookings

also come with their set of special travel conditions to ensure that for those last-minute cancellations, or even air traffic disruptions alien to you, can be sorted seamlessly for your entire group; ensuring a solution is in place for all travellers at the same time and with the same conditions.With the airline's commitment to getting your entire group onboard, they also need to make sure they are keeping their costs under control as a group cancellation can translate into many unsold tickets suddenly for a flight, which they may struggle to resell.Because of that, they will calculate an average rate for all the people in your group, and this can look more expensive than if you were to add up multiple individual bookings.”Interesting, can you give us an example of how this works in the real world?“Sure! Let’s say that you go to a popular travel booking site and you see that the cost for the flight you want is £50 for one person, but the airline knows that as the date gets closer they can sell it for £150, so the price they decide to give you at £80 per ticket because of your group size. This is why, for groups that fall under the minimum threshold airlines class as eligible for group fares, our very own

Group Travel and Events Team

will always recommend you booking those through TravelPerk’s platform for you to benefit from the best corporate individual fare in those cases.”

“Getting a group deal from an airline is not always the best price. The airfare per flight on a group booking deal is often higher than if you log in to

Tr

a

velPerk

or tally up the individual flight costs. That’s because the airline knows how much they make on average for a ticket on that particular day, and they can calculate what they expect to make for a round-trip. That said, booking group flights may end up saving you money as the same fare will be guaranteed for all your travellers as opposed to having many individual fares all priced differently (and perhaps more expensive!). The only other thing to watch out for are blackout dates where airfares may reach peak and availability will be limited—do your best to avoid them!”

“For starters, when organising group bookings for flights, it’s important to know the group booking criteria of the airlines beforehand and what they class as a ‘group’. A rule of thumb is that the number of passengers should be at least ten with the same flight so that a reservation can be regarded as a "group" reservation. In case the number of passengers is less than ten, then group terms will not apply, in which case your best option will be to book individually”.Thanks, Ester. And, Claudia, do you have anything else you’d like businesses booking group travel to consider?“Sure. Unlike a direct booking online, this process is manual and can be a little slow, in some cases between 1 to 10 days as you’ll want to contact multiple airlines to get different pricing options. So, you’ll need to be able to give your travel manager time!Lastly, with a small corporate group, it’s often cheaper to book the flights yourself. When I do this for our clients, I group them in batches of eight. Some carriers, especially the low-cost carriers, will jack up the price right after someone has booked, so I wait a couple of hours before handling the next batch of eight travellers—now there’s a secret for you!”

What about hotels? Let's see what we can learn from TravelPerk’s Group Travel and Events Team for this area of group booking.

“In general, it’s much easier to negotiate prices for big groups with hotels than it is with airlines. They might experience less predictability with bookings and might be more likely to offer you a volume-based discount.As hotel rates don't fluctuate as much, hotels look at their inventory availability for the specific time of year you are looking to book for your group, and based on that, they’ll come up with a flat rate for all of your travellers throughout the requested length of stay. This doesn't mean that the group rate you'll receive is cheaper than an individual rate, but it will represent overall cost savings as you’ll have the same rate guaranteed for your entire group and stay period—as opposed to individual dynamic pricing per room per night. This rate will also offer the flexibility you need to allow for any rooming list changes up to 30-14 days before the group's arrival, typically at no additional cost.”

“To obtain the hotels' best group offers, you need to email the desired properties and provide specific details such as dates, number of rooms, meal requirements, room type, etc. You'll need to check their minimum stay requirements and look at the competitive fares they offer for these timeframes. Keep in mind that for business trips, it’s advised to not force employees to share a room whenever possible!To be able to get the options with the availability you need, contact at least five to 15 different hotels, and after getting those prices start the negotiation process to improve the prices and conditions for each.The biggest advantage of having an expert behind your hotel group booking—specifically TravelPerk’s Group Travel & Events Team—is the hotel partnerships and plugged-in knowledge that comes with them. We know exactly which hotel to contact based on your desired destination, budget, and further special requirements.”

Claudia pitched in on what else you can consider negotiating for when booking for a group. “While it is quite hard to negotiate special rates, the hotels are open to providing extra benefits for your group stay such as free meals, room upgrades, or earlier check-in (subject to availability).”

“As is the same for the flights, to obtain group train fares, you should have at least 10+ people travelling together.Booking group trains can offer several advantages, such as ensuring that your group can travel together and sit in close proximity, making it easier to coordinate and communicate during the journey. Additionally, booking as a group may also provide discounted rates or special offers, saving you money on your overall travel expenses. It can also simplify the booking process by allowing you to make one reservation for the entire group, rather than individual bookings for each member. Overall, booking group trains can enhance the overall travel experience for you and your companions.The conditions, prices and availability of the train group fares vary depending on the train company, destinations, and demand.The biggest pros of requesting our team to help you with the group train tickets is that for most train carriers the group is automatically sitting together if they booked as a group and for some providers you do not require the names at all and you can decide who is travelling last moment.”

The team has even more tips for us when considering booking group travel.

“First, we have to look at what it is that we want to book, whether it is a hotel, airline an/or train charters. We then initiate the search and negotiate a group rate offline. We then review the most suitable options based on specific requirements for the group and budget. Once agreed, a request for contract will be sent to the hotel/airline/train.”

“If you’re in a time crunch, it’s not worth it to negotiate back and forth with the airline/train charter for a better price as as the time goes on, the average ticket cost will rise, which means they will only want to charge you more.Bear in mind airlines and train charters can sometimes take 24 – 48 hours to get back to you, so you’re not in a good position to negotiate for trips that are coming up soon. In the case of hotels, similar happens here, as the longer we wait availability will reduce and the risk will increase the hotel may not be able to offer the amount of rooms we need anymore.Definitely knowing what to negotiate depends on the company. I take a different approach for each carrier and hotel depending on the situation. That’s a big reason why customers appreciate our team so much. They don’t have to worry about trying to get a better deal, which is an art. We handle all the negotiations.”

“We once planned for 400 people to come to Barcelona for the

Netcentric Summit

. They were from 12 different locations. We sent out a Typeform asking everyone where they are coming from and how long they will be staying. Then, we sorted these responses and grouped people together based on location and dates. Once we did that, we based our approach on what was right for each individual group.”

“It can take anywhere from three days to three months. Of course, three months is on the extreme end, things like conferences and big events with multiple attendees and speakers. One to two weeks is more typical!"

“Well, we’ve got a lot of them. A recent one that comes to mind is an off-site we help to coordinate for Intelletec. They wanted to unite their team of nearly 24 employees for a team building event in Tampa. They’d previously relied on a traditional travel agency for these types of events but were getting frustrated with slow response times, hidden fees, and a lack of booking and changes flexibility. TravelPerk helped them leave that travel trauma behind, and effortlessly united their team for an epic celebration of team spirit. We saved their HR team time and money, and it was a true success.”

“The best thing you can do is to get all of the information upfront—especially as you’ll often score better rates (particularly with hotels) when booking well in advanced. Try to proactively ask questions. Don’t just stop at knowing that you need a hotel in Tampa or San Francisco, for example. Find out exactly what neighbourhood and what style of hotel is preferred, like modern or boutique. Remember, the bigger the group, the longer the logistics. I also try to get pre-approved for booking, especially with trips that are coming up soon. Let’s say there is a group trip of 16 people and the trip is six weeks away. I will tell the client about why the group booking rates for the airline will be more expensive, and that my approach is to handle the booking manually.Then, I’ll let them know that as long as the second batch of eight isn’t a difference of more than 50 euros, I will book it myself. Of course, that’s just an example, but the point is that I try proactively to minimise the back-and-forth if time is an issue. There’s a balance between saving the client money and saving them time. If I take too long to book, it can waste money. So, I always make sure to get as much information as I can and get approval to book beforehand if that’s needed. But for most trips, I’m able to show them the options and let them decide before the final booking.”

“If you’re booking something for a company event, you can use the same strategy: try to get approval and information from the right people upfront if you can.

“A few common mistakes we see when people are trying to make unassisted group bookings are: All of these mistakes are easily avoided, it’s just that people don’t know they’re making them in the first place. 

“If companies want help with group bookings, we can handle the entire process. We decide the best approach and negotiate the rate or we will manually book the trip.Choosing to go with the expert for the group reservation can offer several benefits. They do have expertise in handling group bookings and can provide valuable assistance throughout the process. They can help you find the best deals, negotiate group rates, and coordinate all the logistics for your group trip. Moreover, having access to a wide range of resources and connections in the travel industry can help ensure a smooth and successful group booking experience. Additionally, the group of experts can provide personalised service and support, helping to alleviate the stress and time-consuming tasks associated with planning a group trip. Overall, choosing to have an expert for your group booking can save you time, money, and hassle, while also providing peace of mind knowing that your group trip is in good hands.When a customer books one group event with us, they nearly always use the service for their next events. We just take so much stress off their shoulders. The constant support is a huge load off. There are just so many mishaps that can happen with big numbers of travellers.”

There are two steps that need to be completed to access TravelPerk’s Group Travel & Events team:  To learn more, check out

TravelPerk Premium

to get all the details and FAQs on

TravelPerk Group Booking

.