Tag Archives: Business Trip

The Key Business Travel Agent Skills that Make the Difference

If you are looking forward to making a business trip abroad, the first and foremost step to take is looking for a business travel agent, who will be able to make all the necessary arrangements for the trip to go ahead smoothly. If you are in London, you will find a number of business travel agents around you and each of them will claim to be the best in terms of professionalism, knowledge, and competence.

However, you just cannot take their claim by their face value. You need to evaluate them on the basis of certain skill sets. Thus, let us discuss the key skills that business travel agents in London would need to have, to satisfy your needs of the hour.

The Ability to Chalk Out a Travel Itinerary and Plan

This is supposed to be the first and foremost skill that a travel agent needs to have. It needs to take into account your business needs and travel agenda and the timing thereof, and prepare a plan that will help meet those obligations right on time, and at minimum price.

Besides, when it comes to planning, they must have the ability and infrastructure to use the Global Distribution System of GDS to book flights and hotels, private transportation service providers, and other facilities that you may need during the trip. Thus, they need to have an in-depth knowledge of the travel industry and connections with the services associated with the industry, the providers thereof, and sound knowledge of geographical areas around the globe.

An Established Relationship with Suppliers and Power of Negotiation

Qualified travel agents in and around London arranging overseas business trips must have established and fruitful relationships with various suppliers and service providers associated directly or indirectly with the travel industry. This will not only help them set up arrangements for their clients but will also help them obtain the best rates while booking accommodation, transportation, and other utilities. They also need to have excellent negotiating power, which will help them secure various deals at the best rates as per the need and the budget of their clients.

An Ability to Manage Trips

Besides booking overseas business trips and securing the best deals at the behest of their clients, these business travel agents need to have the intellect and acumen of managing any last-minute deviation from the original itinerary and or any issues that might crop up in the midst of trips.

They have to have the ability to deal with and sort out issues like processing of tickets in the event of any change in plans, refunds, sorting out difficulties with the usage of payment using credit or debit cards, and the likes. In short, your travel agent needs to act as your first point of contact, and the problem solver in the event of any issue before or during the trip.

Thus, if you are looking for a travel agent for your business trip to South Africa from London, you expect the agent to be your friend in your need of the hour – any time.

Act as a Solid Post-trip Support

Besides, the travel agent also has to be your post-trip support, when it comes to managing expense reports, handling invoices, reconciling accounts, helping in insurance claims, if needed, and the likes.

What better name can you opt for, than Prilam Group Ltd? Call us at 02079711302 from Monday to Friday, between 09:00 am and 06:00 pm. We don’t work on Saturdays and Sundays.