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Corporate Traveller vs DIY travel management
When managing business travel, choosing between handling it yourself or partnering with an expert can make all the difference. DIY travel booking might seem like a straightforward solution—after all, it's a familiar process where you have complete control. But for growing businesses, this approach can quickly become a burden, leading to inefficiencies, unexpected costs, and wasted time.
Designed specifically for businesses that demand more than just basic travel booking, Corporate Traveller offers a comprehensive travel management solution built to address business travel's unique challenges. With a blend of advanced technology and personalized service, Corporate Traveller goes beyond simple bookings. It ensures every aspect of your travel programme is efficient, economical, and satisfying.
In essence, Corporate Traveller provides the specialised support and sophisticated tools that DIY can't match. Let's discuss the key differences between Corporate Traveller and DIY travel booking to see which option meets your business needs.
What is DIY travel management?
DIY travel management is handling all your business travel needs independently, without the help of a dedicated travel management company (TMC). It usually involves using online booking tools and platforms to arrange flights, hotels, and transportation, often with the belief that it's saving time and money.
While it might work for small trips or occasional travel, as your business grows, managing bookings, handling last-minute changes, and ensuring compliance with travel policies can become overwhelming, time-consuming, and prone to errors. Plus, without the buying power and expertise of a TMC, you might miss out on valuable deals and perks.
Corporate Traveller vs DIY travel management: 8 key differences
Centralised booking vs fragmented booking
DIY travel requires juggling multiple sites for flights, hotels, and cars, which leads to wasted time and missed savings. Corporate Traveller centralises everything in Melon, streamlining booking and ensuring policy compliance.
Managing business travel involves booking flights, hotels, and car rentals. Sometimes, there are even more complex needs, such as coordinating multiple travellers or ensuring compliance with company policies.
With a DIY approach, this often means jumping from one platform to another—one site for flights, another for hotels, and yet another for car rentals. This consumes valuable time and increases the likelihood of higher costs, errors, missed connections, and policy breaches.
Corporate Traveller simplifies this process with a centralised, all-in-one booking platform, Melon. It allows you to book flights, accommodations, and cars all from one place, with the added benefits of tailored recommendations and access to exclusive deals. Melon's intuitive design ensures that your team can book, manage, and report on travel with just a few clicks while keeping everything compliant with your policies.
With DIY, you're left to piece together your travel programme, potentially missing out on savings and efficiency. But with Corporate Traveller, you get a streamlined, simplified solution that saves you time and money while providing a seamless travel experience for your team.
Case study — New Era
“Our booking fees have fallen, and we're now capturing more travel spend and have greater overall visibility, allowing us to really pinpoint where there are further savings to be made.” — Vicki Mann, Executive Assistant
Dedicated, personalised support vs generic service
DIY travellers face long hold times and generic call centres. With Corporate Traveller, you get a dedicated consultant who knows your business and supports you 24/7, reducing stress and disruptions.
One of the biggest challenges with DIY travel management is the lack of personalised support. When you're alone, handling last-minute changes, unexpected cancellations, or complex itineraries can quickly become overwhelming. You're left dealing with generic customer service representatives who may not fully understand your specific needs or the nuances of your industry.
With Corporate Traveller, you're never alone. Our service goes beyond just booking flights and hotels. We pair you with a dedicated travel consultant who knows your business inside and out. This consultant becomes an extension of your team, ensuring every aspect of your travel programme is handled with care and expertise. Whether finding the best routes, securing those hard-to-get reservations, or navigating sudden travel disruptions, your dedicated consultant is just a call or message away—24/7.
Case study — Paper Excellence
“Employees know that this is the most cost-effective service available. Stephanie has been booking for us for five years and continues to give us great service. Anything we need, we call her, and we know it will be easy.” — Curtis Jeffrey, HR Director
Clear travel spend visibility vs scattered expenses
DIY means chasing receipts across platforms, creating gaps and inefficiencies. Corporate Traveller consolidates spend in Melon, providing real-time insights that help you track, control, and optimise costs.
Managing business travel expenses can be tedious and time-consuming, especially when manually tracking where the money goes. If you're handling bookings across different platforms, losing sight of your overall travel spend is easy. DIY travel spend management often means juggling receipts, tracking expenses across multiple platforms, dealing with delayed reimbursements, and unnecessary stress for travellers and finance teams.
With Corporate Traveller, all your travel spend is centralised in one place, giving you a clear and comprehensive view of your expenses. Our travel platform, Melon, provides detailed, real-time insights into your travel costs, making it easier to track every dollar spent. You can quickly identify patterns, spot potential savings, and ensure travel budget efficiency.
This level of visibility is invaluable for making informed decisions that benefit your company and your travellers. Instead of scrambling to reconcile expenses and missing out on crucial data, you'll have everything you need at your fingertips. When you DIY your travel management, you risk losing track of key financial details. However, with Corporate Traveller, you gain complete control and transparency, ensuring your travel programme is as cost-effective as possible.
Negotiated rates and savings vs paying retail prices
DIY limits you to public fares, often at higher costs. Corporate Traveller leverages global supplier partnerships to give you exclusive deals, better options, and significant long-term savings.
Having options can make all the difference in business travel. With DIY travel management, you're often stuck piecing together flights, hotels, and car rentals from different platforms, hoping to snag a decent deal. It's tiring, and you might still pay more than you should.
At Corporate Traveller, we offer a solution that's both comprehensive and efficient. Our network spans over 90 countries, giving you access to many travel options and exclusive deals you won't find anywhere else. Thanks to our longstanding relationships with suppliers, we can offer millions of air, car, and hotel rates, plus special travel deals. From GDS (Global Distribution System), Expedia rates and beyond, booking with us ensures you get the best possible value.
Whether you're flying with a preferred airline, hitting the road with a rental car, or staying at one of the thousands of hotels offering us exclusively negotiated rates, we've got you covered. You'll enjoy free checked bags, priority boarding, complimentary WiFi, breakfast, and late check-out while saving money.
DIY travel management often lacks the visibility and negotiating power to secure the best deals. With Corporate Traveller, you get more choices, better rates, and substantial savings without hassle.
Case study — International Beverage Holdings
Before partnering with Corporate Traveller, growth and scattered bookings limited visibility. Detailed reporting revealed savings opportunities and simplified policy control. “We can identify ways to save money through reports and reviews.” — Allison Sharp, Brand Event Coordinator
Built-in travel policy vs unmanaged bookings
Without a policy, DIY leads to inconsistent choices and overspending. Corporate Traveller integrates your travel policy directly into Melon, ensuring compliance and reducing out-of-policy bookings.
Managing business travel without a clear policy can be chaotic. When companies take a DIY approach, they often struggle to control travel costs, manage reimbursements effectively, and ensure employee safety. Without a structured travel policy, the risk of unauthorised bookings increases, approvals get bogged down, and reconciling expenses can become complicated and time-consuming.
Our business travel platform, Melon, seamlessly integrates your travel policy directly into the booking process. This means that employees have a clear set of guidelines to follow, making it easier to stay within budget and comply with company policies. Melon's built-in features, such as the "recommended spend" function, help travellers make choices that align with the company's expectations, reducing the likelihood of out-of-policy bookings.
By embedding the policy into the booking system, companies can streamline approvals, minimise unauthorised spending, and ensure that every trip is cost-effective and safe.
Industry-specific expertise vs generic solutions
DIY lacks the insider knowledge needed for complex industries. Corporate Traveller assigns consultants with sector-specific expertise, tailoring solutions to your unique business needs.
In the business travel space, one-size-fits-all solutions rarely cut it. The nuances of each industry demand a level of expertise that goes beyond mere logistics. Without this industry-specific knowledge, you risk inefficiencies, missed opportunities for savings, and unnecessary complications.
Corporate Traveller's specialised industry expertise made all the difference for complex operations.
Case study — Webber (Construction)
A dedicated consultant with 10+ years’ experience transformed travel operations with training, improved compliance, and alignment with the parent company. Read more.
Advanced reporting and analytics vs limited visibility
DIY reporting is fragmented and incomplete. Corporate Traveller’s Melon platform delivers customisable dashboards with spend, compliance, carbon footprint, and traveller tracking insights in one place.
When managing business travel, keeping track of where the money goes, ensuring traveller safety, and sticking to policies is crucial. Handling travel alone can feel like piecing together a puzzle with scattered data. Melon gives you powerful reporting tools to see the full picture of your travel programme.
- Analyse spend to spot savings.
- Measure policy compliance.
- Monitor carbon footprint.
- Track travellers in real time.
- Quantify savings impact.
Case study — Pelsis Group
Tracked and offset emissions via a verified carbon removal scheme, guided by Melon dashboards and dedicated support. Read more.
Complex and last-minute travel solved vs stressful DIY fixes
DIY struggles when trips are disrupted or highly specialised. Corporate Traveller handles urgent changes and tough logistics, ensuring your team stays on track no matter what happens.
Planning travel can be tricky on a good day. But when it comes to specialised needs—like juggling film crews, transporting equipment, or dealing with last-minute changes, things can quickly become a logistical nightmare.
Having a dedicated travel consultant makes all the difference. At Corporate Traveller, we handle the tough stuff so you don't have to. Our dedicated travel consultants have the expertise to manage even the most complex travel arrangements.
Case study — Blast! Films
While shooting “Flying to the Ends of the Earth”, the crew was stranded in Siberia after a helicopter crash. Corporate Traveller organised transport and flights to get them home safely and within budget, then redeployed a new crew to finish the job. Read more.
Conclusion
Corporate Traveller delivers more than just bookings. Here’s how we help your business travel program outperform DIY solutions:
- Savings: Unlock exclusive negotiated rates and full spend visibility to identify and capture more savings.
- Efficiency: Centralised booking with Melon reduces admin, speeds up processes, and ensures policy compliance.
- Traveller support: Get 24/7 personalised assistance and industry-specific expertise to handle disruptions and complex trips.
- Actionable insights: Access advanced reporting to improve compliance, monitor sustainability, and keep travellers safe.
Ready to transform your business travel?
Whether you need advice, a demo, or want to see how we can help, our team is here to make your business travel smooth and stress-free.