Business travel costs

[carl12]

Has anyone been cutting business hotel costs recently?

I've been using Premier Inn, and they're really not that bad.

I'm on a budget, but if you're self-employed too I imagine it's a good way to cut costs. Anyone else sacrificing the spa treatment on the road?

[james34]

o Meet virtually. Virtual meetings can reduce your travel costs, boost productivity, and even increase morale. Virtual meeting options include videoconferencing, Web conferencing, teleconferencing, and online collaboration.
o Negotiate lower travel and lodging prices. In the past, small businesses didn’t have the power to negotiate lower prices. But more and more travel-related businesses have begun offering special discounts to small and medium-sized businesses.
o Use a single corporate credit card for all travel and entertainment expenses. This simplifies the bookkeeping process and may even earn you airline miles if you use the right card.
o Take advantage of convention discounts. Convention organizers often work with local hotels to offer discounted rates to attendees. If you are traveling to a convention, find out if the meeting planners have secured travel discounts for attendees. Companies with whom you do business may also get a discounted rate at local hotels.
o Take advantage of tax deductions. Business travel costs can be deducted as a business expense. If your travel is all business, you can deduct all the travel-related expenses; if your travel is part business and part pleasure, you can deduct the portion that was business-related.

Have a nice day

[margrett]

1)Essential business travel trips:Companies who have a regional or global footprint tend to rely quite extensively on business travel, however if business travel costs need to be reduced, then such companies should try to limit their business travel to essential trips that only involve face-to-face client meetings and to those trips which are exclusively sales related or meant solely for incentive purposes.
2)Partnering with a travel agency:If you are looking to reduce business travel costs for your company and do not have a partnership with a business travel agency now is the time to get one. A professional travel agency like the New York City based travel agency, Fare Buzz can help you outline your travel goals and build and enforce a business travel policy that fits your budget and business goals.
3)Negotiating with suppliers:After you have outlined your goals and set down the rules for employee travel, you can then attempt to renegotiate rates with your regular suppliers like airlines or hotels or even shop around for new lower cost suppliers. However if you attempt to do this on your own you might not be as successful as you would be if you allowed your partner agency, Fare Buzz to negotiate on your behalf. Fare Buzz has exclusive contracts with more than sixty domestic and international airlines and can thus effectively negotiate to acquire cheap business class air fares.

Have a nice day

[rocky]

Hello friends

The current recession reaches into virtually every market sector, and it's far from over. Economic experts predict the U.S. economy will continue to struggle, with weak consumer demand in nearly all industries. However, companies that respond by retrenching may be sacrificing valuable opportunities. A more proactive approach is to find innovative ways to minimize expenses while maintaining and even extending business relationships. Business travel is one of the dominant financial factors where costs can be saved. But how can this be achieved without weakening sales and direct customer relations?
A particularly effective way to achieve travel budget reductions is to employ web conferencing. Salespeople can make interactive presentations that showcase the product while allowing customers to see the presenter and ask questions.
Web conferencing cannot only be employed for sales presentations but also corporate trainings. Many training topics are candidates for virtual delivery, including supervisory and management subjects, product introductions, and especially software training. A trainer can give students hands-on experience while demonstrating features and commands from his own desktop. Travel budget reductions can be quite significant, since companies can train hundreds of employees without incurring any travel expenses.

Thanks for sharing us ......

[henry]

Hi guys

# Create and distribute a travel policy. A travel policy should provide your employees with clear guidelines about the types and amounts of allowable expenses. Your written travel and expense policy should also include consequences for violating it.
# Search the Web for bargains. Popular travel sites such as Expedia, Orbitz, Travelocity, LastMinuteTravel.com, Priceline, and Hotwire make it easier for you to find reasonably priced hotels, airline tickets, and rental cars.
# Volunteer to get bumped. If your flight is overbooked and the airline asks for volunteers to take a later flight, step forward. Most airlines offer generous travel vouchers that can save you big bucks on your next trip. As a business traveler, you may not have flexible travel plans, but if you do, you could get a free ticket for your time.
# Join your preferred airline's frequent-flier program. Free trips, airport club access, and hotel discounts are among the perks you’ll receive for booking flights on the same airline.
# Establish a uniform reporting system. Get all of your employees to use standardized forms for reporting expenses. This helps ensure that every report is accurate and can be easily reviewed by you and your accountant.

Thanks

[james34]

Never, ever eat in an airport. The food is expensive and often poorly prepared. I often put an item or two in my carry-on, such as a sandwich and a bottled drink, for eating while waiting on flights. This saves a lot of money.

If you are allowed to use a personal credit card when paying for airfare or hotel, use it. When I travelled for business, I merely had to submit receipts for pre-approved travel and housing receipts and I was given a check for their cost. Although I had a card that I could potentially use for travel and bypass this, I had the option of using my own card, and I always did this. Why? The cost of air travel and housing often adds up to enough to trigger rewards on my personal card, so often I get a free bonus just for traveling.

Book your own flights if possible. The internet makes booking your own flight as easy as can be, enabling you to choose more convenient flight times. Even if you can’t book your own flight, pick out the ones you would prefer beforehand and add that information when you submit your flight request; you’ll often get exactly what you want.

Know exactly what you can be reimbursed for – and then go as far under as you can. We had a “per day” allotment for food and beverages that was quite nice, enabling us to easily eat out for each meal. When I travelled, I ate continental breakfasts and dined as inexpensively as possible. I would usually come in as much as 70% under the per diem rate, so I would actually receive a cash bonus for travel. Inquire about any per diem travel rates before you go.

Maximize the use of your time. If you’re traveling for business, you should use all of the time you have to maximize your earnings potential. Spend the evening networking instead of watching a movie in your hotel room, or spend a few spare hours working on your professional blog instead of just sitting there waiting. If you must hit tourist spots, try to engage business acquaintances to go along for the networking benefit. I viewed business travel as time alloted solely to focus on success, both personal and that of my business, without any worries about other personal constraints.

[carl12]

    * There’s a pent-up demand for face-to-face business meetings, but any improvement in the amount of 2010 business travel is expected to be small.
    * Companies are expected to start to loosen purse strings for events and conferences.  But, those events must show a positive ROI.
    * Businesses are investing in alternatives to travel because of the recession.

“People are looking at video conferencing, they’re looking at social media — different ways for people to connect with each other and be productive,” said Frank Schnur, vice president for American Express Global Advisory Services.  Still, he said, “It’s critical for people to get back on the road, and we see that pent-up demand with our clients.”

[saria19]

A particularly effective way to achieve travel budget reductions is to employ web conferencing. Salespeople can make interactive presentations that showcase the product while allowing customers to see the presenter and ask questions.
Web conferencing cannot only be employed for sales presentations but also corporate trainings. Many training topics are candidates for virtual delivery, including supervisory and management subjects, product introductions, and especially software training. A trainer can give students hands-on experience while demonstrating features and commands from his own desktop. Travel budget reductions can be quite significant, since companies can train hundreds of employees without incurring any travel expenses.

Have a nice day

[hena thomas]

Hello
Travel expenses are the ordinary and necessary expenses of traveling away from home for your business, profession, or job. Generally, employees deduct these expenses using  Form 2106 (PDF) or  Form 2106-EZ (PDF) and on Form 1040, Schedule A. You cannot deduct expenses that are lavish or extravagant or that are for personal purposes.

You are traveling away from home if your duties require you to be away from the general area of your tax home for a period substantially longer than an ordinary day's work, and you need to get sleep or rest to meet the demands of your work while away.

Generally, your tax home is the entire city or general area where your main place of business or work is located, regardless of where you maintain your family home. For example, you live with your family in Chicago but work in Milwaukee where you stay in a hotel and eat in restaurants. You return to Chicago every weekend. You may not deduct any of your travel, meals, or lodging in Milwaukee because that is your tax home. Your travel on weekends to your family home in Chicago is not for your work, so these expenses are also not deductible. If you regularly work in more than one place, your tax home is the general area where your main place of business or work is located.

In determining your main place of business, take into account the length of time you are normally required to spend at each location for business purposes, the degree of business activity in each area, and the relative significance of the financial return from each area. However, the most important consideration is the length of time spent at each location.

Travel expenses paid or incurred in connection with a temporary work assignment away from home are deductible. However, travel expenses paid in connection with an indefinite work assignment are not deductible. Any work assignment in excess of one year is considered indefinite. Also, you may not deduct travel expenses at a work location if it is realistically expected that you will work there for more than one year, whether or not you actually work there that long. If you realistically expect to work at a temporary location for less than one year, and the expectation changes so that at some point you realistically expect to work there for more than one year, travel expenses become nondeductible when your expectation changes.