New Findings from Corporate Travel Survey Reveal Companies Falling Victim to Travel Spend Black Hole

BOSTON - Dec. 3, 2019 - PRLog -- Lola.com (https://www.lola.com/), the Agile Travel Management™ company that provides a super simple way to book, manage, report, and save on business travel, highlighted new research by Kickstand Communications that showed how unprepared and ill equipped finance teams are in tracking, controlling, and reporting on travel spend. According to the study conducted by Lola.com, "The Corporate Travel Reporting Black Hole," many of the 700 finance leaders surveyed are consistently going over budget and struggling to accurately forecast travel spend.

"Too many companies are falling victim to the travel spend reporting black hole," said Mike Volpe (https://www.lola.com/team/mike_volpe), CEO of Lola.com. "This new survey data helps us to understand why finance teams are struggling to control and report on corporate travel spend. What's interesting is that while seventy-two percent of respondents said their company is more data-driven in areas other than travel, and more than half say they rely on their gut to manage travel expenses, the average company spends more on T&E than almost anything, besides salary and benefits."

The survey revealed that companies are losing big money on corporate travel for multiple reasons, including changing travel plans and its associated fees, confusion about what is and what is not included in policy, and siloed tools preventing finance teams from tracking expenditures in real time.

Changing a flight amounts to an average of $323 in additional costs, and a whopping 67% of respondents say they outright lose money when a trip is cancelled, averaging a staggering $889 per cancellation. Fifty-six percent of respondents said that finance teams are not notified when employees change travel plans, so teams are not appropriately tracking these changes to get reimbursements or credits.


With this much uncertainty, forecasting travel spend is challenging. Seventy-two percent of respondents said they wished they were more confident in their travel spend forecasts. The most common reason for this was lack of real-time visibility with 42% of respondents saying they don't have the effective tools for travel spend forecasting.

The survey aims to better understand where finance teams' gaps are and what they feel they need to help their companies better track, manage, and report on corporate travel spend. The report analyzes responses regarding enforcing travel policies, accounting for unexpected costs and fees, and the tools they need to better track and control travel spend.

For the full report, visit: https://www.lola.com/ebook/the-corporate-travel-reporting-black-hole


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