Business Travel Management FAQs

Your business travel management company books and manages your travel on your company's behalf. Instead of your staff booking their own flights, trains and hotels, they go through one team that knows your company's travel policy, finds suitable fares and rates, handles changes and cancellations and looks after travellers if something goes wrong. You then get a full record of what you spend.

A named and dedicated Wayte travel consultant gets to know your business, your travel policy and your travellers. You'll have their direct number, so there's no switchboard or call queue, and you won't need to explain your requirements again each time you ring. You can meet some of the people behind the service on our Meet the Team page.

Our UK offices are open Monday to Friday, 08:30–17:30. Outside those hours, clients call the same number to reach our out-of-hours team, 24 hours a day, every day of the year. They can rebook a flight, find a hotel room or reroute a traveller in the middle of the night.

We charge a booking fee per trip, per person. It's based on the final destination, not the number of flights it takes to get there, so a journey with several connections costs the same to book as a direct flight. Fees are set to suit your volume and travel patterns, and we'll set them out clearly in your proposal before you agree to anything.

Yes, if they'd like to. Wayte Travel Online lets travellers and bookers search and book their easy point-to-point flights, trains and hotels themselves, with your travel policy applied to every search. And your dedicated travel consultant is there when you need them.

No. There's no charge for moving to Wayte Travel Management. Setting up your account, loading your travellers' details and building your travel policy into our systems are all part of the service.

That depends on how many people travel and how your current arrangements are set up. We'll agree a timetable with you at the start, planned around any trips already booked. Your dedicated business travel consultant will keep you updated at every step.

Not at all. We let our service speak for itself, if you require a contract at your end we’re happy to provide one but we believe our service levels keep our clients with us, not a contract.

Often, yes. Many airlines let us hold a seat at the quoted fare for a set time without paying for it, so the price doesn't rise while someone signs the trip off. Not every airline or fare allows a hold, and some only hold until the end of the day, so we'll always tell you how long you have.

Call the number you'd use during the day and you'll reach our UK-based out-of-hours team. They can see the booking and will rebook or reroute your traveller straight away, so nobody is left queuing at an airline desk or waiting for the office to open on Monday.

Yes. We set travellers up with the major airline loyalty schemes when your account is opened and add their membership numbers to every booking. The points and upgrades they earn on business trips go into their own accounts.

Usually because it isn't the same fare. Online prices change by the minute, and the cheapest fare shown may have no baggage, no flexibility and no refund if plans change. Send us what you've found and we'll compare it like-for-like, then explain exactly what each option includes.

Yes. We book every UK train operator, Eurostar and the main high-speed and national networks across Europe, plus rail in the US. Rail can be booked on its own or alongside flights and hotels, and if you're deciding between a train and a short flight, a business travel consultant can compare the two for you.

Most rail tickets are e-tickets sent straight to the traveller's phone, so there's nothing to collect or print. The journey also appears in the Wayte Travel Companion App. Paper tickets can be arranged where a route needs them or a traveller prefers them.

It depends on the ticket type. Flexible tickets can usually be refunded, minus an admin fee. Advance tickets usually can't, but they can often be changed before the train leaves. Tell us as soon as a trip is cancelled and we'll recover whatever the ticket allows.

Yes. It's called hotel billback. The hotel charges the room to your company account, so travellers check in and out without paying for it themselves. You decide what's covered, whether that’s just the room or the room plus breakfast and an evening meal. Extras like the bar bill usually stay off your account.

They call their Wayte travel consultant, or our out-of-hours team. We'll ask the hotel to extend the stay, at the same rate where possible, or we’ll move them to the nearest suitable alternative if it's full.

Send it to us and we'll check. Often the cheaper rate is for a different room, leaves out breakfast or can't be cancelled. If it's a genuine like-for-like rate we can book, we'll book it. If it isn't, we'll show you where the difference lies.

Yes, and it can vary by city, so London can have a higher limit than Leeds. Anything over the limit goes to the approver you've named before it's booked, whether the request comes by phone or online.

We set your travel policy up when your account is opened, covering things like cabin classes, hotel limits, preferred suppliers and who approves what. It's then applied to every booking, by phone or online, and anything outside it goes to your approver by email before it's booked.

Your reports come with your account at no extra cost. Wayte Travel Analytix shows what you've spent, who travelled, where they went and which bookings fell outside your travel policy. It's online behind a secure login with two-factor authentication, so you can check it whenever you like.

Yes. You tell us which references matter to your business, such as cost centres, departments or projects and they're captured on every booking. Your reports are built around them, so your Finance team can see where the money goes.

Every flight and train journey booked through us carries a CO₂ figure alongside its cost, so you can see the environmental impact of your travel and feed it into your own sustainability reporting.

Employers are responsible for the wellbeing of staff who travel for work. A travel management company supports that duty of care by knowing where travellers are, directing them towards relevant information before they go and helping quickly if something goes wrong. It doesn't replace your own responsibilities, but it hopefully makes them easier to meet.

Yes, for any trip booked through us. Every flight, train and hotel goes into our Duty of Care Portal, so if there's an incident we can quickly see which of your people are in the area. Trips booked elsewhere won't appear, which is one good reason to keep all your bookings in one place.

When we quote for a trip, we can point you to the latest UK government travel advice and links to the visa and entry rules for the destination. We give guidance and point travellers to official sources, but we don't apply for visas on their behalf.

A member of our UK-based out-of-hours team, not a chatbot or an offshore call centre. They can see your bookings and travel policy, so they can act straight away without you having to explain everything from the start.

Marine fares, sometimes called seafarer fares, are special airline fares for crew travelling to join or leave a vessel, and for some offshore workers. They usually come with a bigger baggage allowance, more flexibility to change and one-way pricing. Not every airline offers them and terms vary, so we confirm what applies when we book.

Call your Wayte travel consultant, or our out-of-hours team, and we'll rework the flights, hotels and transfers around the new timing. Marine fares usually make those changes far cheaper than buying new tickets.

Yes. We set regular rotations up as a repeating pattern, with flights timed around helicopter slots, hotels near the heliport for early arrivals and flights home for the outgoing crew. As crew lists change, we update the bookings.

We rework the trip around the delay, extending rooms near the heliport, moving flights to match the next helicopter slot and rearranging transfers. If it happens outside office hours, our out-of-hours team takes care of it.

Yes. We'll agree rates with hotels close to site for the length of the job, usually with dinner, bed and breakfast for crews. Also, we’ll keep the team together where we can. As people come and go, we can often swap names on the booking instead of cancelling and rebooking.

Call your dedicated travel consultant during office hours, or our out-of-hours team at any other time, and we'll book the first practical flight or train, plus a hotel near the site if needed. If your travel policy pre-approves emergency callouts, there's no wait for sign-off.

If you'd like them to. You decide who can book for subcontractors and against which projects. Every trip carries a reference, so rechargeable travel is easy to separate in your reports.

Whatever reference you are billing against, such as a client reference, a fund or a study code, can be captured when the trip is booked. It stays with every part of the trip, from the train to the hotel to any later changes, so costs can be recharged accurately.

Of course. Cabin class, rail class, hotel limits and approval rules can all be set by grade, so a partner and a trainee on the same trip each book within their own rules. Anything outside those rules goes to the named approver first.

Yes. Industry codes limit the hospitality companies can offer healthcare professionals, so class of travel, hotel limits and approval rules for them can be built into your travel policy. Their bookings can also be tagged and reported separately, giving your Compliance team a clear record to work from. The disclosure itself remains your responsibility.