When the deal moves, your travel moves with it
Business Travel Management for Financial Services
Here at Wayte Travel Management, we’ve looked after business travel for more than 45 years, so we’re used to plans changing. We hold fares while approvals go through, rebook quickly when meetings move and apply your travel policy to every trip, from Economy to First.
We know that, in financial services, travel follows the deal. A closing can be brought forward, a board meeting can be called at short notice or a roadshow can add an extra city at the last minute. Any of these can leave a carefully planned itinerary in pieces.
But we’re prepared for that. So, your people get where they need to be, and your Finance team gets a complete record of every booking.
Client meeting travel and last-minute changes
Client meetings in financial services can move around your calendar. A signing slips by a day, a client asks to meet in Singapore instead of London, or a pitch is brought forward to tomorrow morning.
So we book with possible changes in mind. Where a meeting might move, we’ll probably suggest semi-flexible fares that can be changed without paying for a fully refundable ticket you may never need.
And, while internal approval goes through, we’ll hold the seat at the quoted fare wherever the airline allows, so the price doesn’t climb before the paperwork catches up.
When plans do change, there’s no call queue. You have a direct number for your Wayte travel consultant, so you get straight through to someone who already knows your travellers, your business travel policy and the trip in question, without going through a switchboard or a call centre.
We’ll look at the alternatives, rebook and send the new itinerary to the traveller’s Wayte Travel Companion App.
Roadshow and multi-city itinerary management
A roadshow could mean four cities in four days, with investor meetings back to back and no slack if a flight runs late. One missed connection can cost a meeting that’s hard to get back.
Your dedicated travel consultant plans the whole route as one itinerary, whenever possible. That means realistic connection times between meetings and transfers arranged at each stop.
For hotels, we take into account your hotel needs, whether that be for proximity to a meeting venue or a chain you have an affinity with. And, of course, we factor in price and facilities requirements as per your travel policy. Every leg, room and transfer can be coded to the right fund, deal or cost centre, even when one trip serves two parts of the business.
If something slips mid-roadshow, we’ll rework the remaining legs around it, helping you to keep the most important meetings in place.
Premium cabin travel policy for financial services
Senior people in financial services often fly long-haul and land in time to go straight into meetings. For them, arriving rested is part of doing the job properly, which is why many firms prefer Business or First for longer flights.
We’ll build those rules into your travel policy by grade and by route. A managing director might fly Business on flights over a set number of hours, while an analyst on the same route travels Premium Economy, with separate rules for short-haul flights.
Requests outside your travel policy are emailed to the nominated approver for sign-off first, and every exception shows up in your reports.
If you’re drafting or reviewing a policy, we can draw on our decades of experience and share what works for other firms, to help you decide where to draw the lines.
Services our financial services clients use most
Financial services firms use the full range of our services. These are the four they rely on most.
Air Travel
Fares held, seats sorted and changes handled, plus unrivalled support, even out of hours.
Hotel Booking & Accommodation
Rates are negotiated in advance, so you’re not paying the walk-in price.
Rail Travel
UK and European rail booked alongside your air travel, on the same invoice, so nothing gets missed.
Reporting & Management Information
You’ll see exactly where your travel budget is going and these reports are offered completely free of charge.
Financial services travel support, 24/7
Senior travellers on tight schedules can’t afford to wait in a queue. If a flight is cancelled late in the evening, or a meeting in New York runs into the night, they need someone who can act on it straight away.
Outside office hours, the same number reaches our UK-based out-of-hours team, 24 hours a day. They can see the booking and your travel policy, so they can rebook, reroute or find a room without anyone starting from scratch.
If something more serious happens, whether it’s a strike, a storm or airspace closing, every booking we make is logged in our Duty of Care Portal. We can quickly see which of your people are affected and help get them home, which helps to support your duty of care to colleagues travelling on your behalf.
Travel spend reporting and audit trail for finance teams
Finance teams in this sector expect every pound, euro and dollar to be accounted for, with the paperwork to back it up.
That’s why every booking we make, by phone, email or online, leaves a complete record: who travelled, where and when, what was booked, what it cost and which cost centre, deal or client it was charged to.
Wayte Travel Analytix brings those records together, so you can see spend by cost centre, department, traveller and class of service. You can also see how far ahead each trip was booked.
Out-of-policy bookings are flagged along with who approved them, giving you a clear trail if an expense is ever questioned. CO₂ figures also sit alongside the cost, ready for your sustainability reporting.
Reports are online behind a secure login with two-factor authentication and everything is invoiced on a frequency that suits you with one monthly statement.
Financial services travel FAQs
Can policy vary by seniority?
Yes. Cabin class, rail class, hotel rate caps and approval rules can all be set by grade and by route, so a managing director and an analyst on the same trip each book within their own rules. Exceptions go to your named approver before anything is booked.
Do you handle multi-city itineraries?
Yes. We plan the whole route as a single itinerary, with realistic connections, transfers at each stop and hotels close to the meeting venues. If one leg slips, we’ll rework the rest around it.
Can you rebook flights at short notice?
Yes. Call your business travel consultant on their direct number, or our out-of-hours team in the evening or at the weekend, and they’ll look at the alternatives straight away. Where we’ve booked a semi-flexible fare, a change usually costs far less than a new ticket. Learn more on our Air Travel page.
Talk to us about your financial services travel
Tell us how your people travel now, where deals and meetings tend to move and what your current provider gets wrong. We’ll show you how we’d handle it, with a direct line to someone who knows your business and no obligation to sign up.