UK SMEs "waste" £500m a year

Smaller companies do not have travel policies

UK SMEs are losing £500m a year by booking their own business travel and not having company travel policies.

This was the major finding of a new survey carried out by the Business Travel Show (BTS).

The study found that Britain's 4.7m SMEs spend £2.5bn a year on business travel.

But a fifth of this might be wasted, the poll found.

David Chapple, the Show's director, said: "Many SMEs don't have the time or knowhow to put a huge amount of effort into booking business travel and, more often than not, then end up online booking their travellers onto the same airlines and into the same hotels and meeting venues through the same consumer websites time and time again.

"But by doing this, rather than using specialist online suppliers, they remain oblivious to an untapped pool of fantastic products and services, miss out on corporate user discounts and reward programmes, take a lot longer than a specialist and, most importantly, spend up to 20% more than they need to."

BTS has created a new Travel Savings Calculator in association with Omega World Travel which will be demonstrated at the show.

The BTS opens at Earl's Court, London tomorrow, February 10 and runs until Thursday, February 12.

www.businesstravelshow.co.uk