What do company directors and average employees usually not save on in business trips? Opinion of Oksana Nevidomskaya, director of R-Pharm business travel department

The Russian Association of Business Travel is glad to announce the new section of its ABT Newsletter — Expert opinion. Here corporate buyers of business travel services share their opinions on the main processes of the business travel industry with the readers and speak about their professional activities. The hero of today’s issue is Oksana Nevidomskaya, director of R-Pharm business travel department.

In my point of view it is not quite correct to use the term «economy» in this case. It is more rational to speak about cost optimization of business trips. I am sure that it is not right to economize by all means on comfort and health.

A business trip is first of all aimed at the company’s development, agreement conclusion, enlargement of the scope of its activities, establishment of acquaintances with new partners etc. In order for the working process to be successful and efficient, an employee needs good conditions for work and rest. And here the travel department plays the key role.

For the time of our existence we have acquired unique experience in business trip and event arrangement. Due to this fact, when we optimize service costs our employees do not feel they are saved on in some issues. I would like to note that our company has established a high level of requirements regarding work quality. This is the key principle of business trip and event arrangement as well. And if planning of business trips on the territory of Europe or the USA is usually quite simple, the same work related to the arrangement of business trips in the regions of Russia leads to a lot of problems. Far not all cities provide facilities that meet business travellers’ demands. Rooms are plain, modern business centres are rare, and some towns are even difficult to reach!

This is the reason why every business trip is a multi level process with its inherent logistic schemes, the choice of an appropriate hotel and reliable carriers. Here we do not try to save, because price offers of regional hotels, for example, are comparable. It is important to select a more convenient variant in this case. It is no secret that regional hotels do not have single quality standards, so it is sometimes hard to determine their real service level and business facilities. For example, once there was a situation when hotel management decided to design suites in different theme styles. For this reason our employee had to stay in a room with an alpine garden and turtles moving freely around the room. Of course, nowadays we have a base of regional hotels that can be relied upon and it was not formed upon the economy basis solely, as I have already said.

It is the complex approach that allows our employees to feel calm and comfortable during their business trips. We can not say that price issues are insignificant, but when it goes about efficiency and the ultimate result, this is what we are focused at, of course.

Oksana Nevidomskaya,
director of R-Pharm business travel department