Senior Manager Travel Desk

Job Description:

We are seeking an experienced and organized Manager to lead our Travel Desk team. The successful candidate will be responsible for managing the travel arrangements of senior organization members, ensuring seamless and efficient travel experiences. The role involves ticketing, hotel bookings, VISA and other travel-related engagements.

Key Responsibilities:

1. Travel Arrangements:

• Manage travel arrangements for across all organization members, including booking of flights, train, bus, hotels and guest house.
• Candidate should be aware of making any advance booking with the geography of hotel, resort to avoid any operation issue.
• Should have good understanding of hotel booking, cancellation and rescheduling
• Responsible for cab booking for PAN India location, Niva Bupa branch office location and employee travel for office, client location, airport and other pick and drops.
• Should be aware of cab booking process, industry best practice of cab booking, billing and operations.

2. Ticketing:

• Ensure timely and cost-effective ticketing for domestic and international travel for individual, group fare and FIT.
• Coordination with employees for timely TRF (travel request form) approval Allocation of tickets to all employees post ticket issuance.
• Coordination with airline for any name change, date change, correction or rescheduling if required.
• Should have good knowledge of airline working process, cancellation policy and last minute arrangement

3. Hotel Bookings:

• Book hotels and accommodations that meet the organization's standards and budget.
• Candidate should have good knowledge and awareness of chain hotels, brand hotels across domestic and international to opt and on-board for business relationship.
• Should manage hotel credit process for B2C and negotiate for FIT booking, F&B bookings and tariff for annual business

4. Travel Desk Management:

• Supervise and coordinate the activities of the Travel Desk team, ensuring efficient and effective service delivery.
• Should have prior experience of team handing of size 3-5 person
• Should be team player as well as individual contributor
• Maintain all daily, weekly and monthly TRF’s MIS for reporting, audit, billing and payment process.
• Lead, motivate, and develop the Travel Desk team to achieve exceptional service standards.
• Should have good knowledge, process understanding and prior experience in applying VISA, appointment, VAYD service, passport handling.

5. Policy Compliance:

• Ensure adherence to organizational travel policies and procedures.
• Ensure all bookings made within approved budget and post designated approvals
• Ensure all spend should be within budget, cost control and focus on areas to improve savings

6. Stake holder Management:

• Develop and maintain relationships with travel vendors, including airlines, hotels, VISA and rental car companies.
• Responsible for managing healthy business relationship with internal and external stake holders for smooth conduct of company’s travel
• Should have prior experience of managing executive leadership, external visitors and overseas officials for their travel, stay, ground support and VISA related requirement.
• Coordination with procurement team for timely issuance of purchase order of all nature of expenses
• Coordination with finance team for timely invoice processing of payment of all vendors within stipulated timeframe

8. Quality Assurance:

• Monitor and evaluate the quality of travel services, ensuring high standards are maintained.
• Provide regular reports and analytics on travel trends, costs, and vendor performance.
• Assessment and time to time review with internal users to improve travel desk 

Requirements:

1. Education: Bachelor's degree in Hospitality, Travel, or a related field.
2. Experience: Minimum 6-10 years of experience in travel management, preferably in a corporate environment.
3. Skills:

    - Excellent communication and interpersonal skills.
    - Strong organizational and time management skills.
    - Ability to work under pressure and meet deadlines.
    - Proficient in travel management software and systems.
    - Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.

4. Certifications: IATA, ARC, or other travel industry certifications are desirable.