Travel Desk Specialist

The Travel Desk Analyst will manage end-to-end business travel arrangements for employees, with primary responsibility for hotel bookings and international air travel. The role will ensure that travel is arranged accurately, cost-effectively, and in accordance with company travel policies, while providing responsive support to employees and internal stakeholders.

Key Responsibilities:

• Manage domestic and international hotel bookings based on approved travel requests, employee preferences, business requirements, and company policy.
• Arrange international airfare, including itinerary research, fare comparison, ticket booking, rebooking, cancellations, refunds, and schedule-change handling.
• Evaluate available travel options for cost, schedule, routing, baggage allowance, cancellation terms, and overall suitability.
• Coordinate multi-city, multi-country, and complex itineraries for employees and business travellers.
• Validate travel dates, traveller details, passport information, preferred routes, project or cost-centre details, and approval status before confirming bookings.
• Issue accurate booking confirmations and itineraries and ensure travellers receive all required travel documentation.
• Ensure all bookings comply with the company's travel policy, approval matrix, preferred supplier arrangements, and budget requirements.
• Coordinate with travel management companies, airlines, hotels, and other travel vendors to resolve booking and service issues.
• Review booking confirmations, invoices, credit notes and refunds.
• Track travel spends, savings, cancellations, unused tickets, and other relevant metrics.
• Provide required booking information to Finance for reconciliation, expense allocation, and reporting.
• Support vendor performance reviews and identify opportunities to improve rates, service quality, and booking efficiency.
• Maintain accurate records of travel requests, approvals, bookings, cancellations, refunds, and outstanding actions.
• Prepare periodic reports on travel volumes, spend, savings, exceptions, cancellations, and service levels.

Required Qualifications and Experience:

• 2–5 years of experience in corporate travel, travel operations, travel agency operations, or a similar role.
• Hands-on experience with international airfare bookings and hotel reservations.
• Experience managing itinerary changes, cancellations, refunds, reissues, and airline schedule disruptions.
• Strong working knowledge of Microsoft Excel, email, and travel or expense-management systems.
• Experience working with a global workforce or supporting travellers across different time zones is preferred.
• Familiarity with global hotel programs, corporate rates, negotiated rates, and travel-management-company processes.