How to Incorporate Bleisure into Your Travel Policy

Studies show that by 2020, over half of the workforce will be millennials. Combine this information with the fact that this generation is tacking on leisure to business trips, and the concept of “bleisure” was born. This concept, combining two opposite types of trips, has become so popular that 94% of millennials are going to take a bleisure trip in the next few years.

What does this mean for your traveling employees? Whether they book through you or through a travel management app, they will likely take advantage of the flights and accommodations your company books. As a result, incorporating bleisure into your travel policy has become a necessity. Here are some questions to consider when taking on this task.

Who Pays for What on Bleisure Trips?

When adding in bleisure to your travel policy, the greatest question your travelers will want to know is, “Who pays for what?”. Be sure to clearly define in your policy that the company will only pay for accommodations and flights that are necessary during the employee’s business portion of the trip. This includes round-trip flights, hotel, food, and transportation that accommodate the employee during business hours. It’s equally important to include a section about what the employee is financially responsible for. Should an employee extend the trip, he or she is responsible for the subsequent personal costs.

How Are Bleisure Trips Paid For?

Whether you’re discussing bleisure or not, the most important part of a travel policy is how transactions are covered. Determine if you want your traveler to use a corporate card or a personal card and get reimbursed.

If a personal credit card is used, it can get fuzzy when it comes to reimbursement. They’ll need to keep an accurate record of what was purchased for leisure and what was purchased for business. Even with a collection of receipts, employees can easily fib with numbers and claim a personal transaction was for business.  

Should I Define Leisure in the Policy?

Employees have options depending on when in the week their business trip falls. More likely than not, they will try to make a long weekend out of the trip. That being said, be sure to clearly define when the business portion begins and ends.

Indicate which events mark the beginning and end of the trip. To avoid any obscurity, clearly define what leisure is in your policy. This communicates to the employee exactly what’s a leisure versus business expense.

Does Company Insurance Cover Bleisure?

Risk management is one of the biggest burdens travel managers face. Your first priority is that the traveler is protected and safe. However, the company’s insurance is only responsible for the business portion of the trip.

Carefully outline what the company is responsible for both morally and legally.  Enforce that the traveler must abide by company policy during business hours, and encourage personal travel insurance for the leisure part. 

How Do I Handle Additional Guests on Bleisure Trips?

Typically, when a traveler makes a bleisure trip, they don’t go alone, bringing along family or a significant other. They may crash in the hotel room that the company is paying for, or even add room service to the company’s tab.

Without clear parameters in your bleisure policy, employees can take advantage of what the company is expensing. Discuss what is acceptable for employees to do when they bring additional guests.

If setting up a travel policy and including bleisure sounds daunting, get in touch with Adelman Travel. Our self-registration and implementation platform, myAdelman, can help you get started. Perfect for companies with 1-40 travelers, myAdelman gives you the support of a global travel agency with the ease of a self-booking tool. Contact Adelman Travel today to start your free trial!