Calculating the costs of a trip is never fun. Even if you’re just planning for yourself or a couple people, making a travel budget can get stressful. Because you’re a team coordinator, your job is even more challenging. Not only are you planning for yourself, but you’re also organizing arrangements for your team and any parents who might be coming along for the ride. Traveling is accompanied by tons of expenses that quickly add up if you aren’t prepared: booking hotel rooms, buying food, traveling costs, the list goes on. Creating a group travel budget is the best way to combat any financial surprises that might otherwise pop up along the way. If the thought of making a budget sends shivers down your spine, fear not. Hotels4Teams is here to help you with your group travel needs by assisting you in coming up with an accurate travel budget and get you thinking about all of the factors you’ll need to account for.

 

Finding a Budget Resource

If you’re new to creating budgets or are looking to change things up and organize it differently, there are numerous free resources at your disposal. Mint.com is a hugely popular budget planning site that allows you to create a personalized budget down to the smallest detail. You can input all of the cost factors for your trip and have it all conveniently arranged in an easy to follow format. Some other notable sites to tinker around with are BudgetYourTrip.com, SavingForTravel.com, and BudgetSimple.com. You could of course always resort to using Google Sheets or Microsoft Excel to organize your budget as well. There is no best tool. Whatever layout you’re most comfortable with is the best one for you.

 

Destination Transportation

One of the most important and expensive elements of planning any trip is the transportation. You may luck out with the location of a tournament being a drivable distance. If that’s the case, than you’re already saving a good chunk of money, but even if the team drives to the venue, there are useful ways to save. One way to cut down on driving costs is to organize carpooling. Have some parents volunteer to fill their cars with as many teammates as they can fit to lessen overall gas costs. Another thing to keep in mind when you need to gas up is to steer clear of metropolitan areas. Typically, the closer you are to a big city, the higher the gas prices are. One way to find the cheapest gas stations is to download Gasbuddy. This handy app uses your location to find the cheapest gas near you.

So, the venue for the tournament is within driving distance, but you can’t get a carpool brigade together to get your team there. If you are a school team, then you can utilize the school buses that are contracted with your school. However, travel and club teams won’t have it as simple. Your next option is to charter a bus. The internet is your friend here. Well-known bus companies like Greyhound and IMG are always a good idea to look in to. The best way to find the most affordable charter bus is using a comparison site to get quotes. Busrates.com and Checkmybus.com are two reputable comparison websites worth checking out.

Sometimes traveling by road to the tournament isn’t a possibility. When that’s the case, you have no choice but to hop on a plane. Once you definitively know that you will need to purchase plane tickets, do it immediately. The sooner you buy them, the better. On average, getting your plane tickets one to three months before your travel date will yield you the biggest savings. The closer you get to the date of travel, the more expensive your tickets will cost. Major sites such as Kayak.com, Travelocity.com, Skyscanner.com, and Expedia.com can provide you with pages upon pages of flight rates for you to scan through in your hunt for the best airline ticket prices.

 

Local Transportation

Once you get your transportation settled and you arrive at the location of the tournament, you and your team are going to most likely be depending on local transportation to get around the city (unless you drove yourselves, of course). Set aside a separate category in your travel budget for public transportation expenses. It would be smart to research the public transport alternatives near the venue prior to your arrival. Depending on the layout of the city and pricing, there will be multiple viable options. Buses, Uber, subways, light rails, etc. may all be attractive possibilities, but understanding which one is most convenient and can save you the most money is useful knowledge to have for group travel. Renting a vehicle is another smart way to get around. Take a moment to read our article on how to get the best deal on a car rental.

 

Staying at a Hotel

Whether your tournament is across the country or just a few hours away, staying at a hotel is practically unavoidable. Because the majority of these tournaments have early morning check-in times, finding lodging as close to the venue as possible is a priority not only for you, but other team coordinators as well. It’s in your best interest to book as far in advance as you can.

When the tournament is in a popular destination, the selection of hotels you have to choose from will be more plentiful. While this means you have a better chance of staying in a hotel close to the venue, it also means that you have more research on your hands. The last thing you want is to book a hotel, only to realize that another one nearby is offering better rates. Hotel comparison sites like Trivago.com, Hotels.com, and Kayak.com can help you guarantee the best price for your team. The only caveat about traveling to a more popular destination is that the average price of hotels is higher. The inverse of this is a less traveled to destination with cheaper hotels, but a smaller variety. If you’re in a situation like this and you value lodging near the venue, you’re going to have to act as soon as possible, otherwise you and your team might be stuck dealing with a long drive from your hotel to the venue because of the lack of nearby lodging.

Be on the lookout for hotels that offer group discounts. Since you’ll be traveling with a large group, it’s a likely possibility that you can qualify for these discounted prices. The downside of booking with a team is that they’re going to need multiple rooms. Unfortunately, there is no way around this, but booking rooms with space for at least four people is the way to go. Having the capability to put four or more team members in each room can help you reduce the number of rooms needed.

 

Saving on Food Expenses

One of the more difficult expenses to budget out for is food, especially since you’ll be traveling with a group of kids. It’s no secret that growing children have bottomless stomachs. You don’t want them eating their parents into the poorhouse. The worst possible thing you can do is eat out at a restaurant or get takeout every meal. Doing this will exponentially raise the overall cost of the trip and you’ll quickly exceed the planned budget amount you created. If you do plan on going to restaurants here or there, preplanning which places to go can provide you with a clearer financial picture while forming your travel budget. Logistically speaking, preselecting what eateries you want to bring your team to will also help you save some time and maximize how much you can see and do.

Limiting how often the team eats out is supremely effective at saving sizeable amounts of money. Taking a trip to the grocery store before or after you arrive at your destination is a smart decision. Team members can stock up on nonperishable foods to bring with them to their hotel rooms, on the bus, or snack on during the tournament. Prioritizing hotels that provide guests with a continental breakfast is another great way to limit food costs. For more information on how to spend less on food when traveling with your team, check out our article where the topic is discussed in depth.

 

Having Fun isn’t Free

All work and no play makes for a dull trip. Even though the primary reason you and your team are traveling is to compete in a tournament, you’re going to have some down time. Seeing the sights and visiting attractions means another expense you have to plan for. Figuring out what to do while you’re on your trip could get tough, and because you’re bringing in some unknown factors, the chance that you’re going to end up spending more goes up. Consulting your team and planning some attractions you all want to see beforehand can aid you in creating as accurate a travel budget as possible.

Many places such as zoos, amusement parks, bowling alleys, and trampoline parks offer group discounts that your team might very well qualify for. Sometimes the hotel you stay at will have tickets for attractions as well. These usually cost much less than if you paid at the place itself.

 

Plan for the Unexpected

You may not want to think about it, but accidents happen. Whether a team member gets hurt on the field or off, your car breaks down, or something else occurs and throws a monkey wrench into your trip, it pays to be prepared. Putting away some money to act as an emergency/unexpected fund might seem like going overboard, but as the saying goes, “it’s better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it”. Looking into travel insurance could prove to be beneficial and give you some peace of mind too.

 

As you can see, creating a travel budget for a group travel event has a lot of moving parts. Researching and planning are the name of the game when making a successful budget. Not only will the trip run much more smoothly, but the parents will rejoice knowing you took the time to save them money. One last thing to consider, see if a travel credit card would be a good idea. These cards offer travel perks and if you and your team travel fairly often, the return travel credit cards and yield will be helpful in keeping costs down over time.