AutoScout24

How Perk unified AutoScout24’s travel management across Europe

AutoScout24 is Europe’s largest online car marketplace. Operating in 11 core European markets — for example in Germany, Italy, France, and Norway — the company has numerous offices across different countries. Around 1,000 employees work in offices to deliver the best possible buying/selling experience to the roughly 30 million monthly users.

In order to stay in contact with colleagues, partners, and suppliers, AutoScout24 employees travel regularly. To simplify the large number of business trips and to save time and money, in 2023 the company decided to revamp its travel management using Perk.

Building & Maintaining Connections

As a pan-European company in a fast-paced automotive sector, AutoScout24 must always stay up to date. Offices are in constant exchange about market developments and innovations. While much is handled digitally — for environmental and time-management reasons — for the company’s Director of Procurement & Facilities, frequent in-person visits remain essential:

“For personal exchange it is essential occasionally to visit the locations, to see how things are going in the other markets, what’s happening there and what problems might exist. You notice that collaboration works better when you actually know each other.”

In his role, he not only undertakes internal travel, but also visits partners and suppliers when needed. Thus, trips serve to build new relationships and get to know potential business partners.

The Drive for Innovation & Autonomy

Before switching to Perk, AutoScout24 used a mix of several platforms (online tools and a travel agency) for business trips. However, they repeatedly found that applying travel policies through these channels was unreliable. Many team members also found it cumbersome to contact different service providers for every request. There was a demand for a modern, digital — and above all — more flexible solution for booking business trips. Employees wanted more autonomy.

Working together with the facility team (responsible for travel management), IT, and the company’s account management, AutoScout24 searched for a suitable business-travel solution. Ultimately, they chose Perk — not only for the self-service booking process, but also for Perk’s large travel inventory for the European market.

The implementation of the Perk platform for AutoScout24 was very smooth and fast. According to Stenden:

At first, the company used Perk only in Germany. Soon afterwards, however, the platform was rolled out to other locations as well.

Unified Travel Policies for Everyone

One of the first steps after shifting to Perk was to integrate the company’s internal travel policies into the booking system. Because of AutoScout24’s many different offices and countries, it had always been difficult to enforce uniform rules for travel budgets.

Thanks to Perk’s integration capabilities, now all employees book travel under the same conditions and in compliance with travel policies — across Europe.

AutoScout24 also uses Perk’s functionality to create custom approval workflows. Travel that meets policy can be booked directly by employees. But if a booking exceeds the allowed budget for hotel or flight, it must be approved by a supervisor.

Before Perk, travellers often had to send approval requests via email or manually enter information into the company system. Now, approval processes run automatically, quickly and easily through the booking platform — saving valuable time for everyone involved.

Better Travel Management Through Data Transparency

One aspect of Perk that Stenden values highly is the detailed booking data and reports made available through the platform.

Thanks to insights into booking habits and frequent hotels used, the company has since negotiated corporate rates with hotels and accommodations near almost every company location.

By using these negotiated hotel rates, the company is already saving a lot of money. It is also crucial that these rates are actually used by travellers — something the Perk platform enables quickly and easily.

One AutoScout24

Despite the many different locations and the different legal entities that belong to AutoScout24, the company aims to foster a sense of unity.

With the Perk platform, AutoScout24 has succeeded in unifying its business-travel management and booking process across Europe. Thanks to the detailed data reports, the company can better understand its travel patterns and continuously optimise — which saves employees valuable time and saves the company real money.