Cain Travel slowly returns to business as usual in corporate travel

As soon as the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Linda Cain had to lay off and furlough her staff of 80 down to six or seven.

Cain, owner of Cain Travel in Boulder, didn’t have much business for a year, but now things are picking back up at her travel management company, which primarily handles corporate domestic and international travel, plus a small amount of leisure travel. She recently built back up to a staff of 14.

“We started to get busy at the end of April, so we brought back a few of them then. As we’ve gotten busier, we’ve ramped up, adding one at a time,” Cain said.

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Cain, who founded her company in 1985, has been able to survive in an industry heavily impacted by countries closed to travel, states shutting down, flights being canceled, airlines ceasing operations and employees who normally traveled working remotely or being laid off or furloughed — and even some businesses closed that had been her clients. She and her staff fulfill air, hotel and car reservation requests through both traditional travel agents and online booking platforms, helping companies manage what they spend on travel, as well as keeping costs low through frequently utilized vendors.  

“Early in the pandemic, certain restaurants and hotels closed,” Cain said. “We checked what was open if they traveled at all. We got them full information. It was whatever they needed, we helped them with it.”

Cain also offers a dedicated department that supports meeting and incentive travel worldwide that ranges from small board meetings to incentive and group trips.

Despite a drastic slowdown in corporate travel, Cain survived the pandemic by drastically cutting her costs and overhead, consisting primarily of staff. In March 2020, Cain shut down her business for about two months and reduced her staff with those remaining working at home — pre-pandemic, her agents primarily worked in Colorado, plus 17 other states. She also had to cut pay to continue her operations, she said.

“It was terrible,” Cain said. “Our staff has longevity with us, some with over 20 years. It happened overnight. Within two days, all the corporate travel dropped off. … Most of our corporations, most of our companies, wouldn’t allow their staff to travel.”

Cain reduced staff to match the amount of business still coming in and was able to start bringing back some of her employees in late May. She watches business and staffing levels on a daily basis to keep operations trim.

“We are staffing to the appropriate levels to what our clients need. We are 35 to 40% of what our volume should be,” Cain said, adding that she suspects by the end of September, business will significantly improve. “That’s the way business trends go.”

Several corporations said by then, if not before, they hope to pick up travel again for their employees.

“That’s when they feel they will be able to bring employees back and put them on the road traveling,” Cain said.

Cain recently added several new corporate accounts, including two companies that recruit nursing staff needing help booking air travel and accommodations. 

“That gave us a boost in our growth,” Cain said. 

Many of the accounts signed agreements but haven’t started to travel yet, she said. They’re putting together awards trips and sales meetings dated one to two years out, she said.

“It’s hopeful, but it’s out there in the future,” Cain said. “We are very hopeful sales are going to be better than what they were before and things are going to get back to better than what they were before.”

Cain had retained steady sales prior to the pandemic even at a time when the internet eased the process for booking airfare online, cutting into agency commissions.  

“We actually flourished because of the internet,” Cain said. 

Cain’s website attracts business, as well as her online booking tool, following individual company guidelines for preferred advanced booking processes, pricing and class of service, she said. Agents also provide the bookings, she said.

“We feed that information to them through reporting mechanisms,” Cain said. 

During the pandemic, Cain positioned the company by remaining visible in the community and providing “the best service we could with the staff we had,” she said.

“We’ve been here for so many years,” Cain said. “We didn’t do any advertising. We kept our building here. Our name is on the building. That was the only thing that kept us visible.”

Cain, who saw her biggest year in sales pre-pandemic, is enthusiastic about the future of her business, believing it will be “larger and better than before,” she said. She changed and updated several internal systems to aid in better service for her clientele, and she plans to continue hiring back her staff, she said.

“We are very, very enthusiastic by what we see coming down the road,” Cain said.