As a business owner, you may dread reviewing the travel expense reports from your employees returning from business trips. Airfare, hotel and other costs for even a short trip can add up quickly. However, by planning ahead and establishing travel expense guidelines, there's a good chance that you may be able to reduce your business travel costs.

Before you or your employees embark on your next business trip, here are a few money-saving tips that you may want to consider:

Find a good travel agent. Although the travel-related sites on the Internet may be tempting, many times there's nothing like a live person to handle all aspects of your business travel. A travel agent will arrange airline tickets, book hotel rooms, line up ground transportation, drop off itineraries and tickets, all while saving you money by finding you the best deal available.

Plan ahead for travel. Procrastination doesn't pay when it comes to business travel. Whenever possible, book airline tickets in advance to save more than 50 percent of travel costs. Another cost-saving strategy: planning your business travel to include a Saturday night stay-over can significantly reduce both air and hotel costs.

Consider enrolling your employees in corporate frequent flyer programs. Why pay for airline tickets for your employees when you can get them FREE? Pick a good program and make sure you that you are familiar with how it works. It is estimated that almost 75% of all bonus frequent flier miles are never used because people do not understand how their frequent flier program works. Many hotels have frequent visitor programs that can also earn you miles.

Don’t use rental cars unless absolutely necessary. Rental cars are not only costly but having your employees driving around in an unfamiliar car in an unfamiliar city can increase your liability exposure as an employer. Whenever possible, encourage your employees to use airport shuttles or take advantage of complimentary hotel vans that run to local areas of interest, malls, shopping centers and the airport.

Discourage phone calls from hotel rooms. Making phone calls from a hotel can be costly: many levy a surcharge on calls from the room. Before they leave, give your employees calling cards to use on the road and encourage them to use public phones whenever possible.

Find food elsewhere. With hotel restaurants, you definitely pay a premium for convenience. The hotel staff can recommend quality restaurants in the area that are not nearly as expensive as those in the hotel.

Do not accept any expense report without receipts. This will make it much easier to see additional areas in which you can cut costs and will help keep your employees within policy guidelines.