Your Job Might Help Pay For Your Next Trip — Here’s How

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Taking vacation is vital to maintaining your physical and mental health and may positively affect your financial health, too. After all, many employers offer benefits that make getting away more affordable.

Finding savings on everything from tours and tickets to restaurants and resorts can stretch your resources further. That’s a relief on your mind and wallet, especially when the average price for a one-week vacation for a couple is just under $4,000.

Even if you think your organization doesn’t provide any vacation assistance beyond your annual paid time off, it may be helpful to do a little digging. Plenty of perks might be hidden or poorly communicated, and therefore underutilized. Below are some benefits that could help pay for a dreamy getaway without bosses or paperwork.

Next-Level Corporate Discount Programs

You don’t necessarily have to pay full price to go on your next vacation, even if it includes some typically pricey locales or experiences. Instead, see if your company has made arrangements with a corporate discount program provider like Working Advantage. While not every employer has a discount program in place, yours might. 

The Working Advantage model is simple and intuitive to use: Search the platform for exclusive deals on travel, accommodations, attractions and more. Take advantage of any deals that can help you create that next-level dream getaway with less strain on your pocketbook. After all, what better way to achieve work-life balance than with a well-deserved vacation sans the added stress on your finances?

Employer-offered discount programs also often extend to higher-priced items that aren’t directly related to travel. These may include apparel, appliances, electronics and services. By saving money elsewhere, you’ll have more cash to splurge on your vacation. 

All-in-One ‘Bleisure’ Opportunities

The concept of “bleisure” travel — a trend combining business and leisure travel — has taken off. Approximately half of all workers acknowledge and embrace so-called “workations” as practical ways to take off without paying for everything on their own.

For example, you might be making travel plans for an annual business conference that’s coming up soon. Instead of making the trip solo, plan to extend your vacation and include your family. Though you’d still pay for your family’s airfare and accommodation, your workplace will likely cover your individual travel expenses as part of the business trip. And if your family stays in the same hotel, you might be able to negotiate an extension of the reduced conference rates.

The key to mastering “bleisure” is to be upfront about your intentions with your manager and human resources personnel to ensure that you arrange everything properly regarding your company’s travel policies. Most employers are open to “bleisure” travel, but they’ll likely want you to keep careful track of your spending to avoid possible complications.

Flexible Wellness Stipends

Many workplaces have started offering their employees stipends earmarked for wellness purposes. These stipends are appealing because they allow employees more freedom to choose the wellness perks they want. Depending on your company’s stipend guidelines, you might even be able to take advantage of some of these wellness perks during your trip.

For instance, you may want to use your stipend to take a surfing class or beach yoga sessions while on vacation in Hawaii. As long as these activities fall under the stipulated guidelines, this is a great way to utilize your wellness stipend. As health and wellness platform provider Welltable outlines, there are dozens of use cases for wellness stipend funding, some of which you may not have thought of, like staying at a spa instead of a standard hotel.

Using your wellness stipend to cover the cost of these approved wellness perks while on vacation allows you to experience several fun, relaxing activities and still keep your travel budget in check.

Covered Volunteer Time Off

Plenty of people want to support their favorite charities. To help them, companies occasionally offer volunteer time off, sometimes called VTO. The gifting organization Double the Donation provides a list of businesses with standardized VTO. In some cases, annual VTO policies are quite generous, such as at Hasbro (48 hours) and Cisco (80 hours).

How can VTO benefit you when you’re on vacation? You could set up your travels to include volunteering along the way. This would enable you to avoid using all your PTO and instead use several hours of VTO. Consequently, you’ll be able to take more PTO throughout the year and still give back.

Be aware that you will probably have to substantiate your VTO to receive this benefit through your employer. Always ask first to ensure you understand how best to document what you did on your vacation to make certain it meets VTO use parameters.

Reward-for-Loyalty Paid Sabbaticals

If you have been at your company for several years, it may be beneficial to ask about paid sabbaticals. According to the talent management platform BetterUp, around 15% of businesses offered long-time employees sabbaticals just a few years ago. Yours could be in that mix.

A paid sabbatical is a chance for employees to take an extended period of leave for study, travel or personal growth. This might include learning a new skill or earning a certificate in a different field. If granted, a paid sabbatical allows you to take time off of work and still receive compensation; similar to taking a long stretch of PTO, but you’re in the driver’s seat.

Employees often assume they can’t access sabbatical leave. While employers may not talk about sabbaticals because they’re typically reserved for employees who have accumulated a certain amount of time with the organization — if you’ve been a loyal employee for years, a sabbatical could be the lengthy, money-saving vacation you deserve.

Your vacations shouldn’t leave you feeling stressed out from overspending. Make them more economical by taking advantage of money-saving travel tips and leveraging all the financial perks available through your employer. 

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