5 Best practices when writing a corporate travel policy
After a decade of helping hundreds of organizations, large and small, book, plan, and manage business trips and business travel policies, we’ve learned a thing or two about corporate travel best practices.This article isn’t a list of what to include in your policy (you can check out our corporate travel policy template for that). Instead, we’re here to show you the best practices for creating a travel policy that travelers will actually comply with.In this article, we’ll also cover some of the important elements you need to have in place in order for your policy to succeed. Otherwise, it’s just a list of rules that no one cares about!Rregardless of the budgets or rules you choose, here are the most important travel policy best practices that all businesses should follow.1. Book all your travel in one place, whenever possible
One of the most important things your travel policy can do is to instruct everyone in your company to book in one place.Why? So that you can consolidate all your itineraries, invoices, and paperwork of your business travel program and everything associated with it into one program or software. Consider all of these key benefits of booking travel in one place:- Track all company travel spend moment-to-moment to streamline expense reporting and make better budgetary decisions.
- Tag travel spend by team, department, or project to create more valuable travel reports.
- Consolidate travel spend into one monthly invoice.
- Remove the need for expense reimbursement (by using an approved business travel tool so the company can pay for travel directly).
- Set up clear guidelines for travel costs, reimbursement processes, booking procedures, and more.
- Easily track travelers whereabouts, and who’s coming and going at different offices.
- Get peace of mind knowing now if you have travelers in affected areas during a natural disaster or other emergencies.
- Build and enforce travel policies right where travelers book.
In our following corporate travel policy best practices, we’ll review some of the above benefits. Just know that it’s really hard to follow these best practices if your company is still using a dozen websites to book travel.Without platform consolidation, it’s hard to get a handle on travel both before it’s booked (approval) and after (tracking and reporting). If you’re not already using a consolidated travel platform, check out our list of the best travel management software to see which one is right for your needs.2. Use your travel policy to point people to the right resources
An effective corporate travel policy is more than a list of rules or a set of guidelines — it’s a resource sheet for employee needs and employee safety during their travel experience. While you might include a list of rules in your policy, a list of rules alone isn’t very effective. (We’ll explore how to fix this with best practice #3.)When you treat your policy as a resource sheet, travelers know where to find what they need. The info they seek is right alongside the rules — making it easier for them to both find what they need and follow the rules you’ve outlined.Here are some pieces of information and resources that travelers might need to pull up easily that you should definitely be including in your corporate travel policy:Any travel guidelines that directly affect the booking process should be in an automated travel policy. You can put them in your travel policy document if you like, but it’s more important that they are included in the automated policies in your business travel booking platform.This way, employees don’t have to directly think about them — they’re automatically adhered to during the booking process.3. Automate your travel policies
So, you’ve provided your employees with resources and policies — but how do you make sure they actually get followed? By automating your company travel policy within your travel booking platform (see step #1).50% of travelers admit that they don’t always follow company travel policy, and 60% say that they don’t even understand the purpose and benefits of having a company travel policy. If including a list of rules in your policy isn’t that helpful, what should you do instead?To follow this best practice, don’t go against human nature. Adding more rules and tightening control over your travelers isn’t going to work. Assuming that travelers will carefully consult and adhere to lists of rules and regulations that don’t even seem to benefit them is a flawed assumption (as the numbers support).Instead, your travel policy needs to affect the booking process. It should be baked into your business travel platform so that if travelers try to book something out of policy, they’re not allowed to without approval from their manager. The manager then gets a notification from the travel app, and can approve or deny the trip. The manager can then complete the booking, or just give their approval so that the traveler can finish the booking.This way, your travel policy gets followed on every booking, without any extra thought or work from your employees. It reduces the burden of adhering to the rules on individuals and makes it effortless.4. Use a booking tool travelers love
Automated travel policies are really great. They affect travel around the clock so you don’t have to nag everyone to stop overspending. But, there’s a flaw with these too. If travelers don’t enjoy using the approved business travel platform or if they don’t feel like it has good deals on travel, then they won’t use it.35% of the time when travelers book outside of the company-approved tool, it’s because they’re trying to find cost-savings via another platform.That’s why it’s essential to choose a platform that not only offers great inventory and prices, but that has a UX and customer experience that your travelers enjoy. A good travel management platform aligns with your business purposes, travel needs, and company culture; allows you to automate your expense policy, travel policy, and other travel workflows; and supports employee satisfaction.Whenever you make changes to the tech your company books with, do a pilot. Roll it out to 5% or 10% of your travelers to begin with and get their feedback. If travelers don’t love the business travel management solution you choose, then you can’t easily control travel spend with automated travel policies. They’ll just book elsewhere.Not sure where to start? Check out our list of the most cost-effective travel management tools travelers love. Or, check out TravelPerk — with 7-star customer service and 4.7 stars on Capterra, it’s an easy choice for an all-in-one platform that your employees will love.5. Enable self-booking or trip saving
The final best practice is a win-win. Setting up self-booking is good for everyone.- Travelers: can book what they want, faster, and all by themselves— while staying within policy.
- Administrators: don’t have to handle everyone’s travel booking requests, and can instead point employees to use the business travel platform and offer help as needed.
- Finance teams: don’t have to manage reimbursements or an array of travel invoices — pay directly from company accounts within the booking platform and streamline expense management.
When you set up your travel policies inside your business travel booking platform, self-booking is a no brainer. You just add travelers to your account and you’re off. A good platform will allow travelers to self-book all travel arrangements: from airfare to ground transportation or a rental car to accommodation and more, while staying within your company’s pre-determined travel budget.See how GetYour Guide optimized their travel booking processes with TravelPerk, allowing them to consolidate travel planning via self-booking for 17 offices — spending less time on travel booking and more time on core projects and business growth.If self-booking isn’t a fit for your company, we won’t judge. Some organizations need more control over employee travel. However, you can still allow travelers to easily pick the exact layover, itinerary, and accommodation that they want before having a travel manager involved for the approval process.Set up your booking platform to have employees request approval for every trip, regardless of policy. This allows travelers to save their in-progress trips. Then an admin can finish the booking, using their saved options. Making travel policy adherence easier with TravelPerk
As you can see, corporate travel best practices prioritize policies that are great for the traveler, not just the company. When you put the business traveler front and center, managing a travel program gets easier.With TravelPerk, managing corporate travel, and your travelers, and your travel policy is easier than ever. With everything consolidated into one easy-to-use tool your whole team will love, plus automated travel policies that make sure your employees follow your booking and spending guidelines every time, TravelPerk streamlines and simplifies your corporate travel program.?)
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