Optimize business travel & control spend effectively with managed travel programs

Most businesses today handle travel through fragmented, unmanaged approaches—employees booking independently via consumer sites, like Expedia, using personal credit cards with minimal oversight or policy enforcement. According to a report by Business Travel News Europe, two-thirds of global business travel spend remains unmanaged, fueling chaos in a market projected to hit $2.9 trillion by 2029. Without centralized tools, finance teams chase receipts via emails and spreadsheets, while procurement lacks visibility into vendor negotiations or compliance.

The current state: Unmanaged travel's hidden toll

Profitability suffers dramatically. Unmanaged setups lead to overspend from missed negotiated rates, hidden fees, and non-compliant "spot buys," eroding margins amid hybrid-driven surges. Deloitte notes 22% of managers face volume drags from high prices, with smaller budgets cutting less effectively.

Employee experience plummets. Frustrated by reimbursement delays (often 10+ days), lack of support during disruptions, and no bleisure (business + leisure) options, satisfaction lags. GBTA highlights 71% prefer structured programs for safety and perks, yet unmanaged travel leaves them exposed—60% view US trips as risky without tracking.

The evolving business travel landscape in 2026

Hybrid work has reignited travel; 62% of firms run hybrid models, boosting multi-stop trips 16% for deeper collaborations. GBTA's 2026 index shows 35% expecting trip increases, with US spend topping $329B at 4–5% YoY growth.

What is a managed travel program?

A managed travel program is a structured system companies use to manage employee corporate travel arrangements and expenses efficiently. It can be handled by a dedicated travel & expense management software aided by a travel management company (TMC) managing logistics or an internal team booking flights, hotels, cars, and essentials.

Through centralized frameworks, it enforces policies via technology like online booking tools (OBTs), and provides real-time tracking, approvals, and analytics while leveraging preferred suppliers for optimization. This transforms fragmented cost centers into strategic assets, ensuring compliance, cost savings, and enhanced traveler experiences.

What are travel management companies (TMCs)?

Travel management companies, or TMCs, are entities that manage corporate travel for businesses. These TMCs execute travel programs on behalf of organizations, negotiating discounts, handling 24/7 support, and ensuring duty-of-care like GPS and insurance. Amid the increase of bleisure travel, they balance savings and satisfaction.

Managed vs Unmanaged Travel

What are the benefits of managed travel?

Saves employee's and admin's time

Unmanaged travel drains hours from employees and admins alike between researching flights, hotels, and car rentals, and juggling changes via calls. This pulls focus from core work, costing businesses paid time. A managed program streamlines everything,freeing teams for high-impact tasks.

Maximizes travel ROI

Travel investments should drive returns, like leads from conferences. Yet budgeting and securing optimal rates manually is complex, eating into profits. Managed programs cut costs upfront, boosting net margins by optimizing spend against trip outcomes.

Ensures policy compliance

Every organization has expense guidelines, but self-booking often leads to violations and reimbursement disputes, harming morale. Proactive controls in managed travel enforce rules at booking, avoiding conflicts and fostering trust.

Control travel spends

Managed travel controls costs by enforcing policies at booking to prevent overspend, negotiating volume discounts with suppliers, and providing real-time visibility to curb unused tickets or hotels.

The Association of Corporate Travel Executives (ACTE) found that effective utilization of business travel services can result in businesses reducing their travel expenses by up to 30% making TMC's a key player in curbing the travel spends.

Enables seamless expense management

Integrate bookings with automated expense tracking—no more receipt chaos or reconciliations. Receipts sync instantly, approvals flow digitally, and reimbursements process in days, unifying travel and T&E for effortless oversight.

Does managed travel work for all businesses including SMBs?

Managed travel works for businesses of all sizes. Although small businesses recognize corporate travel's value, they are sometimes overwhelmed and stay away from managed travel under the assumption that managed travel is expensive and that only high volumes of travel can yield expected results. It's quite the opposite. Managed business travel profoundly influences profitability—crucial for small business sustainability. Without robust controls, these costs can balloon uncontrollably, devouring precious administrative resources.

Managed travel reverses the chaos for businesses:

-->Defined policies establish expectations from the start.
-->Automated solutions eliminate administrative overload.
-->Live insights catch problems early, preventing escalation.
 

Pre-implementation checklist for managed travel

Audit 12–24 months travel spend (Target <15% non-compliance)

Review historical travel data to uncover spending patterns, compliance gaps, and overspend hotspots. Identify high-risk categories like non-negotiated bookings that exceed 15% of total spend. This baseline informs ROI projections, targeting 10–20% savings post-implementation.

Create expense policies, budgets & teams

Define clear policies, approval workflows, per diems, and trip budgets tailored to roles and destinations. Incorporate bleisure guidelines to boost employee satisfaction while maintaining control. Document everything for seamless rollout, ensuring 90%+ adherence from Day 1.

Select a T&E tool and TMC

Evaluate TMCs on guaranteed discounts and API compatibility with your ERP/expense tools. Preferably, go with a unified travel & expense management tool. Prioritize 24/7 support, mobile apps, and proven SMB scalability. Request case studies and pilot contracts to validate the fit before committing.

Pilot 20% travelers for gains

Select a test group (for example, the sales team) to try the full program for one to two months. Measure metrics like booking compliance, cost per trip, and user feedback. Refine parameters based on results to achieve quick wins before full deployment.

Train for 80% adoption & 85% compliance

Conduct hands-on sessions, webinars, and quick-reference guides for all travelers. Set trackable KPIs like 85% policy adherence and 80% tool usage post-training. Ongoing nudges ensure sustained engagement and continuous improvement.

Quarterly iteration

Schedule reviews of spend data, traveler surveys, and savings against benchmarks. Adjust policies for market shifts like fare hikes or bleisure trends. Scale successes while addressing gaps to sustain long-term ROI.

Zoho Expense: Transforming your travel program

Transform your corporate travel with Zoho Expense's unified travel & expense solution which gives a seamless experience from self-booking to receipt management and reimbursements. With Zoho Expense's intuitive travel solutions access a vast, pre-negotiated global travel inventory from across GDSs, direct NDC integrations, LCCs, and your own direct connections.

Zoho Expense's intelligent expense platform eliminates reporting hassles with automated receipt matching and instant expense monitoring. Instantly fetch and reconcile corporate card transactions from any Visa or Master Card automatically to enable fast and effortless real-time expense reporting.

Its AI-driven receipt capture lets employees snap a photo, automatically extracting and linking data to the matching transaction. Say goodbye to hunting lost receipts or manual data entry—everything syncs seamlessly, delivering full audit trails without administrative overload.

Want to explore more on how Zoho Expense redefines business travel? Learn here