Business travel is indispensable for companies with any remote operations or partnerships. But without guidelines, work-related travel can become disorganized, non-compliant, and costly. A well-crafted corporate travel policy provides the framework to keep business travel efficient, safe, and budget-friendly.
Follow these best practices when creating or updating your company’s travel policy
Define Goals and Objectives
Clearly identify what you want your travel policy to accomplish, Common goals include
- Control costs and ensure budget compliance
- Streamline travel booking and reimbursement
- Ensure traveler health, security and productivity
- Provide clear, consistent guidelines for all employees
- Maintain compliance with laws, regulations and company policies
Gather Input from Stakeholders
Connect with all groups involved to understand needs and concerns:
- Survey frequent travelers on major pain points and challenges
- Ask managers about past travel issues and risks
- Consult finance leaders on budget priorities and constraints
- Discuss duty of care responsibilities with legal/HR
- Identify preferred travel suppliers to streamline booking
Standardize Processes Company-Wide
Eliminate confusion by establishing standardized protocols
- Mandate the use of one central travel management company for booking
- Set designated travel approvers by department or position
- Create universal forms for requests, approvals, expenses
- Outline specific rules for air, hotel, rental car, and other common expenses
Set Clear Guidelines for All Aspects of Travel
Address every phase of travel in detail:
Planning – Required approvals, using preferred vendors, budget caps
Booking – Process for air, hotel, rental cars, etc.
Expenses – Limits for meals, transport, tips, etc.
Payment – Company cards, expense reimbursement process
On the road – Health, safety, conduct expectations
Reporting – Expense documentation, compliance issues
Balance Structure with Flexibility
Impose structure in key areas for consistency while allowing some flexibility to meet individual needs:
- Standardize booking, approvals, reimbursement
- Keep meal and hotel guidelines reasonably flexible
- Allow some discretion on flight class for health reasons
- Enable exceptions if approved and documented
Maintain Compliance with Laws and Policies
Ensure travel protocols comply with all applicable laws and company policies:
- Follow government per diem, recordkeeping and anti-corruption rules
- Adhere to company non-discrimination, sustainability initiatives
- Respect data privacy, confidentiality and information security policies
- Confirm insurance needs, duty of care obligations are met
Promote Traveler Health, Safety and Conduct
Provide clear guidelines to protect traveler wellbeing and reputation:
- Offer advice on vaccinations, visas, local laws/customs
- Outline protocols for check-ins, emergency assistance
- Set standards for conduct when representing the company
- Ban risky behaviors – drunk driving, illegal activities
Keep Language Clear and Concise
Write guidelines focused on the end user:
- Avoid jargon – explain acronyms if used
- Keep sentences and paragraphs short
- Use bullet points and visual formatting for scannability
- Provide examples for context and clarity
Make the Policy Easy to Access
Ensure employees can easily reference guidelines anytime:
- Publish on company intranet and travel booking sites
- Email the policy directly to frequent travelers
- Include relevant sections in travel request/approval forms
- Print pocket guides if employees travel offline frequently
Communicate Changes Proactively
When updating policies, alert employees through multiple channels:
- Send company-wide announcements via email, intranet, meetings
- Provide reminders and training for frequently impacted groups
- Have managers discuss changes with their direct reports
- Update internal FAQs and quick reference materials
Enforce Consistently Company-Wide
Avoid perception of favoritism or inequity in applying rules:
- Document all exceptions approved, with rationale
- Develop consistent approval matrix by role/seniority
- Audit expense reports and call out violations
- Institute penalties for repeat rule-breakers if needed
A well-constructed travel policy optimizes budgets, productivity, safety and compliance. By investing time upfront in thoughtful policy development and proactive communication, companies can maximize the strategic value of business travel.
Air travel policy for employees guidelinesCreating an easy-to-follow air travel policy for employees is essential to help keep your employees safe and your business travel expenditure as low as possible.Most importantly, your air travel policy for your employees should contain documentation that they can refer to to check that their bookings are compliant, detailed information on what information is needed to submit travel expense forms, a list of approved in-flight purchases, and, if relevant, a list of your company’s preferred airlines.Two of the most common queries surrounding air travel policies relate to business class bookings vs economy bookings and rules about using business frequent flyer miles for personal use. Below, we go through both of these queries in more detail to help you craft the most helpful and clear air travel policy for employees.
- Travel policies are difficult to understand
- No one reads them or remembers them
- Travel policies are not enforced using technology
- Travel policies come across as overly bureaucratic
Why create a business travel policy?Clear guidelines mean fairness for all.Travel policies aren’t just rules, rules, rules. They shouldn’t cause frustration and eye rolls. Rather, travel policies can positively impact both travelers and businesses. Here’s how:
- Flexibility and autonomy to book their own travel within guidelines
- Safety first! (Travelers’ whereabouts are tracked)
- Reduce confusion and hassle with travel booking
- Reduce spikes in travel spend and gain control
- Reduce friction and frustration over expenses and reimbursements
- Reduce total costs on business travel and optimize your companys budget
- Increase fairness and foster a positive company culture
How To Draft A Corporate Travel Policy That Fits Your Business?
Do you have a corporate travel policy?
There’s a lot to consider when arranging business travel, so it makes sense to have a robust corporate travel policy in place. Setting out all the relevant procedures will help keep your employees safe while working to reduce your business’s travel spend. Some of the key steps to creating your ideal company travel policy include:
How do I create a company travel policy?
Setting out all the relevant procedures will help keep your employees safe while working to reduce your business’s travel spend. Some of the key steps to creating your ideal company travel policy include: Defining your objectives.
What should a company travel policy include?
Your company travel policy should be easy to understand and include the information most pertinent to employees. If the policy is clear, employees will comply with it. If not, they might end up booking out of policy. You can also include a glossary section if your travel policy includes complex terms.
What should you consider before writing a corporate travel policy?
There are many aspects of business travel to consider before writing your corporate travel policy. While your policy should reflect the unique needs of your business and employees, you’ll need to establish policies for these fundamental areas: Airline, rail, hotel and rental car reservations. The use of other transportation, such as taxi cabs.
