Your essential guide to a smarter travel policy

May 1, 2025

What you’ll learn in this article

The benefits a robust travel policy can bring to your business
The steps to take to create that smarter corporate travel policy
How Reed & Mackay can help support with your travel policy

Are you juggling the many facets required to manage a corporate travel programme? From managing budgets and expenses to ensuring traveller wellbeing and incorporating sustainable travel policies? Having a robust travel policy in place can help manage these many challenges and prevent leakage, to deliver ROI for your travel programme.

So how can you make a travel policy smarter? Reed & Mackay Global Partnership Managers Debbie Godley and Louise Murray take us through these essential steps.

Consider how many people, and from which departments, need to be involved in putting the policy together

Step 1: Determine who owns the travel policy internally

Every company is unique, so establish which department is going to own the travel policy and whether that’s just one department or more. Depending on which department takes ownership, the framework may vary. For example, if the procurement team owns the policy, spend and savings will naturally be at the forefront of that framework. Elsewhere, HR teams will be looking at traveller experience, traveller safety and risk management.

Step 2: Get buy in from an internal group of stakeholders

“Support for your policy from key company stakeholders is essential,” Godley says. “Set up an internal group of stakeholders, including employees that cover risk, security, tax, HR and procurement so there is an established governance team that will include everyone’s feedback and then their buy-in.

“It’s important to take your employees with you on implementing a travel policy,” Godley adds. “And that means buy-in from the top down as well as from individual departments.”

Plus, if you’re creating travel policy for a global company, be aware that local nuances need to be considered. Not just in terms of cultural norms but elements such as different tax requirements. Make sure all the right people are involved across the globe from the start.

Step 3: Decide what’s going in the travel policy

Once stakeholders are on board, the next step is to decide what will feature within the policy. For example, working with finance teams to ensure the expense process is implemented effectively. “That also means including elements such as if hotel charges only include the room in your TMC’s booking tool, then include in the policy whether breakfast needs to be expensed,” Godley says.

Murray adds that traveller wellness is increasingly featuring in policies for clients. “We’re now in an era where business travellers are looking to add their holiday to the end of a business trip, or at least incorporate bleisure within that trip,” Morrey says. “And we’re seeing more consideration around how many nights people are away for work and how that can be managed within policy. An additional benefit to including traveller wellbeing within policies is it can help a company look more attractive to prospective and current employees.”

Overall, you can design policy to suit each travelling demographic within your company. Other areas to consider include duty of care and risk management; information on loyalty programmes; guidelines on expenses outside of working hours; and incorporating sustainability into business practices.

“If a company’s objective is to reduce their carbon emissions by 30% that year across the business, it’s important to consult with them on where this could feature in the travel policy. And, of course, talk with your TMC about how they can help manage these elements and guide travellers to make the right choices to support the business objective,” Godley adds.

If cost saving is a key driver for a business, consider setting an out-of-policy alert to bookings

Step 4: Establish responses to ‘what ifs’

Set out answers to ‘what happens if I book outside of travel policy’. Detail what those consequences would be and whether there would be various levels of escalation. “There are different ways to handle the approval process; for example, if someone wants to book a hotel whose rates fall outside of a spending cap, but has a robust reason for doing so, include information on what would happen here,” Murray explains.

And, of course, it can be sector dependent. With the legal sector, some of their travel can be billable to clients, so factor this in too.

“Overwhelmingly, the company’s objectives need to guide a travel policy. This year’s could be different to last year’s,” Godley says. “If cost saving is the key driver, we would recommend to clients they set up an out-of-policy alert through Reed & Mackay’s online platform, which we can support through our straightforward approvals process. This means employees are shown exactly where they’ll fall out of policy, giving them the choice and allows for flexibility.”

Step 5: Offer clarity with communication

Communicate a travel policy clearly. Explain the reasons behind the decisions. Keep it clear and concise when initially engaging with employees – there can be more added in different files but the most important points need to be succinct and easily available.

“The company’s intranet should store it for easy access and, if a client is working with a TMC on its policy, it needs to ensure the TMC’s tools match their policy,” Murray adds.

Most importantly? Ensure the travel policy is available in both online and offline systems so everyone is aware of what’s in or out of policy, however they’re booking.

Step 6: Decide when to review the travel policy

While travel policy should be fixed, it’s important to review it every six months. “Tax regulations, risk assessment and geopolitics regularly fluctuate,” Godley explains. “The policy should be fit for purpose in the current travel climate. For example, there’s no point having a hotel rate cap in London for £100 if you’re unlikely to get anywhere for less than £150.”