How to Build a Corporate Travel Policy

15 April 2025 | Travel Blogs

In 2025, with trade tensions and rising costs making it harder for businesses to stay on track, it’s more important than ever to cut back on unnecessary spending, especially when it comes to travel. In this guide, we’ll walk you through how to build a corporate travel policy that works for your team and your bottom line.

A well-crafted corporate travel policy is more than a set of rules. It’s a strategic tool to control costs, protect travellers, and elevate the overall business travel experience.

Whether you’re managing a lean startup or leading travel at a global organisation, this guide will walk you through how to build a corporate travel policy that works for your company and your people.

What Is a Corporate Travel Policy?

A corporate travel policy is a set of guidelines that outlines how employees should book, manage, and expense business travel. It ensures trips are aligned with company goals, budgets, and standards for safety and behavior.

Done right, your travel policy:

Reduces unnecessary spend
Improves booking and expense consistency
Enhances traveler experience and support
Ensures legal and duty-of-care compliance

Why Your Business Needs a Travel Policy in 2025

Business travel in North America is still booming, yet it’s more complex than ever. Between tariffs, inflation, hybrid workforces, sustainability goals, and employee expectations, a clear travel policy is mission-critical.

Here’s why:

Financial Control – Limit overspending and plug cost leaks
Employee Clarity – Reduce back-and-forth with standardized rules
Safety & Duty of Care – Show you take traveler wellbeing seriously
Reporting & Insights – Centralize travel data for better decisions
Policy Compliance – Make it easier for people to do the right thing

Without a policy, every trip becomes a custom project, costly, chaotic, and hard to track the ROI.

What to Include in a Corporate Travel Policy

Your policy should be comprehensive, but easy to follow. Think “guidebook,” not “legal contract.”

Here’s what to include:

1. Booking Guidelines

Preferred booking tools or platforms
Required advance booking windows (e.g. 7+ days prior to travel)
Rules for approval workflows

2. Air Travel

Approved cabin classes by role or trip length
Use of frequent flyer programs or credits
Airline preferences or negotiated rates

3. Accommodation

Hotel nightly rate caps
Use of preferred chains or negotiated partners
Guidelines for Airbnb or alternative lodging

4. Ground Transportation

When to use rideshares, taxis, or car rentals
Mileage reimbursement rules
Parking and toll reimbursements

5. Meals & Per Diem

Meal expense limits or per diem rates
Alcohol policy during meals
What’s considered reimbursable

6. Expense Reporting

Required documentation (e.g. receipts, timeframes)
Approved expense management tools
Reimbursement timeline expectations

7. Traveler Safety & Duty of Care

Emergency procedures and contacts
Insurance coverage information
Medical assistance or evacuation details

8. Sustainability Guidelines

Incentives for train vs. air travel
Carbon offset options or mandates
Green hotel preferences

Free Corporate Travel Policy Template

Need a jump-start? We’ve created a free, customizable corporate travel policy template to save you hours of work. It includes all the core sections above, and tips to enhance adoption rate. Please contact us to request your complimentary copy.

Best Practices for Travel Policy Success

To make sure your corporate travel policy doesn’t just gather dust in a shared folder somewhere, it needs to be something people actually use and adopt. Here’s how to keep it relevant, readable, and genuinely useful:

✅ Keep It Simple and Clear
Avoid jargon wherever possible. Use straightforward, friendly language, and break things up with headings, bullet points, and short paragraphs. The easier it is to scan, the more likely it’ll be read and remembered.

✅ Balance Rules with Flexibility
Not every traveller is the same. Senior execs, last-minute bookers, and frequent flyers might need a little more leeway. Build in sensible exceptions and provide guidance for edge cases, without opening the door to confusion or loopholes.

✅ Integrate with a TMC
The best travel policies aren’t just PDFs, they’re built right into the tools your team and supplier already uses. Using echo.bravo’s business travel solutions, you’ll be able to incorporate your policy directly into the booking process, so compliance becomes second nature.

✅ Communicate the “Why”
People are more likely to follow rules when they understand the reason behind them. Make it clear how your travel policy supports the business, keeps costs down, and ensures fair treatment across the board.

✅ Review It Regularly
Things change. markets shift, budgets evolve, new tools emerge. Set a time each year to revisit your travel policy, gather feedback from real users, and tweak it to suit your current goals and challenges.

Examples of Travel Policy by Company Type

When crafting a corporate travel policy, it’s important to tailor it to the needs and scale of your business. Here’s a breakdown of how to approach travel policy creation based on the size and structure of your company:

Small Business

For small businesses, simplicity is key. Your team is likely lean, and travel needs are often less complex. With a smaller workforce, it’s crucial to create a policy that is easy to follow without overwhelming employees or adding unnecessary layers of bureaucracy.

Prioritise Clarity and Cost Control: Employees in smaller businesses may be more likely to travel frequently or in more flexible ways. Your policy should provide clear guidance on what is and isn’t acceptable. Think straightforward rules on booking procedures, transportation choices, accommodation budgets, and expense claims. Keep the language simple and avoid unnecessary jargon.
Avoid Over-Regulation – Simplicity Wins: While it’s important to have guidelines, you don’t want to make your policy too rigid or complicated. Over-regulation can lead to frustration and confusion. Focus on core elements that will help streamline travel and save money, like capping hotel prices and restricting luxury travel options. The goal should be to empower employees to make informed decisions without feeling micromanaged.

Mid-Size Company

As your company grows, so does the complexity of your travel programme. A mid-sized business has more resources to allocate to travel, and there are likely more frequent, varied travel needs across departments. This requires a more structured policy with added flexibility for different types of employees.

Introduce Preferred Vendors: As your business scales, you can start forming relationships with dedicated account managers like the team at echo.bravo that offer preferential rates and deals. Include these vendors in your policy, but also provide flexibility for employees to book when necessary outside these options.
Use Expense Automation Tools: Managing travel expenses manually becomes a challenge as your company grows. Automating expense reporting tools like Expensify, or a similar platform can help streamline the process. This reduces errors, speeds up reimbursements, and ensures compliance with your policy. Make sure to include these tools in your policy, and require employees to use them for all claims.

Enterprise-Level Business

Enterprise-level organisations usually have a much broader and more diverse travel landscape. At this scale, travel is not just about cost control but also about managing a complex mix of departments, business functions, and even international regulations.

Add International Travel Rules: International travel comes with additional considerations, visa requirements, different currencies, varying per diem rates, and even local travel customs. Your policy should reflect this by outlining rules specific to global travel, including guidelines for booking international flights, handling foreign exchange, and ensuring employee safety abroad.
Create Department-Specific Exceptions: Large organisations often need to accommodate varying needs across departments. For instance, sales and executives might need more flexible travel arrangements than operations or support staff. Your policy should include exceptions or additional allowances for departments or roles that require more flexibility (e.g. higher travel budgets, approval hierarchies, or less rigid travel restrictions).

Remote-First or Hybrid Company

The rise of remote-first and hybrid work has transformed business travel. Employees are less likely to be based in a central office and may need to travel to meet clients or collaborate with colleagues. A remote-first organisation needs a travel policy that is tailored to the unique needs of flexible and distributed teams.

Define When In-Person Travel Is Appropriate: Not every team meeting needs to be in person, especially in a remote-first company. Your policy should clearly define when business travel is appropriate, for example, team off-sites, client meetings, or events that require face-to-face interaction. Encourage virtual alternatives when feasible to cut down on unnecessary travel and the associated costs.
Include Rules for Team Off-sites and Meetups: Team off-sites are often a major part of a remote-first organisation’s culture. Include specific guidelines on the frequency, duration, and expected outcomes of such off-sites. Should employees be allowed to travel internationally for these events? What expenses are covered? Clear parameters help employees feel confident in making travel arrangements that align with company goals.

Common Mistakes to Avoid When Creating A Corporate Travel Policy

Creating a corporate travel policy is a balancing act. While you want to provide structure and clarity, you also need to avoid common pitfalls that could undermine your efforts.

1. Too Vague

If your policy is too vague, employees won’t know what’s expected of them, which can lead to confusion and non-compliance. Avoid phrases like “try to keep costs low” and be specific about what is and isn’t allowed. For instance, specify hotel rate limits, meal allowance caps, and booking platforms to be used. The more specific you are, the easier it is to enforce.

2. Too Strict

On the other hand, if your policy is overly strict, it can create resentment among employees or lead to “shadow travel” where employees ignore the policy entirely and book outside of the approved channels. To avoid this, create room for exceptions or flexibility where necessary, especially for frequent travellers or top-level executives who may need to travel with less restriction.

3. No Communication Plan

It’s not enough to just have a policy. If employees don’t know about it or aren’t aware of updates, they won’t follow it. A good communication plan ensures that everyone is informed. When the policy is created or updated, ensure all employees know where to access it and understand its importance. Provide quick summaries of the most important rules, and make it easy to reach out for clarification if needed.

4. No Room for Evolution

Your business will change over time, and so will your travel needs. The same goes for your travel policy. Without regular reviews, your policy could become outdated and irrelevant. Make sure to include a process for reviewing and revising the policy on a regular basis — annually or as required based on company growth, shifting travel patterns, or new technology.

How to Roll Out Your Corporate Travel Policy

Once you’ve crafted your policy, you need to make sure it’s effectively communicated and implemented. Here’s a simple roadmap to rolling it out successfully:

Email Announcement with a Link to the Full Policy: Send out an email with a summary of the new or updated travel policy, and provide a link to the full document. Ensure employees understand why the policy exists and what the key changes are.
15-Minute Live Walkthrough or Recorded Loom Video: Not everyone will read the entire policy, so consider hosting a short live walkthrough or creating a recorded video that highlights the most important points. This allows employees to ask questions and clarifies any potential confusion.
Policy Embedded in Onboarding for New Hires: Make your travel policy part of the onboarding process for new employees. This ensures that everyone understands the rules from day one and avoids surprises down the line.
Feedback Loop for Continuous Improvement: Your travel policy should be a living document. Encourage feedback from travellers to improve the policy over time. Regularly ask for suggestions or insights from those using it most frequently and be open to making adjustments based on their experiences.

Pro Tip: Make the policy easily accessible via your intranet or travel platform. If employees can’t find it when they need it, it’s much harder for them to follow. Keep it searchable, ideally with an FAQ section to answer common questions.

Final Thoughts

A corporate travel policy isn’t about restricting your team, it’s about empowering them to travel better.

With the right structure, tools, and communication, your policy becomes a powerful asset: saving money, improving safety, and creating consistency at scale.

Ready to take control of business travel?

👉 Book a Strategy Call with echo.bravo today