We have implemented managed travel for 140 organisations. The ones whose compliance sits above 90% did not write stricter policies. They wrote policies that were easier to follow than to break.
Compliance is a design problem
If following policy means filling in a form, waiting two days for an approval and then finding the fare has gone, people will book outside it and expense the difference. They are not being difficult — they are responding rationally to a process that punishes compliance.
Every effective policy we have seen makes the compliant path the fastest one.
Six things that reliably work
1. Set defaults, not permissions
"Economy on flights under six hours" as an automatic default beats "economy unless approved otherwise" as a rule. The first is applied at booking. The second is an argument.
2. Route approvals by exception
Route only what breaches policy. If 85% of trips are in-policy, 85% should need no approval at all. Approving compliant bookings adds delay and catches nothing.
3. Set booking windows and mean them
The largest recoverable saving in most corporate travel programmes is not cabin class — it is walk-up fares. One client had 40% of domestic bookings going out inside seven days because approvals were sitting in inboxes. Fixing the routing, not the travellers, cut domestic spend 22% in a quarter.
4. Use ceilings, not fixed rates
A hotel ceiling by city, reviewed twice a year, works. A single national rate does not — it is either absurd in Mumbai or wasteful in Indore.
5. Make the exception process honest
Sometimes a traveller genuinely needs the expensive option: a same-day client emergency, an overnight before a critical presentation. A policy with no legitimate exception route teaches people to route around it entirely.
6. Report to travellers, not just to finance
Teams shown their own quarterly travel spend adjust without being asked. Teams that only hear about it when they breach policy learn to avoid detection.
What to leave out
Rules you will not enforce. Every unenforced rule reduces the credibility of the ones that matter. If nobody has ever been challenged on it, delete it.
If you want a second pair of eyes on an existing policy, we will review it and tell you where the leakage is — whether or not you move your account.
