Selecting the right travel management partner can have a significant impact on your business. From controlling costs and improving traveller wellbeing to streamlining processes and providing greater visibility over spend, the right partnership can deliver value well beyond simply booking business travel.
For many organisations, that journey begins with a Request for Proposal (RFP). But running an effective business travel RFP process isn't always straightforward. An overly complicated or poorly structured tender can make it harder to compare travel management companies (TMCs), prolong the decision-making process and, ultimately, result in choosing a partner that isn't the best fit.
Starting an RFP without clear objectives
Before asking potential travel partners what they can offer, it's important to understand what your business actually needs.
Are you looking to reduce travel costs? Improve the traveller experience? Increase adoption of your travel programme? Gain better reporting and visibility? Strengthen duty of care? Perhaps your current provider isn't delivering the level of personal service your people need.
Without clear objectives, an RFP can quickly become a lengthy checklist rather than a meaningful assessment.
How to avoid it: Define your key business travel challenges and desired outcomes before writing the RFP. These should become the criteria against which potential partners are evaluated.
Making the RFP unnecessarily long
A comprehensive RFP can be useful, but more questions don't necessarily lead to better answers.
Lengthy questionnaires featuring hundreds of generic or repetitive questions can consume significant time for both your procurement team and potential suppliers. They can also make it harder to identify the differences that genuinely matter.
How to avoid it: Focus your questions on the areas that will influence your decision. Ask fewer, more purposeful questions that encourage potential TMCs to demonstrate how they would solve your specific challenges.
Focusing too heavily on price
Cost will understandably play an important role in any corporate travel procurement exercise. However, concentrating solely on transaction fees can create a misleading picture of overall value.
The cheapest provider on paper may not necessarily deliver the greatest savings. Service quality, technology, traveller support, account management and the ability to optimise your travel programme can all affect the total cost of business travel.
How to avoid it: Consider total value rather than headline fees alone. Look at how each potential partner could help you reduce unnecessary spend, improve compliance, save employees time and achieve your wider travel objectives.
Using a generic RFP template
Templates can provide a helpful starting point, but relying too heavily on a standard questionnaire can result in questions that have little relevance to your organisation.
Every business travels differently. Your destinations, traveller profiles, booking behaviours, internal processes and priorities should shape the questions you ask.
How to avoid it: Tailor your RFP around your organisation. Give potential partners enough information about your existing travel programme, challenges and ambitions to propose a solution that reflects the way your people actually travel.
Leaving key stakeholders out of the process
Business travel touches more departments than you might initially think. Procurement and finance may focus on costs and reporting, while HR may prioritise employee wellbeing. Security teams may have duty-of-care requirements, and frequent travellers will have first-hand experience of what works – and what doesn't.
Failing to involve these groups can mean important requirements are discovered only after a new travel programme has been selected.
How to avoid it: Identify stakeholders early and involve them in defining requirements and evaluating potential partners. Traveller feedback can be particularly valuable when assessing service and user experience.
Comparing providers purely on paper
An RFP response can tell you a lot about a travel management company, but it won't always tell you what working with them will actually feel like.
Business travel doesn't always go to plan. Flights are cancelled, meetings move and itineraries change at short notice. In those moments, the quality of the people supporting your travellers can become just as important as technology and price.
How to avoid it: Build conversations, presentations or workshops into your RFP process. Meet the people who would manage and support your account, explore real-life scenarios and understand how the relationship would work day to day.
Treating implementation as an afterthought
Selecting a new business travel partner is only the beginning. Even an excellent solution can struggle if implementation isn't properly planned.
Data migration, traveller profiles, booking technology, policies, approvals, communications and training may all need to be considered. Without a clear implementation plan, businesses risk disruption and poor adoption.
How to avoid it: Discuss implementation during the RFP, not after it. Ask potential partners how they will manage the transition, who will be responsible for each stage and how they'll encourage employees to embrace the new travel programme.
A successful RFP shouldn't simply identify the supplier that ticks the most boxes. It should help you find a business travel management partner that understands your organisation, your people and what you're trying to achieve.
By setting clear objectives, asking relevant questions and considering the overall value of the relationship, businesses can make the RFP process more efficient – and make a more informed decision about who they trust with their corporate travel.
At Travel Counsellors for Business, we believe business travel works best when technology is supported by genuine human expertise and personal service. Our travel professionals get to know the businesses and travellers they support, helping companies manage travel with greater confidence, care and flexibility.
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