Best corporate travel management companies
Is your business travel budget out of control? Are bookings and management tasks controlling your time? Do you have specialized travel needs? If so, it’s time to consider a corporate travel management company (TMC).
This guide includes:
- What makes a corporate travel management company the best?
- Examples of the top corporate travel management companies.
- Key components of reliable TMCs.
- How Corporate Traveller solves travel management challenges.
Handling travel internally often feels like running on a treadmill. It’s exhausting, and you’re getting nowhere fast. Here are a few common challenges that might sound familiar:
- Travel costs are skyrocketing: You’re noticing a drain on your budget.
- Increasing booking hassles: To cut costs, you’re sifting through dozens of options to find flights, hotels, and car rentals, but still wondering if you’ve made the right choices.
- Industry-specific needs: Some sectors have unique travel requirements, and it can be tough to find a solution that fits your industry’s unique needs.
- Approval gridlock: The manual travel approval process is a maze of emails and delays.
- Scaling pains: As your company grows, your travel management processes aren’t keeping pace with your needs.
- Data overload: Trying to figure out where your budget is going and why is a constant struggle.
- Frustrated travellers: Travellers are getting frustrated with booking their own trips and dealing with challenges away from home on their own.
If these pain points sound familiar, you’re not alone. Fortunately, many of these issues can be resolved by partnering with one of the top, best-rated corporate travel management companies.
Why would you settle for travel headaches if a better solution is out there? If you get the right help, your business can streamline bookings, gain control over travel costs, and ultimately, you’ll have happier travellers.
FREE checklist: questions to ask your TMC
Ask the right questions before signing that TMC contract
From how to avoid hidden fees to measuring TMC service quality, this checklist helps you understand everything you need to know to make sure your travel management company can actually meet all your corporate travel needs.
What are the best corporate travel management companies?
Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) often work with TMCs to improve travel processes, input policies, and save valuable time and resources. Below are a few examples of TMCs with the best corporate travel management platforms and software, which use different approaches to tackling the common pain points of SME business travel.
1. Corporate Traveller
For more than two decades, Corporate Traveller has been focused on making business travel as seamless as possible, offering tailored solutions for companies of all sizes. The key is in our balance of human expertise and intuitive technology, bringing the best of both worlds to business travel management.
Our platform, Melon, combines user-friendly design with real-time reporting, ensuring every trip is easy to book and every cost is transparent. Whether it’s the 24/7 support or our proactive approach to managing travel issues, we’ve got everything you need to take control of your business travel.
- Out-of-policy bookings are causing chaos
- No reporting or visibility into travel costs
- Challenges reconciling invoices
- Inconsistent service leaves you stranded
- Sitting on hold with airlines for hours
- Late-night calls from travellers with cancelled flights
- Nobody to call when things go wrong
Key features include:
- Personalized service: A dedicated Travel Manager offers recommendations and cost-saving ideas tailored to your business.
- User-friendly tech: Streamlined bookings, preferred rates, and a platform that takes the guesswork out of travel management.
- 24/7 support: Around-the-clock assistance for travellers and program managers alike, ensuring issues are solved quickly.
With Corporate Traveller, your business travel is no longer a hassle—it’s an asset.
What sets Corporate Traveller apart
What sets Corporate Traveller apart from our competitors is our unmatched combination of innovative travel technology and real human expertise.
Booking, management, tracking, reporting—Melon combines all the data and analytics from these areas into a single, easy-to-navigate location.
Meanwhile, you’ve got a Customer Success Manager helping optimize your travel program and policies in the background, and a designated Travel Manager to help you with day-to-day bookings and changes.
Together, this creates a perfect tech-driven team that your business can use to maximize your savings and the efficiency of your travel program.
Considerations
If you’re a small-to-medium-sized enterprise (SME), and you’re looking to offload some of your travel administration from your in-house team to travel experts, Corporate Traveller is a great fit.
From saving money to improving your operational efficiency, our experts can help you optimize everything from your compliance policies to your traveller wellness—with analytic insights you can only gain from having all your travel data conveniently available in one place.
2. Navan
Navan’s platform aims to simplify the travel and expense management process. It provides companies with a tool for gaining visibility over travel spend while offering employees a user-friendly experience.
Pros:
- Simplified interface for booking and managing expenses
- Features like AI-driven recommendations and corporate card management
- 24/7 support with self-serve AI support or a call center
Cons:
- Pricing information isn’t always transparent
- Some users report issues with integration for certain airlines and customer service
- Mobile app functionality may not meet expectations in all areas
3. Perk (formerly TravelPerk)
Perk offers an all-in-one platform for business travel, catering to companies seeking flexibility and control. It provides a variety of features designed to save time and resources while offering options for sustainability.
Pros:
- Flexible cancellation options with its FlexiPerk feature
- Integration capabilities with tools like Expensify and BambooHR
- Sustainability options through GreenPerk
Cons:
- Premium features can increase costs
- New users might face a learning curve due to the platform’s features
4. Egencia
Egencia serves businesses across multiple countries, leveraging data and technology to improve travel management. Their main focus is on providing detailed insights to improve the booking experience with AI-powered tools.
Pros:
- Broad global reach
- Use of AI and analytics to enhance travel program performance
- Generally considered user-friendly
Cons:
- Some users report customer service and mobile app functionality could be improved
- The lack of a free trial might be a barrier for smaller companies
5. Amex GBT
American Express Global Business Travel provides software and services aimed at managing travel and expenses for businesses. Its platform is designed to offer a range of travel options and premium support. They also own Egencia, but have different offerings.
Pros:
- Varying levels of support/technology offerings
- Easy-to-use booking interface
- Perks and rewards for frequent travellers
Cons:
- Often more expensive than other TMCs
- Some reports of longer wait times for customer service
- May have limitations when booking more complex itineraries
What are the key components of corporate travel management?
Let’s be real, without the right tools, managing business travel can get messy fast. Imagine out-of-policy bookings popping up like annoying notifications, incomplete data making reports unreliable, and inconsistent service leaving your travellers stranded. Suddenly, you’re left questioning if your travel expenses are even remotely under control.
But it doesn’t have to be that way. Our platform, Melon, takes the chaos out of bookings and provides 24/7 support, because travel emergencies don’t clock out at 5 PM.
Take Sarah, for example. She’s a busy sales manager, always on the move. With Melon, she books her flights, hotels, and cars in one go, knowing everything aligns with company policy. Her preferences are saved, loyalty points are maximized, and support is always there. Her travel is smooth, efficient, and stress-free - exactly how it should be.
Travel bookings and reservations
Without access to a top corporate management company, these processes can be frustrating, time-consuming, and definitely not efficient. Think about the hassles:
- Dealing with random, disorganized suppliers
- Managing inconsistent traveller profiles
- Missing out on loyalty rewards
That’s where Melon steps in. It simplifies the entire booking process, offering preferred options and exclusive deals, ensuring every booking is policy-compliant. No more scrambling with profiles or losing out on loyalty points. Everything - from flights to hotels to cars - is managed in just a few clicks.
Take John, who handles travel for his whole team. Before, he was stuck juggling multiple websites and waiting on hold with customer service more than he’d like to admit. Now? John books everything in minutes, keeps loyalty memberships up to date, and ensures his team never misses out on perks. Their travel is now organized, efficient, and headache-free.
No more booking nightmares, because Melon handles it all. You should really check it out for yourself.
Travel policy management and approvals
Rogue bookings, runaway spending, incomplete data - it can feel like a runaway train. Without oversight, managing travel can quickly and easily spiral out of control.
Melon gives you total visibility over your travel program. From policy management to real-time reporting, you get improved compliance and total control over your budget. For Emily, who manages travel for a growing startup, rogue bookings used to be the norm, making it impossible to track spending. Now, with streamlined approvals and full budget control, Emily’s travel program runs like a well-oiled machine - no surprises, no headaches.
Cost control, savings, and reporting
Without proper tools in place, you could be losing money in several different ways:
- Budget leaks
- Overspending
- Lost time
- Lost receipts or invoices
- Off-policy bookings
Melon changes the game, ensuring your travel managers are always on the lookout for better fares and deals. Plus, end-of-year reports give you a clear picture of how much has been saved, helping you stay on top of travel spend. Whether it’s tracking savings or keeping data reliable, our reports offer full visibility into your travel program.
Lisa, a finance manager, used to dread the end-of-month expense reports. It was always a nightmare of missing invoices and overspent budgets. Now, with detailed reports and a dedicated team, she’s able to track savings and optimize costs, making her work more streamlined and less stressful.
Want to see how much you could save? Schedule a meeting, and Corporate Traveller can show you how to start trimming your travel costs today.
FAQs about travel management for SMEs
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How does a Travel Management Company (TMC) make booking easier?
Think of a TMC as your personal travel concierge. Corporate Traveller simplifies booking with our all-in-one platform, Melon. No more juggling multiple tabs or sitting on hold for hours. Melon provides ready-made choices, checks and enforces policies, available around the clock.
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How much can I save by working with a TMC?
Corporate Traveller's clients see significant cost reductions through creative ticketing, tracking expiring credits, and smart airline choices. The exact amount of savings would depend on the size of the original travel budget. But, in general, SMEs save up to 18% per work trip, up to 25% from corporate travel discounts, and up to 7% from travel and expense policies.
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Do we need a travel management company as an SME?
In general, yes. Even SMEs can benefit from a TMC. From streamlined bookings to policy management and detailed reporting, a TMC takes the hassle out of travel. Let your team focus on their jobs while we make travel smooth and cost-effective.
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What features should I look for in a TMC?
You want the whole package: personalized service, robust tech, comprehensive reporting, and 24/7 support. Choose a TMC with industry expertise relevant to your company, and a solid track record of saving time and money for businesses like yours.
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Can a TMC help with travel policy compliance?
Absolutely. A good TMC helps you build and enforce travel policies, reducing out-of-policy bookings and controlling travel spend. Corporate Traveller's tools and real-time reporting ensure every booking aligns with your company's travel policy.
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How does a TMC handle travel disruptions?
At Corporate Traveller offers 24/7 support, risk alerts, and real-time communication to manage disruptions effectively. Your business travellers are covered - no matter where they are in the world.
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Can Corporate Traveller integrate with our existing systems?
Absolutely! Our travel platform, Melon, integrates with most existing systems. From expense tracking to HR systems, Corporate Traveller makes sure everything works seamlessly.
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What if my company has unique travel needs?
Corporate Traveller tailors its services to fit your unique travel requirements, whether it's handling VIP travel, managing complex itineraries, or providing visa support. Our experts have the expertise to make it work seamlessly.
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Can a travel management company support last-minute changes or emergencies?
Yes, as one of the best corporate travel management platforms, our software, Melon, is especially useful for managing last-minute changes to your itineraries. Not to mention, Melon’s live chat feature gives travellers the peace of mind that they have 24/7 emergency support available, in the event of a disruption while they’re on the road.
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What sets Corporate Traveller apart from other TMCs?
It's simple: we put you first. Corporate Traveller combines personalized service with cutting-edge technology, ensuring you get the best rates, 24/7 support, and seamless travel management. Our expertise across various industries and dedication to your needs make us the ultimate travel partner.
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How do I get started with Corporate Traveller?
It is easy. Book a meeting to see how we can tailor our services to your needs. Our team will show you how Melon can transform your travel experience.
Thinking of switching? Let’s chat
Talk to us today and discover how Corporate Traveller can be the partner you’ve been looking for.