Business travel cost-control strategies for Canadian SMEs
Travel programs for Canadian SMEs are under pressure: budgets are tight, travel patterns are changing, and unmanaged bookings quietly erode savings.
The good news? Smart cost control isn’t about being cheap. It’s about being strategic. Corporate Traveller’s team helps clients save money while protecting the traveller experience.
Below are seven practical ways to tighten control, with real examples and actionable steps you can apply today.
Common travel challenges for Canadian SMEs
Many SMEs face recurring problems:
- Limited visibility into total travel spend
- Rogue or off-policy bookings
- Last-minute trips driving up costs
- Overemphasis on lowest upfront fares instead of total trip value
As Chris Garrard, Customer Relationship Manager at Corporate Traveller, explains:
Comprehensive reporting gives you visibility into who’s booking last-minute, offline versus online, and cost per mile — which helps you make smarter purchasing decisions for your team.
Read on for seven ways Corporate Traveller helps clients fix these problems and save money, without sacrificing comfort or safety.
1. Reporting & visibility: data that drives decisions
Many SMEs find that travel spend just happens, and without a clear picture, costs trickle out of control. With Corporate Traveller’s reporting tools, you get practical insights into where your travel dollars are really going. It’s less about dashboards, and more about understanding trends like last-minute bookings or off-policy spend so you can make better decisions with confidence.
These insights empower Canadian businesses to identify savings opportunities, last-minute bookers, and more.
To many SMEs, reporting can sound abstract, until they experience the difference firsthand. Without clear visibility, travel decisions often fall to busy teams without dedicated expertise, leading to last-minute bookings, missed savings, and unnecessary admin work.
That was the case for Toronto-based PR agency 1Milk2Sugars. As Operations Manager, Masha Katsnelson explains:
Before partnering with Corporate Traveller, we didn’t have a dedicated professional with industry expertise managing our travel needs. As a result, we made a lot of mistakes that cost our agency both time and money. We chose Corporate Traveller to take that burden off our team and place it in the hands of industry experts. Since then, Corporate Traveller has streamlined our travel bookings and provided detailed reporting that helps us make informed decisions about our travel patterns. I would highly recommend Corporate Traveller to any company with frequent travel needs, especially those coordinating bookings for both internal and external travellers.
— Masha Katsnelson, Operations Manager | 1Milk2Sugars
With centralized reporting and expert oversight, teams gain a clearer picture of how, when, and why travel spend occurs, turning raw data into smarter, more confident decisions.
Why it matters: When you can spot that a particular team books last-minute flights at a much higher average fare, you can target policy changes, communications, or training to fix it.
Action step: Review reporting dashboards like top travellers, identify who books last minute, know where your travellers are at all times and more.
2. Travel policy development: your guardrails for savings
A travel policy should feel like a helper, not a rulebook. Start with straightforward expectations, who should book where, which suppliers to use, and when to book in advance, and make sure people actually understand and use it. A clear policy becomes a go-to tool, not a forgotten document.
Start with a policy that outlines these simple, measurable rules:
- Approved technology and booking channels/platforms
- Preferred suppliers and partners for travel and accommodation
- Advance-purchase window
- Expenses, reimbursements, and the approvals process
- Emergency processes and contacts
For many SMEs, a 14-day domestic and 21 to 45-day international booking window significantly reduces average fares.
When speaking about travel policy, John Bellefeuille, Senior Account Executive, at Corporate Traveller, said:
We strongly encourage flexible fare products. They may seem more expensive upfront, but over time they’re cheaper and more practical than the cheapest option.
How we've helped: A client who enforced a 14-day domestic window saw average airfare drop, in some routes by up to 20%, because fewer trips were purchased at last-minute premium fares.
3. Negotiated & preferred rates: use buying power wisely
When you work with Corporate Traveller, you tap into real supplier relationships that go beyond what most companies see in a standard search engine hunt. That means not just lower rates, but perks and priority that make business travel smoother for your team, and more cost-effective for your budget.
That means better pricing, more consistency for travellers, and far fewer surprise add-ons at check-out. That buying power makes a tangible difference in real-world scenarios.
For example, one SME client planning an off-site retreat was facing premium resort pricing and limited availability. Through Corporate Traveller’s established industry relationships, one of our Travel Managers negotiated preferred rates that delivered over $6,500 in savings across the client’s room block and secured meeting space ahead of competing requests. What would have taken the client days to coordinate was handled in minutes, demonstrating how SMEs can stretch their budgets further by booking through a partner with true supplier influence.
As Chris Garrard, Customer Relationship Manager, explains,
Negotiated rates leverage our buying power across clients to secure exclusive perks — from Wi-Fi and breakfast to room upgrades and parking — which aren’t available to the public.”
Those perks may look small on paper, but they add up fast — especially for teams on the road week after week.
The result? You’re not just saving money on nightly rates. You’re reducing spend on meals, parking, and productivity drains — while giving travellers a smoother, more predictable experience. It’s a win for your budget and your people.
Tip: Consolidate hotels to 2–3 preferred properties per city to improve rates and service. Consolidation improves reporting and makes traveller experiences more consistent.
4. Booking reviews & smarter fare choices
A surprising amount of overspend happens before travellers even leave for the airport, simply because they pick the wrong fare. Many SMEs focus on the lowest upfront price, but those “savings” often disappear once change fees, baggage charges, or seat selection costs come into play.
How we help: During booking reviews, our team highlights where travellers may be choosing based on habit rather than value, and we guide them toward options that actually cost less over the full trip. Corporate Traveller’s consultative onboarding and booking audits identify these pitfalls and recommend fare classes (for example, flexible economy) that reduce the cost of changes and cancellations.
As Chris Garrard puts it,
When clients book basic economy without thinking ahead, they often end up paying extra for changes, baggage, and seat selection. Spending a bit more upfront on a flexible fare like EconoFlex actually reduces overall costs.
It’s a simple shift — choosing flexible fares instead of the absolute cheapest fare, but it can drastically reduce mid-trip stress, last-minute adjustment fees, and administrative work on the back end.
5. Supplier consolidation: fewer partners = deeper savings
Many SMEs assume that spreading bookings across multiple hotels or airlines gives them more options — but in reality, it dilutes their buying power. When travellers stay at ten different hotels in the same city, no single property sees enough volume to offer meaningful discounts or added perks.
By consolidating to just a few preferred partners, SMEs can unlock stronger hotel rates, better consistency, and a more predictable traveller experience.
As Chris Garrard explains,
Consolidation matters: staying at 2–3 preferred hotels instead of 10 gives clients better rates and improved service for repeat travellers.
Supplier consolidation isn’t about limiting choice; it’s about using volume strategically. When travellers are spread across too many hotels or airlines, spending becomes fragmented, negotiated leverage disappears, and reporting becomes harder to action.
For example, Corporate Traveller worked with a Canadian biotech company whose team was booking more than 40 different hotels across Boston and Cambridge. By analyzing booking patterns and consolidating spend down to nine preferred properties, Corporate Traveller helped the client unlock stronger negotiated rates and simplify the booking experience. The result: a 44% reduction in hotel costs, equating to $26,250 in annual savings, alongside improved booking consistency and higher traveller satisfaction.
And that’s the point: by streamlining where your team stays most often, you make each trip feel familiar and well-supported, and you give your travel budget a much better chance of stretching further. That’s strategic travel, not random booking.
What makes it work for business: It’s a win on both sides: better leverage for the business and faster recognition for travellers. Over time, consolidation simplifies reporting, strengthens supplier relationships, and creates a smoother, more reliable experience for every trip.
Action step: Identify top cities for travel and select a short list of hotels that meet safety, price, and location criteria.
6. Managing unused air credits: recover what you’ve already paid
Unused tickets and expired airline credits are invisible sunk costs. Corporate Traveller’s systems monitor credits, automate re-application, and proactively alert bookers so funds aren’t wasted.
Why this is low-hanging fruit: Reclaiming and reusing credits reduces new ticket spend and improves cash efficiency.
Example: One client reclaimed thousands in unused credits within 90 days simply by centralizing ticket tracking and requiring agents to check for reusable credits before issuing new bookings.
7. Soft savings: why time, safety, and service matter
Some of the smartest savings don’t show up in dollars and cents, they show up in time saved, stress avoided, and support you can count on when travel doesn’t go to plan. These “soft savings” often have a bigger long-term impact than shaving a few dollars off a single fare.
Corporate Traveller’s team doesn’t just book travel, we help keep business moving.
As John Bellefeuille puts it,
Soft savings, like time, service quality, and duty of care, are just as important as hard-dollar savings. Many clients underestimate their value.
Whether it’s:
- Travel disruption management
- Faster resolutions when travel plans change
- Proactive safety alerts
- Having a dedicated expert 24/7 who knows your business
These elements reduce friction and protect both the traveller and your travel budget. Soft savings create resilience — and that’s something no discount can replace.
How we've helped clients like Ecofor Consulting: Soft savings become most visible when travel doesn’t go to plan. During the Air Canada flight attendant strike in August 2025, Corporate Traveller Canada acted quickly to rebook and reroute clients across the country, minimizing disruption while airlines were grounded. In less than a week, our teams supported more than 10,000 travellers through proactive monitoring, real-time updates, and after-hours assistance. For clients like Ecofor Consulting, that rapid response meant projects stayed on track, saving time, protecting duty of care, and keeping business moving.
Final thoughts: smarter spend, better travel
For Canadian SMEs, controlling travel costs isn’t about chasing the cheapest fare, it’s about building a smarter, more reliable travel program. One that’s guided by clear policies, real visibility, trusted supplier relationships, and people who know the industry inside out.
That’s where Corporate Traveller comes in. We help you save money in ways that actually stick, while making travel easier for the people on the move.
If you’re a travel booker, finance lead, or operations manager who wants more clarity, less guesswork, and support you can count on — let’s talk.
Ready to spend smarter on business travel?
Let’s talk about how Corporate Traveller can help your team travel better.