Corporate travel policy checklist: a good policy fits on a few pages and answers five questions. Who can approve a trip? How much can people spend? Where do they book? What happens if something goes wrong? How do they claim money back? Use the steps below to write yours or to test the one you have.
A growing team often travels first and writes rules later. Trips get booked on personal cards. Hotel prices differ by hundreds of dollars for the same city. Nobody knows who is in the air when a storm closes an airport. A short written policy fixes all three problems before they grow.
1. Set approval rules
Decide who says yes to a trip, and when. Keep it simple. A common setup is that the traveller's manager approves every trip before anything is booked. A second approver, such as a finance lead, signs off when the trip costs more than a set amount or when it involves a long flight.
Write down the reason a trip is allowed. Client meetings, contract signings, site visits and required training are clear reasons. A trip that could be a video call should be questioned first.
Add a time limit for approvals, such as two working days. Slow answers push staff to book on their own, and that breaks the rest of your policy.
2. Fix spending limits
Put numbers in the policy. Staff should not have to guess what is fair. Set a nightly hotel cap for each city or region, a daily meal allowance, and a rule for local transport. Say which flight class is allowed on short trips and which on long ones.
Review the limits once or twice a year. Hotel and airfare prices move, and a cap that is too low means people either overspend and explain it later, or stay far from their meetings and lose time.
Say what happens when a limit is passed. The simplest rule is that the traveller asks for approval before booking, not after.
3. Choose booking channels
Pick one or two ways to book and name them. This can be a travel agency, an online booking tool, or a short list of approved airlines and hotels. One channel gives you one record of every trip. It also lets you use company rates and see total spend by month.
Say what is not allowed. If staff may not book through third-party sites or on personal cards, write it plainly. If there are exceptions, such as a last-minute trip when the tool is down, list them.
Ask travellers to add loyalty numbers and passport details to their profile once. That saves time and cuts booking errors.
4. Cover duty of care
Duty of care means the company takes reasonable steps to keep travellers safe. It is the part of a policy most teams skip. The Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) has shared practical advice from its risk committee. It says to give travellers a simple plan that shows whom to call for each type of problem. It also says to make travellers responsible for reporting itinerary changes, because wrong booking data makes it hard to find people in a crisis.
Your policy can cover these points in a few lines:
- A 24-hour phone number or chat line for emergencies, and who answers it.
- A rule that travellers share their full itinerary, including changes.
- A reminder to check travel advisories from their government before leaving.
- A reminder to check that their health and travel insurance covers the trip.
- A named person in the company who owns the plan, and a backup.
GBTA also advises involving travel, security, HR, senior leaders and risk staff together, so safety is a shared job. In a small firm, that may just be two or three people. The principle is the same.
If your team travels often or to riskier places, look at ISO 31030, a guidance standard on managing travel risk. It was published in September 2021 and applies to organisations of any size. You do not need to follow all of it. Its structure of policy, risk checks, and regular review is a useful guide.
This is general information, not legal advice or medical advice.
5. Write clear expense rules
Tell people exactly how to claim costs. Set a deadline, such as 14 days after the trip ends. State what proof is needed, usually a receipt or invoice for each item, with the date, amount and purpose. Say which items are not paid, such as minibar charges, fines or personal upgrades.
Decide how staff get money before a trip. Options are a company card, a cash advance, or paying and claiming back. Company cards give the cleanest record. Whichever you choose, say how fast finance pays claims. Staff who wait six weeks to be repaid stop following the policy.
Check local tax and accounting rules for each country where you operate. Receipt and record rules differ, and your finance adviser can confirm what applies to you.
6. Keep it alive
A policy only works if people know it exists. Share it at onboarding, put it where staff can find it, and send a short reminder before busy travel seasons. Ask travellers after each trip what worked and what did not. GBTA lists traveller feedback among its practical tips.
Review the policy at least once a year, and after any incident. Note the date and the owner at the top of the page.
Quick test: can a new hire read your policy in ten minutes and book a compliant trip without asking anyone? If yes, it is ready. If not, cut words and add numbers until it is.