Why it's time growing companies took business travel more seriously

By Laura Pankoke, Corporate Travel Management (CTM) Vice President of Account Management, North America.

“Managed travel is just for the big guys. We don’t have the budget or do enough travel to make it matter.”

If I had a dollar for every time I heard that from a small or mid-sized business, I would never need to work again.

It’s a well-worn excuse and a dangerous one. And while it may feel justified in the moment, that mindset is costing SMEs (small to medium-sized enterprises) more than they realise: in time, money, risk exposure, and employee experience.

 

The real reasons SMEs avoid managed travel – perception, not inaccessibility

I want to be clear that SMEs are not being excluded or ignored by the travel industry. The opposite is true. There’s more tech, more scalable service options, and more focus on SME travel than ever before. The problem isn’t access. It’s perception.

Many SMEs still view managed travel as something reserved for big business, for companies with hundreds of employees and even larger budgets. They see it as a complex, expensive commitment when it’s completely possible to implement a lightweight, right-sized solution that fits the business today and evolves as it grows.

In my experience, the issue is a lack of education. Too often, travel management is seen as just “booking help”, getting a traveller from A to B. But that’s a transactional view of a strategic function, and it’s holding SMEs back.

The most common misconception? Focusing only on price

One of the most common things I see is SMEs comparing managed travel services purely on perceived savings. They shop around travel management companies (TMCs), compare costs for a single flight or hotel, and think, “Well, I could have booked that myself.” But this is where opportunities are missed.

Managed travel isn’t about getting the cheapest rate for one booking; it’s about building a sustainable programme that delivers value across every part of the travel experience and their business. SMEs are not thinking about things like:

• duty of care and real-time traveller tracking
• unused ticket management
• fraud protection
• sustainability reporting
• consistent and accurate travel spend visibility
• traveller support, especially outside regular hours

And this is a real danger, as all these areas pulled together are what brings the value. When you only judge the value of managed travel by the cost of a single fare, you’re missing 90% of what matters.

Flexibility vs. chaos. It’s a fine line

SMEs often pride themselves on being flexible, and that’s ok until flexibility turns into a free-for-all booking. And if you add in a major travel disruption, that’s when it becomes chaos.

I’ve seen companies where no one knows who’s booking what, where their travellers are, or what’s actually being spent. This is a massive liability and a huge risk. I’ve had conversations with CFOs who believe their travel spend is $3 million, only for the data to show it’s closer to $500,000 or vice versa, simply because no one has full visibility.

Operationally, you have travellers not knowing what to do or what is right, costing them and the business a lot of time and money searching through different third-party sites comparing airfares, hotel rates and car rental prices. And when something goes wrong, and it will, everything becomes reactive. Admins get dragged in after hours. Executives scramble for support. And suddenly, that “flexible” system doesn’t feel so smart anymore. The wake-up call usually comes when a new executive joins from a company with a managed programme and asks, “Wait… who owns travel here?”

The hidden cost of doing nothing

There’s a lot of risk in unmanaged travel, and most SMEs don’t even know where they’re vulnerable. Here’s what I’ve seen:

• Fraud: credit card details compromised through fraudulent third-party sites or hacked profiles
• Data chaos: no single source of truth for spend, bookings, or traveller location
• Inefficiency: employees spending hours searching multiple websites, comparing fares, and submitting messy expenses
• Unused value: thousands left on the table in unused ticket credits and unclaimed airline perks

The other point for SMEs to consider is how do you create value for your business when you don’t have the full picture with unmanaged travel? And until SMEs stop thinking of travel as a task and start thinking of it as a business function, these challenges will keep repeating.

The world is changing and so are SME priorities

In the last year alone, I’ve seen a big shift in SME attitudes. Economic uncertainty, weather events, and political instability – they’ve all put risk and cost control under the spotlight. And that’s pushing many SMEs to ask better questions about their travel and relaunch their travel programme. Part of this is the new generation of employees, who are more reactive to things, thanks to social media.

We’re also seeing more SMEs coming to us around large meeting requests for support, which is opening the conversations around business travel in general. And there is more interest in sustainability, particularly from SMEs in manufacturing, and non-profits, where ESG reporting is starting to matter, especially in cases where the business has an office outside of North America. Clients are starting to expect it.

The good news is that you don’t need a third-party risk platform or a sustainability consultant to get started with a managed travel programme. The right TMC will already provide the data and tools you need; you just need to use them.

So where should SMEs start?

If you’re running an SME and thinking, “Maybe we should get on top of travel,” here’s what I recommend:

1. Choose a TMC partner who understands your culture, whether that’s high-touch, high-tech, or both.
2. Appoint an internal travel owner, even if it’s one of many hats they wear.
3. Create a simple travel policy that’s clear, flexible, and gets communicated. Think about the objective and who it applies to, along with booking guidelines.
4. Incorporate travel into onboarding so employees know what to do before they book.
5. Leverage TMC data to shape smarter approval flows and uncover spend trends
6. Track unused tickets and sign up for supplier rewards or loyalty perks
7. Compare fares on equal terms, factoring in flexibility, inclusions, and conditions.

You don’t need to do everything at once. But you do need to start. Because if your approach to travel is “we’ll figure it out when we need to,” you’re already behind. But most importantly, if you are going to invest in a managed travel programme, you won’t reap the full rewards unless it is mandated via your preferred travel management company.

My final thoughts: Don’t wait until the wheels fall off

You need to look at the big picture and the whole value of the managed travel programme to reap the rewards. Looking at it on a micro-level or focusing on fees will slow you down on your travel programme goals and won’t deliver a return on your investment. TMCs are experts in business travel with the right tools to support you, whether that is in times of disruption or with strategic advice to drive more value from your business travel back into your business. When it’s unmanaged, all this responsibility sits with you.

Most SMEs come to us after something goes wrong. A C-level executive gets stranded. An urgent booking falls apart. An admin burns out trying to fix a trip gone sideways.

That’s when the lightbulb goes off. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

The smartest SMEs I work with treat business travel like they treat finance, IT, or HR, as a vital function of business success. They understand that managed travel isn’t about control. It’s about readiness. And more than ever, small doesn’t mean you should not bother. It just means you need the right-sized travel programme strategy and a mindset shift to match.

About the author:

Laura Pankoke is the Vice President of Account Management at CTM, where she leads a high-performing team focused on relationship-building and service excellence.