5-step corporate travel RFP guide for growing companies

Is it time to get serious about your company’s corporate travel? Whether it’s due to an increased number of travellers, expanding across borders, complex itineraries, industry-wide changes or inefficient technologies, engaging the right travel management company (TMC) from the start is important for both your bottom line and, more importantly, achieving the company’s business travel goals.

Having partnered with customers across industries globally for over 30 years, we’ve guided growing businesses through the initial stages of creating and submitting a request for proposal (RFP) for corporate travel management.

In this blog, we provide insight into how businesses can begin the RFP process and reduce the time and effort that could be invested into growing your business.

Here is our 5-step guide on how to prepare for a corporate travel RFP

1. Define your goals for the corporate travel RFP

As a growing business, you’ve identified a clear need to partner with a travel management company to keep your business moving. Before you begin the RFP process, you must be clear about what you want to achieve. If you don’t know what you want, a TMC is not going to know how to service your business travel effectively.

Make a list of what is working for you and what isn’t when managing your business travel.  If you have a travel programme, consider how well it currently aligns with your organisational values, goals and objectives or where there are gaps.  Understand where your business is heading (new projects or current projects winding up that may impact your travel) and what your future travel needs will be.

Consider areas of importance for your business, such as cost reduction, risk management, sustainability or the end user experience. Prioritising your top three to five evaluation objectives will help you focus on critical elements, streamline the process and make the most of your effort.

2. Engage the right stakeholders early

Start by identifying an executive sponsor for your RFP project and defining organisational requirements. Create a small group of internal stakeholders who have a vested interest in enhancing your travel programme. At a minimum, involve representatives from finance, IT and key travel arrangers or administrators to review your initial objectives.

Depending on your organisation’s structure, you may also want to include voices from procurement, HR, sustainability and executive team members. Every company is different, but it’s essential to consider how travel impacts each department and how their input can shape a travel programme that delivers value across the business and for your business travellers.

3. Use historical travel data to inform decisions

As a growing business, there is a chance you may lack detailed travel data collection. Don’t worry, that is ok. Consider speaking with frequent travellers to understand current habits and spending patterns and consolidate any manual reports you may have. This all helps. The more comprehensive and transparent your travel data, the better positioned TMCs will be to tailor their proposals, address specific challenges, and uncover opportunities to improve efficiency and service delivery.

4. Shortlist travel management companies strategically

While your initial instinct may be to reach out to every potential travel partner in the market for a diverse set of options, this can be extremely overwhelming for a business that’s new to the process.

Submitting and reviewing RFPs is time-consuming, and if you’re wearing many hats (like many members of growing businesses), sifting through the multitude of paperwork or online documents isn’t the most efficient way to spend your time.

Check in with your professional network to understand what TMCs are being used by different organisations and what their experience has been.  This can assist you in identifying which TMCs you may want to include in the process.  By comparing your objectives to market information on providers, you can invite a smaller selection with greater potential to meet your needs.

For more info, please read our blog: 5 tips for selecting a travel management company

5. Compare pricing and value on a like-for-like basis

Always include a financial offer template for all bidders to complete. With many potential pricing models in the industry, this allows you to easily compare complex offers side by side against the same measures.

Allow bidders to include creative offers to demonstrate unconventional approaches to meeting your goals. However, also include a set of core expectations and consistent pricing elements to identify your total cost of ownership with each offer.