Businesses rely on a travel management company when travel spend, policy exceptions and traveller risk become too significant to manage through booking tools alone. An experienced TMC should help an organisation control total travel costs, improve policy compliance, maintain visibility over spend and support travellers when plans are disrupted.
For more than 50 years, Holiday Tours & Travel has supported organisations in Malaysia and across the region with business travel, executive travel and MICE requirements. From supporting everyday business travel to managing executive mobility and large-scale MICE programmes, our role has evolved alongside the changing needs of corporate travel. This experience has shown that successful travel programmes are built on more than efficient bookings. They require strategic planning, proactive traveller support, and strong travel governance.
The Global Business Travel Association’s 2025 Business Travel Index Outlook forecasts global business travel spending to reach $1.69 trillion in 2026, an 8.1 per cent increase — with 84 per cent of buyers expecting spend to rise or hold steady, per GBTA’s latest poll. As travel activity increases, organisations need stronger controls over booking behaviour, supplier spending, traveller risk and policy compliance, making the choice of travel management company a strategic priority. With so many corporate travel management providers in the market, knowing what to look for in a travel management company is essential before committing to a partner.
In this article, we’ll explore what businesses should look for in a corporate travel partner and why experience continues to be one of the most valuable assets in corporate travel management.
What Should Businesses Look for in a Travel Management Company?
Choosing a TMC requires more than comparing booking tools and transaction fees. Procurement and business leaders should assess the provider’s ability to control total programme costs, implement policy, produce decision-ready reporting and support travellers during disruptions. A capable TMC should demonstrate how its services improve travel governance, operational resilience, duty of care and programme performance.
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Experience That Produces Measurable Results
Experience is valuable when it produces better business outcomes. An established TMC should be able to demonstrate faster issue resolution, consistent policy implementation, effective supplier escalation and fewer gaps in travel-spend data.
Organisations should look for documented procedures, clear escalation channels, after-hours support, experienced account management, and a track record with similar programmes. For complex itineraries, executive travel and regional programmes, the TMC should define response targets, escalation ownership and out-of-hours support.
For organisations with growing travel volumes, experience should translate into fewer service failures, stronger programme control and faster recovery when travel plans are disrupted.
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Travel Governance, Policy Compliance and Spend Control and Policy Compliance
A travel programme cannot be properly controlled if policy, approvals, bookings and reporting operate separately. A well-governed travel programme should connect:
- Travel policy and booking controls
- Approval workflows and policy exceptions
- Supplier selection and negotiated rates
- Spend reporting and missed-savings analysis
- Traveller information and duty-of-care processes
- Management review and corrective action
For many organisations, travel governance is becoming an increasingly important component of enterprise risk management, helping leadership teams balance cost control, compliance, traveller wellbeing, and operational efficiency.
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Technology Backed by Human Expertise
Technology has transformed corporate travel. Online booking tools and automated approvals can reduce manual work and guide employees towards the pre-approved travel options. Reporting platforms should give management visibility on spending, policy exceptions, supplier use and traveller activity.
However, technology alone cannot solve every challenge. While technology is most effective in handling predictable transactions. Complex cases and exceptions still require informed human decisions.
Flight cancellations, visa issues, weather disruptions, and last-minute itinerary changes require consultants who can assess alternatives, manage supplier escalations and communicate clearly with affected travellers.
Businesses should assess technology and service separately. Technology should be measured through adoption, policy controls, integration and reporting accuracy; human support should be measured through response time, resolution time, escalation quality and complex-booking capability.
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Traveller Safety and Duty of Care
Duty of care requires more than an emergency telephone number. Organisations need accurate traveller information, timely risk communication, and a clear response process for disruptions or security incidents, particularly for international travel, high-risk destinations, and incidents outside office hours.
An effective duty-of-care process should define:
- How traveller location information is obtained
- How risk alerts are monitored and communicated
- Who contacts affected travellers
- What assistance is available outside office hours
- How incidents are escalated and documented
- Where responsibility sits between the employer, TMC and risk provider
A defined process reduces uncertainty during an incident and helps the organisation account for affected employees, coordinate assistance, safeguard employee wellbeing, and resume essential travel activity.
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Strong Supplier Relationships
Long-standing partnerships with airlines, hotels, and travel suppliers create meaningful advantages. Depending on the organisation’s travel patterns and volume, these benefits may include:
- Negotiated corporate fares or hotel rates
- Improved availability on frequently used routes
- Waiver and exception support
- Unused-ticket, refund and credit management
- Faster supplier escalation during disruptions
- Performance reviews based on actual booking data
The TMC should be able to show how supplier recommendations affect total programme cost, availability and service performance. These benefits should be documented rather than assumed.
How Holiday Tours Applies These Capabilities
How Holiday Tours Applies These CapabilitiesFor more than 50 years, Holiday Tours has supported organisations in Malaysia and across the region with their business travel needs. Our partnership with BCD Travel enhances our experience with global travel management capabilities and reach.
We work with organisations that have different approval structures, traveller profiles, reporting requirements and service expectations — and use that experience to design, implement and review every travel programme we manage.
A Strategic Approach to Corporate Travel
Holiday Tours connects booking, policy, approvals, supplier management, traveller support and reporting within one operating model, giving management clear visibility into travel spend, exceptions and where corrective action is needed.
Depending on the organisation’s requirements, the programme may include business travel management, executive travel, MICE, policy implementation, management reporting and programme reviews.
Treating travel as a managed business programme allows leadership to monitor spending, identify policy leakage, evaluate suppliers and improve support for employees travelling on the company’s behalf.
Technology Supported by Experienced Consultants
Holiday Tours uses technology to support routine bookings, approvals and reporting, while experienced consultants manage complex requests and travel disruptions.
The service model should be assessed through defined measures such as booking-tool adoption, reporting accuracy, response time, resolution time and escalation performance.
Commitment to Traveller Care
Traveller support remains central to every journey. Holiday Tours’ Travel Service Care approach and Travel Safety Promise provide a defined support structure before, during and after a business trip. Depending on the agreed service scope, this may include pre-trip guidance, disruption assistance, traveller communication and emergency escalation. These services support the employer’s wider duty-of-care programme by turning policy commitments into practical response processes.
How to Choose the Right Travel Management Company
Transaction fees and booking tools are not only part of the evaluation. Buyers should compare total programme value, implementation capability, reporting quality, service standards, and risk support.
An experienced TMC delivers more than operational efficiency. It provides strategic oversight, expertise, and traveller support that organisations need to manage increasingly complex travel programmes.
Frequently Asked Questions
- When should a business appoint a travel management company?
A business should consider appointing a TMC when it has significant travel spending, multiple travellers or markets, frequent policy exceptions, duty-of-care requirements or limited visibility over total travel costs. The need should be assessed based on programme complexity and control requirements—not employee count alone.
- How does a TMC reduce corporate travel costs?
A TMC can reduce avoidable costs through policy controls, negotiated rates, advance-booking analysis, preferred-supplier management, and missed-savings reporting. These outcomes should be measured rather than assumed. - What should a corporate travel report include?
Corporate travel reporting should cover total spend, average trip cost, supplier usage, advance-purchase behaviour, policy compliance, missed savings, refunds and service performance. Reports should also identify the actions management can take to improve results.
- Is the lowest TMC transaction fee always the best option?
No. A lower transaction fee can be outweighed by poor policy compliance, weak disruption support, incomplete reporting or missed supplier savings. Buyers should compare total programme value and risk—not booking fees in isolation.
- How should a business measure TMC performance?
Common performance measures include response and resolution times, policy compliance, online booking adoption, advance-purchase behaviour, savings achieved, missed savings, traveller satisfaction and supplier performance. The exact measures should reflect the organisation’s travel priorities.
Strengthen Your Corporate Travel Programme
Speak with Holiday Tours to assess your current travel programme across spend visibility, policy compliance, supplier performance and traveller support.
Contact Holiday Tours at +603 2303 9100 (Press 3) or [email protected] to discover how our corporate travel solutions can support your organisation.
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