Business Travel Management & Expense Survey
Understand how corporate travel managers, finance leads, and procurement heads evaluate, compare, and choose travel management platforms, expense policies, and vendor contracts, so you can sharpen acquisition targeting, benchmark pricing tiers, and fix retention gaps.
CONTEXT & RELEVANCE
Why run this survey now
Most travel managers don't lose budget control purely on overspending. They lose it due to policy non-compliance, fragmented booking channels, opaque supplier contracts, untracked out-of-policy exceptions, and misaligned reimbursement workflows, none of which fully show up in ERP reports or corporate card statements.
If you are...
- Corporate travel manager or buyer
- TMC competing on program value
- Expense platform or fintech provider
- CFO or finance controller
- Procurement or vendor strategy lead
You're likely facing...
- Policy leakage: booked vs approved
- TMC vs direct booking tension
- Expense tools = visibility gap
- Reimbursement cycle: speed vs control
- Traveler compliance vs flexibility tradeoff
This will help answer...
- Booking channel preference drivers
- Policy breach stage and trigger
- Segment spend by travel frequency
- Preferred reimbursement model and timeline
- TMC switching and renewal triggers
RESEARCH THEMES
What This Survey Investigates
Eight interconnected research themes that map the complete corporate traveller journey from trip approval to post-trip reconciliation.
Policy & Compliance
- Travel policy enforcement gaps
- Out-of-policy booking frequency
Booking & Channels
- Preferred booking channel mix
- TMC versus direct platform usage
Approval Workflows
- Pre-trip authorisation cycle time
- Approval bottlenecks by seniority tier
Expense & Reconciliation
- Expense report submission lag
- Receipt capture and audit gaps
Spend Visibility
- Real-time travel spend dashboards
- Category-level budget tracking gaps
Supplier Negotiations
- Preferred supplier programme coverage
- Hotel and airline rate renegotiation cycles
Traveller Experience
- Duty of care and safety protocols
- Traveller satisfaction versus cost trade-offs
Technology & Adoption
- Travel tech stack consolidation pressure
- Employee adoption rates by tool type
SAMPLING STRATEGY
Tell us about your ideal sample
Help us understand your target respondent profile. Select what applies, we'll design the optimal sample plan based on your inputs.
METHODOLOGY
Survey approach
For the Business Travel Management and Expense Survey, we recommend a quant-first design with flexible data-collection modes to balance reach, depth, and verification across travel managers, finance controllers, and procurement leads.
EXECUTION PROCESS
How we execute
A proven 9-step process from scoping to delivery, designed to ensure quality, speed, and actionable insights.
Define the decision frame
Confirm objectives, target cohorts, geographies, and reporting cuts
Define the decision frame
Design the instrument
Build workstream modules mapped to outputs (drivers, friction, pricing, retention, trust)
Design the instrument
Lock the questionnaire
Review wording, sequencing, LOI, and competitive context; approve final version
Lock the questionnaire
Pilot and calibrate
Test comprehension and ease quality; refine quotas and remove friction where needed
Pilot and calibrate
Run fieldwork
Execute collection with active quota management and feasibility controls
Run fieldwork
Assure quality
Dedupe, attention checks, speed/consistency rules, removals with audit trail
Assure quality
Prepare the dataset
Clean data and deliver codebook/variable definitions
Prepare the dataset
Analyse and synthesise
Driver ranking, leakage diagnostics, pricing bands, segment insights
Analyse and synthesise
Deliver and align
Executive deck (optional dashboard) and leadership readout with recommendations
Deliver and align
COMMERCIAL TERMS
Request a Commercial Proposal
Pricing depends on cohort, geography, sample size, approach, LOI, and deliverables. Configure below for an indicative estimate.
Select Sample Size
Geography
Select Mode of Survey
Length of the Interview
$0.00
+ applicable taxes
Cost Breakdown
Note: Estimate is indicative only. Final pricing is subject to scope finalization after discovery call.
REFERENCE CASELETS
Reference
Real-world examples of survey work in the business travel and expense management space.
Corporate travel policy adoption & friction mapping (India)
OBJECTIVE
WHAT WE DID
DELIVERED
Corporate travel policy adoption & friction mapping (India)
Expense tool switching intent & vendor perception study (Southeast Asia)
Corporate travel policy adoption & friction mapping (India)
OBJECTIVE
A mid-size travel management company needed to isolate why frequent business travelers and finance controllers diverged on policy compliance behavior , specifically around booking channel preference, out-of-policy spend triggers, and approval workflow friction.
WHAT WE DID
Ran a structured quant survey across 320 respondents in six metros, capturing booking channel usage, policy override frequency, approval turnaround time, and reimbursement cycle length by traveler seniority and trip type.
DELIVERED
A friction map by traveler segment , a ranked list of compliance drop-off triggers by booking stage, a policy gap framework by company size, and channel levers to reduce out-of-policy spend concentration.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Common Questions
Answers to frequently asked questions about this survey mandate.
What decisions will this survey enable?
Who is the buyer vs who are the respondents?
Can we see differences between SME travel programs, mid-market travel programs and enterprise travel programs?
How will you measure travel vendor preference beyond simple ratings?
Will the survey map the full corporate travel and expense journey and drop-offs?
Can this survey inform product and pricing strategy?
How will findings improve our corporate account acquisition and retention strategy?
Still have questions?
Schedule a discovery call to discuss your specific needs and get a custom quote.