Corporate Travel Procurement
Organise corporate travel procurement around demand, supplier accountability and a documented review cycle.
Corporate Travel Procurement guide
TRAVO BIRDS · TRAVEL GUIDES
Travel Management Company RFP
Plan a travel management company RFP around documented requirements, comparable responses and a clear handover.
Sources checked:
GBTA lists a members-only TMC Sourcing Toolkit on its business travel RFP resources page.[1] Use this guide to prepare your own invitation rather than treat an industry resource listing as a completed specification. Start by naming the decision owner and the colleagues who will assess responses. Set a timetable for requirements, supplier questions, demonstrations and appointment. Treat the following steps as practical drafting recommendations, not as a statement of procurement law or a description of any supplier’s capabilities.
Draw the boundary of the invitation
Describe the traveller groups, destinations and booking tasks you want covered. Separate routine individual trips from meetings or coordinated group movements. Ask internal organisers to identify approval bottlenecks and unresolved booking problems. Provide a representative planning period and explain any gaps in the information. Present route patterns without naming individual travellers. Mark each requirement as essential, desirable or outside scope, and ask bidders to identify exclusions against that same list. Include a named owner for clarifications and specify how answers will be shared.
Turn supplier promises into scenario tests
Prepare a small set of fictional journeys with different change and support needs. Ask every bidder to explain the booking, approval, amendment and cancellation steps for those journeys. Request a demonstration using the proposed workflow rather than a general presentation. Ask who answers outside normal working hours, what escalation route applies and which responsibilities remain with your employees. Record any dependency on another provider. Request written confirmation of limitations, implementation assumptions and the evidence behind each proposed service commitment.
Build a defensible scoring record
The UK Cabinet Office’s Sourcing Playbook recommends assessing whole-life costs, including transition, mobilisation and operation.[2] Use that approach as a planning reference, not as a universal corporate obligation. Agree scoring categories and weightings before reviewing submissions. Separate mandatory requirements from comparative scoring, and retain reasons for each assessment. Ask finance to review commercial assumptions and travel organisers to assess workflow demonstrations. Compare identical scenarios and conditions. Keep clarification responses alongside the original bid, and record how any unresolved qualification affects the final recommendation.
Rehearse the first week before appointment
Ask the preferred bidder for a mobilisation checklist covering responsibilities, access, traveller communication and existing bookings. Identify who will approve configuration and who will resolve failed test cases. Set acceptance checks for booking confirmations, support contacts and invoice information. Schedule a review after the first group of bookings, with an owner for corrective actions. Before signing, request an agreed account of the exit process and access to records. Keep the appointment decision separate from any outstanding assumptions requiring further approval.
Travel Management Company RFP: topic guides
Why use a travel management company? Test the business case
Assess a travel management company against a defined coordination problem, a written service scope and evidence from your own programme.
Why use a travel management company? Test the business case guideBusiness travel manager: define authority and daily priorities
Define the business travel manager’s mandate, decision boundaries and review routine before assigning operational tasks.
Business travel manager: define authority and daily priorities guideTravel Management Company RFP: questions answered
Where should a travel management company RFP begin?
Begin with an internal requirements workshop rather than a supplier questionnaire. Invite finance, procurement, frequent organisers and the person responsible for traveller support. Write down the current problems and the outcomes you want to assess. Then ask prospective bidders to answer the same scope, scenarios and evidence requests in a consistent format.
How should we assess a supplier demonstration?
Use your own fictional trip brief and ask the bidder to show each step from request to invoice. Record approvals, changes, support handovers and any manual work left to your team. Ask for written answers where the demonstration cannot establish a point, and score only the capability actually evidenced.
What should happen before the RFP becomes a contract?
Reconcile the proposed contract with the evaluated response and clarification record. Resolve exclusions, responsibilities, service measures and implementation assumptions in writing. Ask the relevant legal and procurement advisers to review the arrangement. Require a handover plan, named contacts and acceptance checks before authorising the new booking process for wider use.
Sources for Travel Management Company RFP
[1] Business Travel RFP Templates and Toolkits - Global Business Travel Association - GBTA