Corporate travel policy (+ free template)

Our business travel and expense policy template is designed to make your life easier.  After talking with travel managers to identify the key elements that should be included, we created a template that’s concise, simple to understand, and very easy to customize.

Download the template now, or keep reading to learn what’s included and why, and how to customize each section to fit your company’s unique needs. Planning a business trip has never been easier!

Get a head start on creating your own business travel policy. Try our free, comprehensive template today.

Download for free

Here’s how our travel policy template will save you time and effort

Our business travel policy template for UK, US, or EU travelers streamlines the travel policy creation process with six essential sections that are easy to read and customize. It covers all types of travel, whether domestic or international, including air and rail transport.

An effective corporate travel policy is structured around these  six key sections:

1. An introduction

2. The travel booking process

3. Expense categories

4. Non-reimbursable purchases

5. Expense reporting and reimbursement process

6. Travel support, safety, and duty of care

Let’s take a look at what you need to include in each section.

→ Download travel policy template

Section 1: Introduction

A well-crafted travel expense policy template should always begin with an introduction. Why? To make it clear to employees that your policy is not just a bureaucratic loophole, but helps keep them safe, promotes fairness, and reduces manual work and confusion. Including a bulleted point list of the main benefits of your travel policy lets travelers know exactly why it matters.

If you have multiple travel policies for departments or types of employees, use the introduction section to clarify to whom the policy applies.

Top tip: Highlight the benefits of adhering to your policy in the introduction — such as enhanced safety and access to support — so travelers recognize the importance of following it.

Section 2: Travel booking process

This section covers everything employees need to know about how and where to book travel. Having all of this information in one place minimizes confusion and streamlines the booking process.

• How to book travel: Specify the approved process, method and/or platform for booking business travel. If your company uses a platform for policy-compliant bookings, include the name of the approved platform. If not, provide the name and contact details of the person or company responsible for booking requests.

• Approval process for senior management: The approval process for C-suite and senior staff may differ from that of other employees. Senior management might need approval from an executive, who in turn might need sign-off from other C-suite members. Be sure to detail this in your policy.

• Use of loyalty programs: Maybe you  don’t allow travelers to collect points for their personal loyalty programs. If you do, include a line in your policy like, “Employees are not permitted to choose more expensive options to earn loyalty points.”

• Leisure extensions:Sometimes, business travelers want to extend trips into the weekend or use vacation days. Include rules around leisure (or “bleisure”) extensions such as allowable cost differences for return flights. Clearly outline what expenses can and can’t be covered and what you consider "personal expenses" for "personal travel" that do not fall within the ambit of business expenses.

• Traveling with non-employees:ravel expenses related to spouses, family members, pets or others outside the company are usually not eligible for reimbursement. These cases may be approved if they are accompanying employees for business reasons, such as attending a conference or networking event.

Top tip: Make it crystal clear how travelers should book trips. Using a corporate booking platform helps keep employee travel arrangements organized and in one place.

Section 3: Expense categories

Outlining what employees can expense helps ensure your travel policy is cost-effective and aligns with your overarching business needs.

To simplify expense management processes, we’ve categorized business-related travel expenses into several common areas and detailed what information to include in each category:

Air travel and airfare

• Approved tool or method for booking

• Preferred vendors (if any)

• Rules regarding the use of business class, including restrictions based on flight duration or employee seniority. Specify whether travelers should book economy or business class tickets

• Minimum advance booking requirements for international flights

• Minimum advance booking requirements for domestic travel

Accommodation

• Approved tool or method for booking

• Maximum overnight rates per city for hotel rooms

• Preferred vendors and negotiated rate details,if any

• Rules on standard rooms and upgrades (e.g. standard rooms are required, but room upgrades are allowed if offered at no additional charge)

• Reimbursable hotel expenses e.g. parking fees)

• Rules regarding Airbnb or apartment rentals

Rail travel

• Approved tool or method for booking

• Authorized types of train ticket (business or economy class, etc.)

Taxis and ride-sharing

• Specify when taxis and ride-sharing is allowed (e.g. when public transportation isn’t viable)

• Maximum amount allowed per transaction

Rental and personal car

• Allowed rental car classes, such as compact or mid-size

• The number of employees expected to share a rental car when traveling together

• Reimbursement rate per mile or kilometer

Conferences and events

• The expense reimbursement process for conferences or event registrations that are not prepaid

• The process for other conference or event-related expenses (e.g. business meals or items not covered by the registration cost)

Food, travel and entertainment

• Reimbursable amounts for breakfast, lunch, and dinner

• Alternatively, a daily maximum or per diem amount

• Personal meal expense rates during the trip

• Rules for business meals, including who approves the amount

• Rules for client entertainment expenses, including what is allowed

Personal telephone usage

• Specify if personal calls will be covered; if so, include the reimbursable amount or percentage of cell phone bills that can be claimed

• Policy on reimbursement for personal phone damages or theft during business travel, including maximum limits 

Top tip: Our travel policy template covers everything; simply fill in the amounts, approved vendors, and other details for each reimbursable expense category. You can easily remove any sections that you don’t need.

Get a head start on creating your own business travel policy. Try our free, comprehensive template today.

Download for free

Section 4: Non-reimbursable purchases

Provide a bulleted list of potential travel costs that your company will not reimburse. Clearly state that only travel-related expenses and provisions outlined in the previous section will be covered. 

Here are some examples of non-reimbursable items you may want to include in your travel policy:

• In-flight purchases

• Excess baggage fees

• Childcare, pet care, and pet boarding

• Cost of family members joining travelers on trips

• Toiletries or clothing

• Airline club memberships

• Minibar purchases or bar bills

• Laundry or dry cleaning

• Parking fines or traffic violations

• Airline ticket change fees

• First-class rail transportation

• Premium, Luxury or Elite car rentals

• Movies, online entertainment, or newspapers

• Spa and health club usage

• Flowers, sweets, and confectionery

• Room service

• Additional beds or bedding

• Clothes

• Commuting

• Damage to personal vehicles

• Rental car company insurance

Top tip: Engage stakeholders, such as your CFO and frequent travelers, to determine reasonable exclusions across the company and for all trips. Clearly specify what expenses employees will and will not be reimbursed for.

Section 5: Expense reporting and reimbursement process

After finalizing your expense sections, detail how employees should manage the expense and reimbursement processes. Remember to include:

• What tool should be used for submitting expenses

• What items don’t need to be included with expenses (e.g. trips booked with your approved booking platform) 

• Who to submit expense reports to

• What to include in reimbursement requests (e.g. original receipts)

• Deadlines for submitting reimbursement requests

• Typical processing time for receiving reimbursements

• Your company’s policy on using personal credit cards for expenses

Section 6: Travel safety, support, and duty of care

Your travel policy should be something that travelers want to read, and it should include details  on travel support, travel insurance, and your duty of care provider. Here’s the specific information you should include: 

• How you track travelers: Let travelers know that when they book using your approved method or tool, their trip is tracked,and, in the event of an emergency, which steps will be taken to evacuate them. Include the name of your approved tool, and what they should do to ensure their trip is tracked if they make bookings outside of this tool.

• Travel support: In case of trip cancellations, changes, etc., who should your travelers call? Include contact details for your travel support provider, including phone numbers and email addresses. If there arenumbers for different regions or support in different languages, include those, too.

• Support for emergency needs: Include your duty of care vendor,  your travel insurance policy details, and the employee or vendor name they should contact in an emergency.

How to implement your travel policy

Once you’ve completed all sections, it’s time to follow the steps to below to start the implementation process:

1. Customize:Work with stakeholders to make the necessary edits and customisations to your travel policy; collect all details like travel insurance, nightly rates, etc.

2. Automate:Create or update an automated travel policy so travelers and/or admins can book within policy all the time.

3. Deploy:Roll out changes to employees. Depending on the size of your company, roll out your new policy document and automated policy to all employees or an initial subset.

4. Listen:Collect feedback from employees on the policy, making sure you ask questions about how easy it is to follow. You should also gather feedback on how it aligns with your approved tools and automated policy.

Grab your sample company travel policy for employees now to create an automated policy that’s built into the travel booking process.

→ Download travel policy template

How to improve corporate travel policy compliance

If you have low travel policy compliance rates, you need to figure out whether your employees are simply disregarding your travel and expense policy, aren’t fully trained on how it works in practice , or are finding your booking tool too complicated to use.  

Here are a few tips to help increase travel policy compliance rates: 

• Ensure your policy is up-to-date If your current policy hasn’t been updated for a while, employees are more likely to make out-of-policy bookings 

• Monitor your compliance issues. Use travel management software to track policy compliance rates and analyze the data to identify the root causes of non-compliance.

• Remember that traveler self-booking improves policy compliance rates: Your preferred booking tool should make it easy for your team to book business trips themselves.

• Build your travel expense policy into the booking tool: This enables you to create an automatic system that approves or rejects travel arrangements based on your business needs.

The more your policy aligns with real-world practices, especially when supported by the right corporate travel software, the better it can drive effortless compliance, without the need for constant oversight!