Travel policy management is the part of corporate travel software that holds a company's rules on which flights, hotels and prices employees may book, and checks each option against those rules while the employee searches. The rules themselves are called the travel policy.
A travel policy usually answers a few questions. Which class may each grade of employee fly? How much may a flight cost? How many days ahead must it be booked? How much may a hotel night cost in each city? Who must approve a booking that breaks a rule?
The software turns these rules into checks. When an employee searches in the corporate travel management software, it marks each option as in policy or out of policy. An out-of-policy option is not always blocked. The employee may still book it, but must give a reason, and the booking then goes to a manager for approval.
Take, for example, a consulting firm in Vadodara. Its policy for a junior analyst says: economy class only, at most ₹7,500 for a flight under three hours, booked at least seven days ahead, and hotels up to ₹6,000 a night in large cities. An analyst must fly to Delhi in five days. The app shows four flights. Every option is marked "booked late", because the trip is five days away, not seven. Three flights cost between ₹6,200 and ₹7,300, so they are within the price limit. The fourth, a direct morning flight at ₹9,100, is also over the price limit. He chooses a ₹6,900 flight and types the reason for booking late: the client fixed the meeting date only on Monday. The app sends the booking to his manager, who approves it on her phone.
The policy can also cover emissions. Next to each flight, the app can show an estimate of its carbon emissions. A direct flight usually emits less than a flight with a change. Business travel counts in a company's Scope 3 emissions, so many companies now report it and set limits on it.
Payment rules belong to the policy too. Some companies pay hotels with a virtual card, a card number created for one booking, with a limit equal to that booking. So the hotel cannot charge more than the approved amount.
A holiday booked on an online travel agency has no such rules: the traveller alone decides. A company's policy needs regular updating, because fares rise and new cities are added. In future, an AI agent that knows the policy could rebook a cancelled flight within the same rules, without waiting for anyone.