The GBTA Foundation and its study sponsor, Concur, wanted to understand the motivations of business travelers when making out-of-policy travel decisions. The organizations wanted to study this issue within six markets, including the U.S., U.K., Canada, France, Germany, and Australia. The full report is available for purchase for non-members and at no cost for GBTA members. To learn more about the Global Business Travel Association please visit www.gbta.org.

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© 2013 GBTA and its affiliates. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be copied or transmitted in any form or
medium now known or later invented without the express permission of GBTA.
1
© 2013 GBTA and its affiliates. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be copied or transmitted in any form or
medium now known or later invented without the express permission of GBTA.
Out-of-Policy Business Travelers and Their
Impact on the Bottom Line
United States
Sponsored by:

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© 2013 GBTA and its affiliates. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be copied or transmitted in any form or
medium now known or later invented without the express permission of GBTA.
Q1. Overall, how satisfied are you with your most recent business trip ?
Q2. Why did you rate your satisfaction a [RATING]?
Q4TM. What percentage of the business travelers in your organization do you think are highly satisfied with their business travel?
“It went pretty well. The hotel
was nice. I get generally VERY
loose 'guidelines,' mostly just to
the optimum level of hotel I'm
authorized to get for myself. No
suites. I try to pick nicer, upper
middle-of-the-road locales.” (10)
---------------------------
“I was able to fly my preferred
airline. I used mainly public
transit for ground transportation,
to beat the traffic. The local hotel
was comfortable, but it was a long
walk to the lobby.” (8)
---------------------------
“I was tired of traveling for
business by the end of the year
and it was a one day trip requiring
almost 500 miles of travel for a
four hour meeting.” (5)
Overall Satisfaction with Most Recent Trip
75%
74%
78%
23%
25%
21%
1%
1%
1%
All U.S. Travelers
(869)
Out-of-policy Travelers
(515)
In-policy Travelers
(354)
Very Satisfied (8-10)
Moderately Satisfied (4-7)
Very Dissatisfied (1-3)
Travel Managers (n=192) believe that 74% of their business travelers on average are
“very satisfied” with their most recent trip.
• Those who went out-of-policy to improve their trip are no more satisfied with their trip
overall compared to those who followed their corporate travel policies.
• Travel managers’ perceptions of business travelers’ overall satisfaction mirrors actual
satisfaction.
Three-quarters of U.S. business travelers are “very satisfied”
with their most recent business trip

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© 2013 GBTA and its affiliates. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be copied or transmitted in any form or
medium now known or later invented without the express permission of GBTA.
H/L denotes a significant difference from the corresponding group.
Q9. How did you book your hotel accommodations for this trip?
Method of Booking Hotel Accommodations on Most Recent Trip
(Of those who stayed in a hotel)
U.S. Business
Travelers
(819)
Out-of-policy
Travelers
(514)
In-policy
Travelers
(305)
Used an online travel reservations tool provided by
my company or travel agency
32% 35% H 28%
Visited the hotel’s website 20% 18% 22%
Visited a travel reservations website like Expedia,
Orbitz, etc.
16% 18% 14%
Called or emailed a travel reservations specialist in
your company or travel agency
15% 15% 15%
Called the hotel directly 12% 11% 13%
Went in-person to the hotel’s front desk 1% 1% 2%
Other 4% 2% 7% H
• Out-of-policy travelers are more likely to use the tool provided by their company to book
their hotel, compared to in-policy travelers. Possibly, online systems flag out-of-policy
decisions, making these travelers more aware they are going out-of-policy.
The top three methods for booking a hotel are online portals,
including an online tool through the company, the hotel’s
website, and a travel reservations website

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© 2013 GBTA and its affiliates. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be copied or transmitted in any form or
medium now known or later invented without the express permission of GBTA.
H/L denotes a significant difference from the corresponding group
Q33. How often do you actually find better deals with the same travel parameters outside of your company’s preferred providers?
Q6TM. How often do you think they actually find better deals with the same travel parameters outside of your company’s preferred providers?
Q6aTM. When business travelers find a better deal, do they typically report it to you? Q6bTM. How do you use this information?
15%
72% 10%
4%
Yes, all of the time Yes, sometimes
No Not sure
Incidence of Business Travelers
Reporting Better Deals to Travel
Managers
Travel Managers
(145)
Frequency of Finding Better Deals
(of those who shop around)
U.S.
Business
Travelers
(780)
Out-of-
policy
Travelers
(499)
In-policy
Travelers
(281)
U.S.
Travel
Managers
(186)
All of the time 12% 16% H 5% 0%
Most of the time 31% 37% H 21% 2%
Half of the time 22% 24% H 19% 4%
Some of the time 34% 22% 53% H 72%
None of the time 1% 1% 2% 16%
• Out-of-policy travelers think they find better travel deals more often than in-policy travelers.
• Most business travelers report better deals they find online to travel managers at least some
of the time.
– More than half of travel managers (55%) use this information to negotiate better deals
with travel providers, but only 14% use it when considering changes to travel policy.
Business travelers believe they find better deals far more
often than travel managers think they do