Many businesses are losing money and control because their corporate online booking tools aren’t meeting employee needs, according to a new study by Trip.Biz, a business travel brand under the Trip.com Group umbrella.
The report found that 93% of travel managers are confident their corporate booking platforms offer complete and competitive content. Yet 69% said employees frequently find flights or hotels on consumer websites unavailable within approved corporate channels.
Only 33% of respondents said content outside the Global Distribution System is fully integrated into their primary booking workflow.
"Many organizations view leakage as a behaviour issue, but our research shows it often starts as a content issue," said Trip.Biz CEO Tao Song.
"Travellers go where the options are. If employees believe the best fares, routes or travel choices exist elsewhere, they will naturally look outside the programme.”
Nearly one-third of companies using a corporate online booking tool reported that 20% or more of travel spend is booked outside the approved platform, with 53% citing missing content as the main driver.
“The challenge for travel managers today is not simply enforcing compliance, but earning the booking by providing the content travellers expect to find,” Song said.
The company’s newly released whitepaper, The Invisible Spend in Business Travel, highlights that many organizations assume spending is under control as long as they have a managed travel programme.
However, the study shows that gaps in content and cross-regional travel mean a significant portion of travel occurs outside the programme, resulting in invisible spending, a weakening duty of care and increasing reconciliation burdens for travel and finance teams.
The findings also suggest that traditional approaches to reducing leakage — including policy controls, approvals and incentives — are often addressing the problem too late.
The report highlights a particularly important challenge across Asia Pacific, where local travel ecosystems are often more diverse and fragmented than those in Europe or North America.
APAC recorded the highest reliance on alternative booking arrangements, with 44% of organizations reporting that cross-regional trips frequently or always require workarounds such as local agencies, direct supplier bookings or separate booking tools outside the global programme.
