Small Business Travel Management: What Works Without a TMC

You're managing travel for 15 people using Google Sheets and Slack DMs. Sales reps ask "can you book my flight?", executives want their usual preferences, and everyone forgets to enter loyalty numbers. You're spending half your week on travel logistics instead of running operations.

Consumer booking sites work fine when you're booking for yourself. But managing a team means tracking everyone's preferences in spreadsheets, fielding constant questions, and hoping nobody books an expensive non-refundable flight that violates your informal travel policy. Corporate travel tools promise relief, but they're built for companies doing 50+ trips monthly with dedicated travel managers.

You're stuck in the gap between consumer sites that lack business features and enterprise platforms that require volume you don't have. Here's what actually works for operations leaders managing team travel at smaller companies.

When Consumer Sites Stop Working for Teams

You know you've outgrown consumer booking when:

• You're spending 5+ hours weekly coordinating travel for others
• Team members book different airlines despite your "preferred vendor" memo
• Your CFO asks travel spend questions you can't answer without manual spreadsheet work
• Loyalty numbers live in a shared document that nobody updates
• You're the single point of failure when someone needs a last-minute change
• Expense reports get rejected because someone booked basic economy (again)

If three or more of these describe your current situation, consumer sites have become the problem, not the solution.

Consumer Booking Sites: Expedia, Kayak, Booking.com

Consumer sites give your travelers flexibility and competitive pricing. Everyone knows how to use Expedia. The search is fast, the inventory is comprehensive, and there's no learning curve.

What works:

• Travelers can book themselves without training
• Competitive pricing across airlines and hotels
• No minimum booking volumes or monthly fees
• Fast search with comprehensive flight and hotel options

What doesn't work:

• No travel policy enforcement (travelers book whatever they find)
• No approval workflows when someone needs manager sign-off
• Zero visibility into who's traveling when until expense reports arrive
• Each traveler enters their own loyalty numbers (or forgets completely)
• No way to track company travel spend in real-time
• Refund policies buried in fine print that travelers miss

The breaking point: When your CFO asks "how much are we spending on travel this quarter?" and you're stuck exporting credit card statements into Excel because every booking happened on different sites with different login credentials.

Best for: Teams under 5 people where informal coordination works and travelers rarely need policy enforcement or approval routing.

Corporate Travel Tools: Navan, TravelPerk, Concur

Corporate platforms solve the visibility and policy problems. Navan and TravelPerk give you a booking portal with built-in approval workflows and travel policy rules. You can see exactly who's traveling, what they're spending, and flag bookings that violate policy before they happen.

What works:

• Travel policy enforcement at booking time
• Approval routing when managers need to sign off
• Real-time visibility into all company travel and spend
• Negotiated corporate rates with preferred vendors
• Automated expense reporting and receipt management
• Duty of care features for tracking traveler safety

What to keep in mind:

• Minimum volume requirements (typically 20-50+ bookings monthly)
• Monthly per-traveler fees even when people don't travel
• Structured booking flows feel rigid compared to consumer sites
• Search results prioritize corporate rates over best options
• Travelers complain about the experience compared to booking directly
• Implementation requires IT setup and ongoing administration

The implementation reality: Getting a corporate tool running takes 2-3 months minimum. Your IT team needs to set up SSO authentication, integrate with your accounting system, and configure travel policy rules. You'll spend weeks training travelers who resist switching from consumer sites they know. Then someone needs to manage vendor relationships, handle escalations when bookings fail, and update policy rules when your CFO changes budget limits.

For companies doing 15-20 monthly bookings, you're spending more time administering the platform than you save in booking efficiency. The math only works once you hit consistent volume.

The reality check: TravelPerk's minimum is often 20 monthly bookings. If your team does 8-12 trips monthly, you're paying for seats you don't use. And travelers who've used consumer sites for years resist switching to what feels like restrictive corporate software.

Best for: Companies with 20+ regular business travelers who need policy enforcement, approval workflows, and finance team integration for travel spend management.

General AI Assistants: ChatGPT, Claude

ChatGPT and Claude understand natural language and can recommend flights based on your preferences. You can describe what you need conversationally: "Find me a morning flight to Seattle next Tuesday that gets me there by noon for my 2 PM meeting."

What works:

• Natural conversation instead of search forms
• Understands context like meeting times and connection logistics
• Can compare options and explain tradeoffs
• Helps with travel research and itinerary planning
• No learning curve if you already use AI tools

What to keep in mind:

• Can't actually book anything (you still go to airline sites manually)
• No payment processing or transaction capability
• Doesn't remember your preferences between conversations
• No policy enforcement or spend tracking
• Each traveler has separate conversations with no team coordination
• Recommendations may be outdated when you go to book

The limitation: ChatGPT finds you a great flight at 10 AM. You open Delta.com to book it, and the price changed or the seat sold. You're back to manual booking with an extra research step.

Best for: Travel research and itinerary planning when you're comfortable doing the actual booking yourself on airline and hotel sites.

AI Travel Assistants: Otto

Otto the Agent bridges the gap between consumer booking and corporate travel tools. It's a conversational AI assistant that actually books travel, not just recommends it. Otto learns each traveler's preferences, enforces your travel policy, and handles transactions.

What works:

• Travelers book themselves through conversation
• Otto remembers preferences: airlines, hotels, seating preferences, timing patterns
• Travel policy enforcement without rigid workflows
• Conversational interface: Otto suggests options, travelers approve, Otto completes the booking
• Automatic loyalty program application for every booking
• Proactive monitoring and rebooking when flights get disrupted

What to keep in mind:

• Solo traveler bookings only (no group or family bookings)
• No expense system integration yet (provides receipts for manual entry)
• No approval routing workflows for companies requiring manager sign-off
• Limited to flights and hotels currently
• Car rentals and restaurants not supported

The trade-off: You give up the full admin controls of enterprise TMCs, but gain self-serve booking that works for frequent travelers who know what they need. If 80% of your bookings are straightforward ("get Sarah to the Chicago office Tuesday morning"), Otto handles those. The 20% requiring special approvals still need manual coordination.

Best for: Teams with 5-20 frequent business travelers at companies too small for traditional TMCs, where travelers manage their own booking but operations leaders need policy compliance and spend visibility.

What Actually Works for Your Team

Consumer sites stop working when you need policy enforcement and can't track company spend. Corporate tools require volume and budget most smaller companies don't have. General AI assistants can't complete bookings.

Otto resolves this by letting your travelers book themselves while you maintain policy enforcement and spend visibility. Upload your travel policy once and Otto enforces it automatically: travelers see only compliant options, and you're off the coordination bottleneck. 

The question isn't whether AI will change business travel booking. The question is whether your operations workflow stays stuck doing manual coordination while your sales team books their eighth trip this quarter through DMs.

Try Otto if you're managing travel for a team that outgrew consumer sites but doesn't need full TMC infrastructure. Best of all: it’s free for travelers.