Buyer's guide
How to choose a travel management company
For finance, procurement and operations leads at companies of 100 to 1,000 people, choosing a travel management company for the first time or replacing one. The questions to ask, how to score the answers and a three-week plan for the evaluation, with a checklist you can send as an RFP.
In this guide
- When a TMC makes sense
- Money
- Service
- Control
- Data and security
- Contract
- Implementation
- RFP or a lighter request
- A three-week evaluation
- Scoring the answers
This guide is for comparing any TMC, including us. Each section ends with a short note on how silentVIP answers, with a link to where we say it in full. Skip those if you're not considering us. If a term is unfamiliar, the glossary explains it. For what a managed program covers before you compare providers, read corporate travel management explained.
Start here
When a TMC makes sense, and when it doesn't
Many companies start with travelers booking on airline and hotel websites or a consumer travel site, then claiming costs on expenses. That works while travel is light and simple. It stops working gradually, and the signs are practical rather than strategic:
- Finance spends days each month matching card statements and receipts to trips, departments and projects.
- Nobody can say quickly who is in a city when a storm or strike hits.
- Canceled nonrefundable tickets turn into airline credits that nobody tracks, and they expire.
- Assistants spend hours booking executives' trips and fixing them when plans change.
- The policy exists as a PDF, and the only check is an expense report after the money is spent.
- Travelers deal with disruptions alone, often at night.
A TMC takes on booking, servicing and the record of every trip. What you're buying is people who handle changes and disruptions, a policy that is applied before booking, and data finance can use. If your travel is a few domestic trips a month by people who are happy to book their own, a self-booking tool with policy controls, or simply a clear policy and a corporate card, may be enough. Be wary of anyone, us included, who tells you otherwise without looking at your numbers.
TMCs differ most in how much they rely on people versus software. Some lead with a self-booking tool and offer agents for help. Others are agent-led and add a portal. Neither is better in general. Decide which your travelers need: if most trips are simple and repetitive, self-service matters more. If many are international, multi-city or for executives with assistants, the quality of the people matters more.
Money
How the TMC is paid, and what you'll pay
Every TMC is paid by someone. Some charge the client a fee per booking or per traveler, some earn commissions or overrides from airlines and hotels, some add a markup to the rate, and some do all of these. None of these models is wrong in itself, but you can only compare quotes once you know which one you're looking at. Ask each vendor to price the same twelve months of your own travel, built from your last year's bookings: flights, hotel nights, rail, changes and after-hours calls. A headline per-trip price means little until you know what counts as a trip. Each of these models, and what it means for you, is explained in how travel agencies get paid.
Questions to ask
1. List every way you earn money from our bookings: our fees, supplier commissions, overrides, markups, card rebates or incentives.
Why it matters. A low or zero fee is usually paid for somewhere else. Commissions and overrides can steer which hotel or airline you're offered.
A good answer. A complete written list, with any supplier income either passed to you or shown on your invoice.
2. What is the fee for each transaction type: domestic and international flights, hotel-only, rail, car, and agent-assisted versus online?
Why it matters. Many fee schedules look cheap on the most common booking and expensive on everything else.
A good answer. One published schedule that covers every booking type, applied the same way on every invoice.
3. What does a change, a cancellation, a void, an exchange and a refund cost?
Why it matters. Changes are routine in business travel. A fee on each one adds up faster than the booking fees do.
A good answer. A named price for each, or a plan where changes are included, stated in the contract.
4. What does an after-hours or weekend call cost?
Why it matters. Disruptions happen at night and on weekends, and per-call charges are easy to miss in a proposal.
A good answer. A stated price per call, or included, with the hours that count as after hours defined.
5. Is there a monthly platform fee, a per-traveler fee or a monthly minimum? How is an active traveler defined?
Why it matters. A minimum decides your real cost in quiet months. A loose definition of active can bill people who never traveled.
A good answer. The minimum and the definition written into the order form, with an example month worked through.
6. Are your fees shown separately from the fare and the hotel rate, on both the option and the invoice?
Why it matters. If the fee is built into the price, you can't compare it with another vendor's or check it later.
A good answer. Every fee itemized on its own line, so finance can total fees for the year without asking.
7. Who owns unused ticket credits, how are they tracked, and what happens to them if we leave?
Why it matters. A canceled nonrefundable ticket often becomes a credit that expires. Untracked credits are money you've already spent and lose.
A good answer. Credits listed by traveler, airline, value and expiry, flagged before they expire, applied to new bookings, and handed over in full at exit.
8. When a refund is due, who receives the money, how quickly is it passed on, and how do you report refunds still outstanding?
Why it matters. Refunds can sit with an agency or a supplier for weeks. If reports count them as savings before they arrive, the numbers are wrong.
A good answer. Each refund tracked from requested to received, with outstanding and received amounts reported separately.
9. What do implementation, integrations and custom reports cost, and can fees change during the term?
Why it matters. One-off and mid-term costs rarely appear in the headline price.
A good answer. One-off fees fixed in the proposal, and fee changes only at renewal with written notice.
Red flags
- A free or nearly free service with no explanation of where the money comes from
- Fees that are in the fare or the rate and can't be shown on the invoice
- A per-trip price without a written definition of a trip
- Credits held in the agency's name with no list you can see
How silentVIP answers
We take no commissions from airlines or hotels; you pay the fees on our pricing page, and any hotel-program fee paid to us is shown on your invoice (how we're paid).
Flight, hotel, rail and change fees are on our pricing page, and you can model a year of your own travel with the cost comparison. After-hours calls cost $45 each on Essentials and are included on Managed and Enterprise. How credits and refunds are tracked: credit and refund recovery.
Service
Who answers, how fast, and who owns the problem
Service is a large part of what you pay a TMC for, and the part a demo shows least. The useful questions are about a specific bad moment: a canceled connection at 11pm, a hotel that has given the room away, an executive who needs to leave a day early on a Sunday. Ask who picks up, whether they can see the trip and the policy, and who stays with it until the traveler is rebooked. Then test it during the evaluation rather than taking the answer on trust.
Questions to ask
1. Who answers at night, on weekends and on public holidays? Your own staff, a partner company, or a shared overflow center?
Why it matters. Many agencies hand after-hours calls to a different company. That can work, but you should know before a traveler finds out.
A good answer. Named teams for each time window, and an honest description of any partner involved.
2. What response times do you publish for urgent and standard requests, and what happens when you miss them?
Why it matters. Typical response times are a description. A commitment with a consequence is something you can manage the account against.
A good answer. Written times for acknowledgment and for an agent taking ownership, reported to you, with service credits if they're missed.
3. When a flight is canceled, who owns the case until the traveler is rebooked and everyone affected is told?
Why it matters. Without an owner the traveler ends up calling the airline, the hotel and the agency in turn.
A good answer. One named agent owns the case, rebooks, moves the hotel and ground transportation, updates costs and approvals, and closes it.
4. Can travelers reach you by phone, email and the portal, and does the same team see all of them?
Why it matters. A request sent by email and a follow-up call should land with the same people and the same record.
A good answer. Every channel feeds one case history for the trip.
5. How do you handle group travel, such as an offsite or a sales kickoff?
Why it matters. Groups need room blocks, group fares and attendee lists, which many TMCs pass to a separate team or price separately.
A good answer. A clear description of who runs groups, how they are priced and how attendees are tracked.
6. Can whoever answers see the traveler's profile, itinerary, loyalty numbers and our policy?
Why it matters. Repeating the trip to a stranger at the airport wastes the time the traveler doesn't have.
A good answer. Every agent works from the same booking record and policy, including after hours.
7. Will we have a named account manager, and how often will they review the program with us?
Why it matters. Someone has to look at the patterns across trips: overspend, rising exceptions, credits about to expire.
A good answer. A named person, a review on a fixed schedule, and a written summary with actions after each one.
8. If a problem isn't moving, how is it escalated, and to whom?
Why it matters. Escalation that depends on knowing someone senior isn't a process.
A good answer. A written escalation route with time limits at each step, open to travelers and to your travel manager.
Red flags
- Response times described as typical, with nothing in the contract
- An after-hours number that reaches a voicemail or a different company that can't see the booking
- No answer to who owns a disruption
- An account manager you meet only at renewal
How silentVIP answers
Urgent support is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, acknowledged within 5 minutes and owned by an agent within 15 minutes. A named person owns every issue until it's resolved, and you can see who it is. Managed and Enterprise clients have a named account manager. Essentials clients are served by a shared team, with a named lead through implementation.
Who answers in each time window, including weekends: coverage, hour by hour.
Control
Policy, approvals and where the cost lands
A travel policy is only as strong as the booking route that ignores it. If the online tool checks the hotel cap but a phone booking doesn't, the expensive trips move to the phone. Control also covers what finance sees afterward: whether each charge already carries the right entity, department and project, or whether someone rebuilds that in a spreadsheet at month end.
Questions to ask
1. Is our policy applied the same way whether a trip is booked online, by an assistant, or by your agents by phone or email?
Why it matters. Policy that only lives in the booking tool is bypassed by anyone who picks up the phone.
A good answer. One policy check on every route, with out-of-policy bookings recorded the same way whichever route was used.
2. When a traveler picks an out-of-policy option, what does the approver see before deciding?
Why it matters. An approver who sees only the price can't judge it. The reason and the cheaper alternative make the decision quick.
A good answer. The traveler's reason, the cost difference against the best in-policy option, and the history, in one view.
3. Do changes after approval need approving again?
Why it matters. Without it, an approved economy trip can become a business class trip with nobody noticing.
A good answer. A change that costs more or breaks policy goes back for approval, and smaller changes don't.
4. Can we restrict destinations, requiring approval or blocking bookings for places we name?
Why it matters. Travel to high-risk places should be a deliberate decision, not something found after the trip.
A good answer. Restricted destinations set in the policy, applied on every booking route, and reviewed with you.
5. Can approvers hand over to a delegate while they're away?
Why it matters. Trips stall when the only approver is on vacation.
A good answer. Dated delegation that routes requests automatically and is recorded.
6. Can every charge carry its legal entity, department and project from the moment it's booked, with one invoice per entity?
Why it matters. Allocation done after the fact is slow and often wrong, and it delays month end.
A good answer. Allocation captured at booking, editable by finance with a record of each change, and invoices split by entity.
7. Will you load and use our negotiated airline and hotel rates, and our preferred suppliers?
Why it matters. Negotiated rates only save money if the agency books them.
A good answer. Your rates loaded at implementation, shown to travelers, and reported so you can see how often they were used.
8. How do you handle trips booked outside the program?
Why it matters. Bookings made elsewhere are missing from reports, from policy and from the list of who is where during an incident.
A good answer. A clear statement of what they can and can't capture, and reports that show coverage rather than hiding the gap.
Red flags
- Policy enforced only in the self-booking tool
- Approval by email chains with no record kept on the booking
- Cost allocation added afterward in a spreadsheet
- A promise to load negotiated rates with no report showing they're used
How silentVIP answers
The same rules apply whether a trip is booked in the portal, by an assistant or by phone, and approvers see the reason and the cost difference before deciding: policy and approvals. Each booking takes its entity, department and project code when it's made, and invoices come per entity: payments and expenses.
Data and security
Your data, your documents, and who issues the tickets
A TMC holds passport details, travel patterns and payment records for your people. Ask for the security documents before you sign, not during onboarding, and ask how you get your data back out. The ticketing question matters too: the agency that issues tickets, and the accreditation it issues them under, is the one responsible for them.
Questions to ask
1. What can we export, in what format, how often, and at what cost? Do we get the full booking history when we leave?
Why it matters. Reports you can't export lock you to the vendor's view, and history held back at exit makes switching harder.
A good answer. Any report downloadable as CSV at no charge, and a full export, with a date, written into the contract.
2. Are spend figures net of refunds and credits, and is the share of charges missing an entity or project shown?
Why it matters. Totals that hide missing data or count expected refunds as savings mislead the people who rely on them.
A good answer. Spend shown net of refunds, outstanding and recovered amounts kept apart, and coverage shown on each report.
3. How do you connect to our accounting, expense and HR systems: live integration or files?
Why it matters. Either can work. What matters is knowing which, who maintains it and what happens when a file fails.
A good answer. An honest description of each connection, with a trial run before launch.
4. Which security documents can you share before we sign? A SOC 2 report or ISO 27001 certificate, a completed questionnaire, policies, a penetration test summary, a data processing addendum, a subprocessor list and insurance certificates?
Why it matters. Your security or IT team will ask for these. Getting them late can stall a signed contract.
A good answer. The documents they have, shared under NDA, and a plain statement of any they don't have yet.
5. How long do you keep traveler and trip data, and how is access controlled?
Why it matters. Passport numbers and travel patterns are sensitive. Retention without a limit is a risk you inherit.
A good answer. Written retention periods, role-based access, and a record of who changed what.
6. How quickly will you tell us about a security incident that affects our data?
Why it matters. Your own obligations to employees may depend on hearing quickly.
A good answer. A notification window written into the agreement.
7. Who issues our tickets, and under what accreditation (ARC, IATA or a host agency)?
Why it matters. The issuing agency controls the ticket, the refund and the credit. If it's a third party, you should know who.
A good answer. The accreditation number and the name of any host agency or consolidator involved.
8. During an incident, how do you find which travelers are affected?
Why it matters. Duty of care starts with knowing who is where. Most agencies work from booked itineraries, not phone tracking.
A good answer. A clear method, usually matching incidents to trips on file, with check-ins recorded and unanswered ones escalated.
Red flags
- Reports available only as PDFs or screenshots
- No subprocessor list
- No committed notification window for a security incident
- Vague answers about who issues the tickets
How silentVIP answers
No SOC 2 or ISO 27001 report yet. Ask us for our security questionnaire answers. The documents we share, and how to request them, are in our trust center. Clients are told of a confirmed incident affecting their data within 72 hours. Tickets are issued under silentVIP's IATA accreditation (33661736) through our reservation system. Every report table downloads as CSV: reporting.
Contract
Term, exit and a way to try it first
Read the contract during the evaluation, not after you've picked a winner. The terms that matter most are the ones you'll need if it goes badly: how long you're committed, what it costs to leave, and what you get back when you do. If a vendor won't offer a pilot or a short initial term, ask why.
Questions to ask
1. What is the initial term, does it renew automatically, and how much notice is needed to stop it?
Why it matters. Long auto-renewing terms with a narrow notice window are easy to miss.
A good answer. A term you're comfortable with, renewal terms you can see, and notice you can realistically give.
2. Can we end the agreement for convenience, and what would it cost?
Why it matters. Without a convenience exit, a poor service can only be ended by proving breach.
A good answer. A convenience exit after a set period, with notice and no termination fee.
3. Will you agree to a pilot with a defined exit?
Why it matters. A pilot tests service on real trips, which no demo can.
A good answer. A pilot period written into the agreement, with an exit at the end and no penalty.
4. Are the response times and service credits in the contract, or only on the website?
Why it matters. Commitments that aren't in the agreement can change without telling you.
A good answer. A service level schedule attached to the agreement, with credits and a way to claim them.
5. When the agreement ends, what is returned, by when, and who handles open bookings, refunds and credits?
Why it matters. Trips already booked, credits and refunds outlive the contract.
A good answer. Data returned by a set date, and written cooperation with your next provider on everything still open.
6. Is liability capped, and at what level?
Why it matters. A very low cap leaves you little recourse if a serious error costs you money.
A good answer. A cap you have reviewed with counsel, tied to a meaningful amount such as a year of fees.
7. Are there minimum volumes, spend commitments or exclusivity clauses?
Why it matters. Volume commitments can cost you money if travel drops or a part of the business leaves.
A good answer. None, or commitments you've modeled against a quiet year.
Red flags
- A multi-year first term with automatic renewal
- Termination fees or a requirement to prove breach before you can leave
- Service levels that appear on the website but not in the agreement
- No answer on how open credits and refunds are handled at exit
How silentVIP answers
Our agreement is billed monthly and runs for 12 months from the start date, renewing for further 12-month terms unless either party gives 60 days' notice before the end of a term. After the first 6 months, either party may end the agreement for convenience on 90 days' written notice. Early clients can start on a 90-day pilot: the monthly minimum is waived for the first three months, and you can leave at the end of the pilot with no penalty, as set out in the pilot clause of the agreement. Your data is returned within 30 days after the agreement ends. Read the terms before you talk to us: the sample agreement and the service levels.
Implementation
Getting from signature to the first trip
Implementation is where a good choice can still go wrong. Your policy has to become rules, your people and cost codes have to be loaded, and everything still open with your current provider has to be handed over without trips booked twice or credits lost. Ask for the plan in writing and find out how much of your own team's time it needs.
Questions to ask
1. How long does implementation take, and can we see the plan week by week, with who does what?
Why it matters. A plan that only lists the vendor's steps hides the work your team will be asked to do.
A good answer. A dated plan with owners on both sides and a named lead from the vendor.
2. What do you need from us and from our current provider, and in what format?
Why it matters. Roster files, policy, negotiated rates, cost codes and open bookings all take time to gather.
A good answer. A single checklist of items, each with who provides it.
3. How will unused tickets, open refunds and trips already booked be handed over?
Why it matters. These are the items most often lost in a switch.
A good answer. A reconciled list of credits and refunds, and a clear rule on who services trips booked before launch.
4. How is our policy set up and tested before launch?
Why it matters. Rules that look right on paper can flag every trip, or none, once real bookings arrive.
A good answer. Rules tested against a recent quarter of your actual trips, and signed off by you.
5. How will you connect billing and exports to our accounting and expense systems before launch?
Why it matters. A failed first export at month end is a bad start with finance.
A good answer. A trial export accepted by your system before go-live.
6. What training do travelers, assistants, approvers and finance get?
Why it matters. Each group uses the program differently, and one generic session suits none of them.
A good answer. Short sessions by role, plus written guides people can find later.
7. What happens in the first weeks after launch, and when do we review it together?
Why it matters. Early problems are cheap to fix if someone is looking for them.
A good answer. Close monitoring after go-live and a review with findings at a set date.
Red flags
- A launch date with no plan behind it
- No answer on credits and refunds still with the current provider
- Policy set up without testing it against real trips
- Training only for travel managers
How silentVIP answers
Implementation takes 4 to 6 weeks. It's included for up to 500 travelers, with a fixed $3,500 fee above that. The eight stages, and what your team does in each: our switching plan and the implementation checklist.
RFP
A formal RFP, or a lighter request for information
The checklist works as an RFP question bank. Whether you need a formal RFP depends more on your procurement rules than on the size of your travel spend.
A full request for proposal makes sense when your procurement policy requires one, when several entities or regions have to agree, or when you're replacing an incumbent who will expect a formal process. Otherwise a shorter request for information (RFI), followed by priced proposals from two or three shortlisted vendors, usually gets better answers faster. Long RFPs tend to get long, generic replies.
Negotiating rates with hotels is a separate exercise: the hotel RFP guide covers it, with its own question set.
Either way, a few habits make the answers comparable:
- Cut the checklist to the questions you'll actually score, and mark your must-haves before you send it.
- Send every vendor the same twelve-month travel profile and ask them to price it. Without one, each proposal prices a different company.
- Ask for answers in the same spreadsheet, in the vendor's answer column, with a word limit.
- Ask for the sample contract, the service level schedule and the security documents with the response, not after you've picked a favorite.
- Give one contact and one deadline, about a week, and say how you'll score.
- Tell vendors which answers you'll test, such as an after-hours call, so nobody is surprised in week 2.
The CSV has 47 questions in six groups, with why each one matters and what a good answer looks like. Its last column gives silentVIP's own published answer where we have one, for reference. Delete it before you send the sheet to anyone else. When the answers are back, the TMC scorecard lets you weight the areas and score up to four vendors side by side.
Evaluation
Run it in three weeks
Long evaluations rarely produce better decisions, only tired evaluators. Three weeks is enough if you prepare your own data first and ask every vendor the same questions.
Before you start: gather your own numbers
Pull twelve months of travel: flights, hotel nights, rail, changes and cancellations, and any after-hours calls. Add your current policy, the list of open credits and refunds, and a short note of what goes wrong today. Pick no more than three or four vendors. Decide who scores: someone from finance, a frequent traveler, an executive assistant and, for the documents, IT or security.
Week 1: same questions, same numbers
Send every vendor the checklist and the same twelve-month travel profile, and ask for written answers and a priced proposal against that profile. Book demos, and send each vendor two or three of your real scenarios in advance, such as a multi-city trip with an out-of-policy hotel, so you see your situations and not their usual script.
Week 2: test what you can't see in a demo
Send each vendor a realistic trip request and time the reply. Call the after-hours line with a test change. Ask for references from clients of a similar size and speak to at least one. Send the security documents and the contract to the people who will review them, and note anything missing.
Week 3: score, negotiate, decide
Score the answers independently, then compare scores together and discuss the biggest gaps. Take your questions on the contract to the top one or two vendors. Agree a start date or a pilot, and plan the handover of open bookings, credits and refunds with your current provider.
If you're replacing a TMC, ask your current provider early for twelve months of booking history, upcoming reservations with record locators, and the list of unused tickets and open refunds. You'll need them whoever you choose. Our switching plan shows what that handover looks like.
Scoring
Score the answers, not the demo
Score every question from 0 to 3, on your own before you compare notes. The checklist has a column for the vendor's answer and one for the score.
| Score | Meaning |
|---|---|
| 0 | No answer, or an answer that avoids the question. |
| 1 | An answer, but verbal only or with conditions that weaken it. |
| 2 | A clear written answer. |
| 3 | Written, shown working in the evaluation, and willing to put it in the contract. |
Agree weights for the six areas before any answers arrive, so the favorite vendor doesn't shape the weighting. A company with many executives and international trips might weight service most heavily. A finance-led project to fix month end might weight control and data. If you're switching from another TMC, give implementation more weight than you would for a first program. Average the scores within each area, multiply by the weight and add them up. The scorecard does this arithmetic for you and exports the result as a CSV.
Mark a few questions as must-haves: a written fee schedule, a full data export at exit, the security documents your IT team needs. A vendor that fails a must-have is out, however well it scores elsewhere. When two vendors finish close together, the tests from week 2 usually decide it: the reply to the trip request and the after-hours call tell you more than any proposal.
Opens in any spreadsheet.
Put us through the same questions
Send us the checklist before a demo and we'll go through it with you, including the questions where another kind of provider may suit you better.
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