Business Travel Reimagined for Modern SMEs: Less Admin, More Impact

More than half of SMEs plan to spend more on business travel in 2025 - yet 26% are slowing themselves down with added approval layers and red tape (source).

While the intention is to tighten control and reduce costs, the outcome is often the opposite - fragmented bookings, delayed decisions, missed opportunities, and overworked teams juggling logistics manually. For companies built to move fast, outdated travel processes are becoming a silent growth blocker.

The Hidden Costs of ‘Making Do’ with Outdated Travel Processes

Untracked expenses, last-minute cancellations, and missed tax credits - the hidden pitfalls of unmanaged business travel can quietly chip away at a company’s bottom line.

Here’s how:

Unclaimed tax credits: Businesses lose millions every year in input tax credit simply due to non-compliant invoices or informal bookings. Lack of proper VAT/GST invoicing impacts thousands of companies, particularly SMEs.

High and unpredictable cancellation fees: On many consumer OTAs, last-minute changes can cost up to 100% of the fare, especially with low-cost carriers. For growing teams with packed calendars and shifting priorities, some cancellations are simply unavoidable. Meetings get rescheduled, plans change, opportunities evolve and that’s part of doing business. What matters is how well a company is prepared to absorb or reduce the cost of those changes. Without a smarter solution in place, these unavoidable shifts can snowball into avoidable losses. The key isn’t eliminating cancellations - it’s minimizing their financial impact through flexible policies and transparent, flat-rate fees.

Manual errors and lack of visibility: Reimbursements via spreadsheets, WhatsApp approvals, and disconnected bookings don’t just create room for overspending and duplicate charges - they consume hours of valuable time. For SMEs with lean teams, the real burden is the time spent collecting receipts, tabulating expenses, verifying claims, and manually processing approvals. Without a centralized system, finance and admin teams end up chasing paper trails instead of focusing on strategic work, delaying reconciliation and creating frustration across departments.

Travel leakage: According to a recent survey by GBTA, 67% of travel managers reported that their company’s air travel leakage either increased or stayed the same over the past year. This highlights how unmanaged bookings continue to undermine cost control, even in companies trying to tighten travel policies.

Why Legacy Tools Fall Short for Today’s SMEs

Most travel platforms fall into two categories:

Enterprise tools - complex, costly, and built for companies with dedicated travel admins

Consumer OTAs - convenient but lack features businesses need like invoicing, policy controls, or spend tracking.

SMEs are left straddling the gap - trying to run lean operations while relying on tools never designed for their workflows. And as teams grow, so do the complications: last-minute changes, scattered bookings, missed invoices, and reimbursement delays all become business liabilities.

What’s needed is a dedicated travel solution tailored to SME realities - one that combines simplicity with structure, speed with savings.

The Future of SME Travel Is Self-Serve, Compliant, and Cost-Aware

The way SMEs operate has changed - their travel systems should, too. An ideal travel solution for growing teams should offer:

Instant onboarding and self-serve access - no training or IT setup required
Centralized booking for flights, hotels, and cabs in one place
GST or VAT-compliant invoices to simplify tax reconciliation
Flat, transparent cancellation policies - no fine print surprises
Real-time expense tracking and budget control for finance teams
Responsive call support from real humans, not bots - because sometimes, teams just need answers fast

This shift isn’t just about better travel - it’s about better business. Tools that reduce leakage, improve compliance, and enhance visibility help companies scale sustainably, not just quickly.