Partner perspectives
7 Questions to Add to Your Travel Management RFP
A practical checklist for comparing total value, service performance, fees and data access before you choose a travel management provider.
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Choosing a travel management provider means choosing how bookings, changes, support, payments and reporting will work together. A proposal can cover the right destinations and offer an attractive transaction fee while leaving important operating questions unanswered.
Your RFP should give each provider the same travel scenarios and ask for evidence you can compare. Which options would employees actually be able to book? What happens when a trip changes after office hours? Can finance use the resulting invoice and spend data?
The seven questions below build on a jointly reviewed ProcurementAI–TruTrip checklist. They are questions to put to any provider, rather than claims about a particular platform. Use them alongside your organisation’s travel policy, market requirements and stakeholder priorities.
1. How does your total value compare with booking direct?
Start with a representative set of your usual routes and hotels. Ask each provider to compare its proposal with a direct-booking option using the same travel dates, booking time and traveller requirements.
Compare more than the displayed fare or room rate. Include availability, change and cancellation conditions, service fees, payment charges and included benefits. If one option is refundable and another is not, show that difference before comparing totals.
Evidence to request: a side-by-side itinerary comparison with the underlying fare or room conditions and a complete cost breakdown. Ask when the prices were captured so that a later price change is not mistaken for a like-for-like saving.
Use in evaluation: identify where the provider offers a better overall outcome and where booking direct remains a reasonable option. Treat projected savings as assumptions to test, rather than guaranteed results.
2. Can you show us recent service performance data?
A service-level agreement describes a commitment. Ask separately how the service has performed, especially outside normal office hours.
Request the definitions behind each metric. A first response is different from a resolved problem, and an acknowledgement may not mean that someone has started fixing a disrupted journey. Ask which channels, markets and service hours the figures cover.
Evidence to request: recent response times, resolution rates and after-hours performance, with the reporting period and measurement method. An anonymised example can show how an urgent case moved between the platform, support team and travel supplier.
Use in evaluation: compare the support model with how your employees travel. Make responsibility for escalations clear before the contract is signed.
3. How do you decide what to build next?
Your team will use the service beyond the sales demonstration. Ask how the provider collects customer feedback, prioritises changes and communicates releases.
Separate what is available today from what is on the roadmap. If a proposed feature is essential to your rollout, ask whether it has a committed delivery date, what dependencies remain and what your team would do if it arrived later.
Evidence to request: the roadmap process and examples of changes introduced in response to customer needs. For a critical requirement, request a demonstration of the current capability or record it as unresolved.
Use in evaluation: assess whether the current product meets your needs. Give future plans their own assessment rather than counting them as delivered functionality.
4. What will we pay beyond the transaction fee?
Ask every provider to complete the same fee schedule. Include changes and cancellations, offline bookings, after-hours support, reporting, implementation and any other charge that could apply to your intended service.
Then test the schedule against a realistic month of activity. A programme with frequent itinerary changes can have a different cost profile from one dominated by straightforward online bookings.
Evidence to request: a complete fee list, a sample invoice and an explanation of which charges come from the provider, a travel supplier or another party. Mark exclusions and volume assumptions explicitly.
Use in evaluation: compare expected operating costs using your own activity pattern. Keep assumptions visible so finance can challenge them before selection.
5. How will payments and invoicing work in each market?
A broad coverage statement does not explain how your finance team will pay for travel or reconcile the resulting documents.
List the markets and entities in scope. For each one, ask about supported payment methods, billing currencies, invoice arrangements, refunds and the handling of credits or unused tickets. Have your finance and tax teams confirm the requirements that apply to your organisation.
Evidence to request: sample invoices and a market-by-market explanation of the proposed payment and billing process. Include the steps for a changed or cancelled booking, not just a successful purchase.
Use in evaluation: identify any local process that will still require manual work, another supplier or a separate contract. Record unconfirmed market arrangements as open questions.
6. What access and control will we have over booking and spend data?
Your team needs usable information during the contract and a workable transition when the relationship ends. Ask the provider to explain the rights, access and export arrangements in the proposed agreement.
Make the request concrete. Which booking, traveller, payment and spend fields can you retrieve? In which formats and how often? Will an export retain the identifiers needed to connect a booking, change, refund and invoice?
Evidence to request: a sample export, field definitions and the proposed terms for access, retention and data transfer at contract end. Ask about any export fees or dependencies, and have the relevant internal teams review the answers.
Use in evaluation: test whether a sample file supports your reporting and reconciliation needs. Include the exit process in the evaluation rather than leaving it until renewal.
7. What happened during your last major disruption?
Ask the provider to walk through a real, anonymised disruption. A useful account explains what happened, how affected travellers were identified, who took responsibility and how the service handled changes.
Then introduce one of your own scenarios: for example, an employee abroad needs a replacement route outside office hours and the alternative exceeds the normal policy limit. Ask the provider to demonstrate the escalation, approval and communication process.
Evidence to request: a recent case walkthrough, the support timeline and an explanation of what changed afterwards. Avoid requesting identifiable traveller information.
Use in evaluation: check how the provider’s people, technology and supplier relationships work together under pressure. Distinguish an established process from a proposed workaround.
Turn the questions into a comparable evaluation
Give providers the same scenarios and response format. For each question, record the answer, supporting evidence, unresolved points and the person responsible for the next check.
| Area | Evidence to collect | What your team should test |
|---|---|---|
| Total value | Comparable itineraries and booking conditions | Whether the comparison uses equivalent options and includes all charges |
| Service performance | Recent reports and metric definitions | Whether response and resolution measures cover your service hours |
| Product development | Current demonstration and roadmap process | Which requirements are available now and which remain planned |
| Full cost | Fee schedule and sample invoice | How charges behave under your normal booking and change patterns |
| Market operations | Local billing examples and payment flows | Whether the proposed process works for each entity in scope |
| Data access | Export sample, field definitions and exit terms | Whether your team can use and transfer the information it needs |
| Disruption handling | Anonymised case and live scenario | How escalation, approval and traveller communication work in practice |
Agree priorities before reviewing proposals. Mandatory requirements need a clear pass condition; other criteria can be scored using weights that reflect your programme. A polished response without evidence should remain an open item, rather than receiving the same credit as a demonstrated capability.
AI tools can help organise questions and compare response documents. Keep the provider’s sources attached to each conclusion, flag missing answers and have people review consequential cost, policy and contract decisions. This article does not assess or certify any provider’s AI capabilities.
For broader preparation, see TruTrip’s business travel procurement guide ↗. To research software for preparing RFx documents and comparing supplier responses, explore our RFx automation use case.