Companies can save 20% on their travel spend through best practice on travel policy and raising compliance, according to new research by Carlson Wagonlit Travel (CWT).
The travel management company 8% of the savings could be achieved through a "well-defined travel policy with clear mandates."
A further 12% could be made through improving policy and compliance in five main areas:
* advance air booking
* restricted air fares
* preferred suppliers
* traveller comfort
* preferred booking channels.
The findings are released in a new report Playing by the Rules: Optimizing Travel Policy and Compliance, by the CWT Travel Management Institute.
The report defined advance air booking, reservations made at least two weeks before departure where savings of more than 50% could be made on fares, as the "greatest opportunity for savings."
CWT said restricted airfares could account for24% savings on average air spend even when the cost of changing or cancelling flexible fares is included.
The "consistent" use of preferred suppliers was less expensive than using a mix of suppliers on a "best price" basis.
CWT said: "Companies pay on average 23% less for flights with preferred suppliers and 5-14% less per room night, depending on the hotel category."
The TMC said companies could also make savings by using the same travel standards as other companies in its particular industry.
This cold mean more people travelling in premium economy or coach rather than business travel and increased use of lower category hotels. CWT price differences between each standard are about 20%.
Booking through as TMC also helped save money through lower prices, increased use of preferred suppliers and better use of travellers' time.
The TMC added: "CWT found that although a vast majority of company travel policies mandate bookings through the travel management company, only 40% of those who have a corporate online booking tool even refer to it in their travel policy.
"Of those that do, only 26% mandate their use for point-to-point air travel and 2% for hotels."
CWT also identified eight areas of best practice for a travel policy. These are:
* engaging management
* giving travellers clear guidelines
* standardising the policy
* promoting compliance through communications and training
* driving compliance through point of sale measure
* tracking progress of compliance
* benchmarking industry performance
* using TMC expertise.
Christophe Renard, senior director of the CWT Travel Management, said: "Many of the best practices observed by CWT are within the reach of all companies."
He added: "More and more travel policies will address demand management to eliminate unnecessary travel.
"Travel policies will also contain measures to protect the environment. And travel managers will increasingly integrate meetings and events into their policy to exploit synergies with their travel programme.
"All of this will further drive change in the right direction."