More than two-thirds of employees (68%) are either unaware of corporate booking tools or find them cumbersome, according to the sixth annual Expense Management Trends Survey from Center, an expense management software provider.

Among the report’s findings were:

• Businesses implementing traditional corporate booking tools admit that nearly two-thirds (61%) of employees neglect them, opting instead to use off-platform consumer sites to book travel directly.
• Three-quarters (75%) of respondents have increased corporate card distribution.
• Just 18% of employees use only corporate tools to book and manage travel.
• While the overwhelming majority of respondents (88%) report having a written travel policy, the biggest expense policy hurdles reported are awareness of policies (49%) and compliance (31%).

Despite best intentions of companies having travel policies, said the report, Center’s findings indicate most employees are either unaware of them or knowingly ignore them altogether. An increase of cards in force coupled with the rise in off-platform booking highlights “a weakening grip on travel compliance,” potentially leading to higher spend leakage and fragmented data collection.

These results, according to Center, underscore a need for integrated T&E tools that effectively capture both on- and off- program spend and ensure compliance with automated guardrails. The company cited McKinsey’s 2024 report on business travel, which views unmanaged travel as an opportunity for more modern tools, noting that “tools that attempt to provide more structure for unmanaged business travel are especially intriguing.” It continued, “Integrating an online booking platform, expense management software and a travel data capture service could help improve a company’s visibility into its employees’ trips and spending.”

Naveen Singh, CEO of Center, said that “mid-market companies are planning to invest significantly in business travel next year, and the gap between corporate tool offerings and employee booking behavior highlights growing challenges in centralizing travel management.” He continued: “A card-first approach provides the guardrails employees need to automatically comply with policy. When employees can leverage corporate tools and get the consumer-grade convenience they’ve come to expect, businesses gain more control over spending. This is the future of simple and transparent T&E management.”

Respondents in the survey tended largely toward the smaller end of the small-to-medium-sized enterprise (SME) market, with 56% of respondents spending between $100,000 and $499,000 per year on business travel. A quarter of respondents spend at least $500,000 per year on business travel.