Corporate travel glossary

A defined connection between two travel systems (OBT to expense tool, HR system to OBT, TMC to risk-management platform) that lets them pass data back and forth automatically.

The average price paid per occupied room per night — a core hotel benchmarking metric for both hoteliers and corporate buyers.

Get sign-off before ticketing

Practical travel coordination

Help during emergencies

Programme advice

Keep bookings within programme

Can travellers actually book the rate?

Average cost of a flight ticket

Average hotel rate per night

Get manager approval before booking

Pre-trip risk checks

Application Programming Interface

The lowest publicly available, unrestricted rate a hotel is selling on a given night — the benchmark a corporate negotiated rate is measured against.

OBT, TMC, mobile app

Best Available Rate

Approved tools and agencies

Suppliers

Project code approval

Banquet Event Order

A single unit that bundles all greenhouse gases (CO₂, methane, nitrous oxide and others) into the warming impact they'd have as an equivalent amount of CO₂ — the standard unit for reporting travel emissions.

Governance

Executives

Whether travellers actually use preferred suppliers

A limit on emissions

High-emissions trip

Easy booking

Sensible flight times

Knowing what is allowed

Discounts, incentives, benefits

Taxis and ride-hailing can leak spend

Money not spent because a cheaper option was chosen

Sensible flight and hotel options

Carbon dioxide equivalent

Public booking site

Multiple sectors and rules

Business class request

Pickup/drop-off

Modify date, time, route, or traveller details

Cancel the booking

Value retained for future use

Are people following the programme?

Human judgement needed

Reporting spend, behaviour, savings, and carbon

Which channels bookings come through

Governance and audit trail

High-risk country

The umbrella for non-financial performance areas — environmental impact, social/people/community impact, and governance and ethics — that corporates increasingly report on and are judged by.

TMC

CEO, board, executives

Groups and conferences

Ground Transport Provider

Simple booking process

Group or conference booking system

Cost, budgets, savings

Ability to change plans

Economy under 6 hours, business class over 8 hours

Whether future demand is understood

The wholesale booking infrastructure TMCs and OBTs use to search and ticket flights, and to a lesser extent hotels and rail, across hundreds of suppliers in one feed.

Australia's 10% value-added tax administered by the ATO — applied to most domestic travel spend (air, hotel, car, rail, meals) and recoverable as an input tax credit by GST-registered businesses.

Global Distribution System

Deciding who owns travel and how decisions are made

More coordination

Stay within city rate cap

Property and dates

Employee experience and wellbeing

Breakfast, Wi-Fi, parking

Reducing emissions within aviation/travel itself

A small set of measurable targets used to judge whether the travel programme is doing what it's supposed to — usually a mix of cost, compliance, traveller experience and risk.

Key Performance Indicator

Traveller tracking

A clause in a corporate hotel agreement that the negotiated rate is available even when the property is showing only its last room — so corporate travellers don't get locked out at peak times.

Frequent flyer engagement

Near office, client, venue, airport

Savings missed because policy or booking behaviour was poor

Last Room Availability

The negotiated rate is available even when the hotel is close to sold out (usually with exceptions).

The reporting layer over the travel programme — combining TMC, OBT, expense, card and supplier data into a single view of who's spending what, where and with whom.

App-based booking or servicing

Management Information

An IATA-led XML standard that lets airlines sell richer content (branded fares, ancillaries, continuous pricing, personalised offers) direct to TMCs and OBTs rather than only through the legacy GDS pipe.

New Distribution Capability

Traveller does not travel and did not cancel

The self-service booking website travellers use to book flights, hotels, cars and rail inside policy — usually integrated with the TMC, the expense tool and the approval workflow.

Online Booking Tool

Online corporate booking tool

Smaller businesses

Service delivery

Paying for external emissions reduction

The booking record an airline or GDS holds for a trip — traveller name, flight segments, ticket numbers, contact details and special requests — and the source of truth the airline operates against.

Supplier contracts and value

Passenger Name Record

Rules for what employees can book

Corporate cards, lodge cards, virtual cards

Arriving ready to work

Show what is allowed

Use negotiated deals

Easy comparison

Non-preferred hotel

The structured procurement document used to invite suppliers (airlines, hotels, TMCs, car-hire firms) to bid for a corporate's travel programme, usually annually or every two to three years.

The benefit a programme or initiative delivers relative to what it cost — used in travel to justify investments in tools, suppliers, headcount or sustainability spend.

Knowing where travellers are

Spend, savings, compliance, leakage

Traveller safety

Traveller tracking and alerts

Capture spend and behaviour

Request for Proposal

How much the company spends

Negotiated price

Traveller experience

Evacuation or rerouting

Strategic value to the supplier

Taking train instead of short-haul flight

Profiles and templates help

Money returned to original form of payment

The hotel assigns any available room type at check-in.

The contractual performance standards a supplier commits to — call-answer times, ticketing accuracy, after-hours response, reporting deadlines — usually with financial consequences if they're missed.

Lower-emissions jet fuel produced from non-fossil feedstocks (used cooking oil, agricultural residues, municipal waste, eventually power-to-liquid) that can be blended with conventional jet fuel and used in existing aircraft.

Preferred airlines, hotels, cars, rail, TMCs

Fares, rates, content

Airline or hotel website

Service Level Agreement

Travellers

Support during disruption

Changes, cancellations, refunds

How much of the company’s travel they win

Money actually saved

Help when plans change

24/7 assistance

Indirect company emissions, including business travel

Sustainable Aviation Fuel

Fast and low-cost

Policy can guide choices

Accessibility, visas, medical, security

Sustainable Aviation Fuel

Are travellers supported?

A specialist agency that books and manages corporate travel on a company's behalf — handles bookings, after-hours support, supplier deals, reporting and duty of care.

The combined spend category covering pre-trip bookings (air, hotel, car, rail) and post-trip expenses (meals, taxis, incidentals reclaimed via expense report).

The discipline of identifying, assessing, communicating and responding to risks travellers face — from natural disasters and political unrest to medical incidents and lost luggage — to meet the employer's duty of care.

The full cost of a travel decision over its useful life — including hidden, indirect and downstream costs — not just the sticker price at the point of booking.

Who can fly business class

Travel Management Company

Save preferences and details

Human agent support

Name, contact, loyalty number

Sales, project, field teams

Booking tools, apps, integrations

Full cost including air, hotel, transport, meals, fees, and disruption

Book at least 14 days in advance

Replacing unnecessary travel

Ticket number and status

Travel and Expense

Faster problem-solving

Ticket not flown that may still hold value

How much the company spends

Higher service expectations

Avoiding unnecessary fatigue

Risk alerts

Profitability of each seat