International Corporate Travel Management: How to Cut Costs, Reduce Risk, and Boost Traveler Compliance

Managing international corporate travel means simultaneously coordinating across jurisdictions, currencies, and time zones, as well as creating policies that work globally and having supplier relationships that include regional airlines and local hotels.

This guide covers the six elements of international corporate travel management that travel managers need to know.

How to Build International Corporate Travel Policies

International corporate travel policies need to balance organizational control with regional flexibility. For example, a policy that works for domestic U.S. travel may fail in Europe or Asia-Pacific, where lodging and transportation costs vary significantly.

Here's a step-by-step guide to building international corporate travel policies.

1. Build a Global Framework with Regional Variations

Start with a global framework that establishes principles like advance booking windows, approval hierarchies, and preferred supplier requirements, then allow regional variations for implementation. A €200/night hotel cap, for example, makes sense in most European cities, but blocks compliant options in London, Paris, or Zurich during peak seasons.

Navan’s dynamic policy engine solves this issue by adjusting thresholds based on destination and travel dates, using real-time market pricing to set context-aware caps instead of static limits. When policies reflect actual market conditions, travelers find compliant options without requesting exceptions, and you spend less time reviewing one-off approvals.

2. Set Up Approval Workflows for International Travel

International trips typically require more lead time and involve higher spending than domestic travel. To account for the differences, establish separate approval tiers with the following suggested requirements:

• Standard international travel booking windows: Booking within a defined advance window (commonly 14+ days) requires manager approval.
• High-cost destinations: An additional approval layer for cities with elevated lodging and transportation costs can help minimize issues or disputes.
• Extended international trips: Require finance or executive approval for trips exceeding a certain duration.
• Last-minute international travel: Set up an expedited approval process that documents business justification.

3. Define Visa and Documentation Requirements

Countries can have vastly different requirements for entry; any misstep or missing piece could throw a business trip into disarray. To head off that possibility, international corporate travel policies should specify who handles visa processing, required lead times for travel to countries with complex entry requirements, and the documentation that travelers must maintain. Some organizations centralize visa support through their travel management company (TMC); others provide resources and leave responsibility with travelers.

How to Manage International Suppliers and Vendors

Strong supplier relationships directly affect the rates your travelers see and the service they receive during disruptions. When your travelers book across multiple regions, supplier management becomes more complex.

Consolidation and Local Access

Global hotel programs with major chains provide consistent rates and service standards across regions. Travelers in specific markets may also need access to local hotel networks, regional airlines, or country-specific ground transportation that global agreements don’t cover.

Work with suppliers that can aggregate inventory from multiple sources. Platforms that combine Global Distribution System (GDS) inventory with direct airline connections through New Distribution Capability (NDC) and partnerships with online travel agencies surface options that single-source systems miss.

When travelers see competitive rates for regional carriers, low-cost airlines, and local rail in a single search, they’re more likely to book on your platform instead of consumer sites.

Volume-Based Negotiation

Supplier negotiations depend on accurate data about where your travelers actually go, which carriers and hotels they use, and what they spend. Programs with low adoption can’t demonstrate true volume because bookings happen outside the system.

To unlock meaningful global discounts, you need to show suppliers a consolidated picture of your demand across regions — key city pairs, top routes, hotel markets where you cluster room nights, and/or the mix of cabin classes or room types. That level of insight lets you structure realistic volume commitments and performance tiers, instead of relying on estimates.

This is also where leveraging a TMC or integrated platform like Navan pays off. With Navan, you don’t have to manage those negotiations yourself. Navan aggregates demand across thousands of customers and negotiates global rates with airlines, hotels, rail, and car partners on your behalf. Your travelers automatically see these discounted corporate rates in search results — alongside any direct deals your organization has in place — so you benefit from enterprise-grade buying power without running complex RFPs or maintaining dozens of separate supplier contracts.

International Booking and Inventory Access

The booking experience may well determine whether travelers use your program or find workarounds. Keep in mind that international travelers face more friction than domestic travelers, because traditional booking systems often limit inventory by region.

The Inventory Gap

Some TMCs rely on a single GDS, which limits what travelers can book based on their location. A U.S.-based employee can’t easily access options like European low-cost carriers, German rail, or Asian regional airlines through traditional channels.

When travelers find better choices on consumer sites, they may want to book there instead, resulting in the “screenshot problem.” That’s when employees send you screenshots as proof they can find cheaper fares elsewhere.

Navan’s content engine helps alleviate that issue with a robust inventory that combines traditional GDS inventory (Amadeus and Sabre) with NDC and other direct connections, plus partnerships with Hotels.com, Priceline, and Booking.com. As a result, travelers see competitive rates for regional carriers, low-cost airlines, and local rail options in a single search.

Booking Speed and Mobile Access

Booking time can directly affect whether travelers use your platform. When it takes 45+ minutes to complete a booking on the corporate tool while consumer sites take 10, employees have an incentive to book off-platform.

Also, it bears emphasizing that mobile booking is especially important for international travelers, who often plan trips outside office hours or while already abroad. If the booking experience requires a desktop computer and can only happen during certain countries’ business hours, adoption suffers.

Duty of Care Across Borders

Duty of care responsibilities intensify for international travel. You need to know where employees are, communicate with them during disruptions, and provide support across time zones. ISO 31030:2021, the international standard for travel risk management, establishes framework requirements for organizations with international travelers.

Traveler Visibility Through Adoption

It’s difficult to protect travelers who don’t book through your company’s platform. When employees book through consumer sites, their itineraries don’t populate your tracking systems. If something happens — a natural disaster, political disruption, or health emergency, say — you’ll have to search email chains and ask managers who’s traveling instead of simply checking a real-time dashboard.

In other words, high adoption rates help transform duty of care from reactive to proactive. When all bookings flow through a single platform, you see which employees are traveling, their destinations, flight details, and hotel locations.

Proactive Disruption Response

International disruptions require a faster response than domestic issues, because travelers are farther from home and may be facing language, currency, and logistical barriers. Effective duty of care systems can help, by providing:

• Real-time traveler location: Live maps show all traveling employees, with flight status and hotel details.
• Automated risk alerts: Systems can notify travelers when weather, political instability, or other risks affect their destination.
• Proactive rebooking: Platforms can identify affected travelers before they call for help and initiate alternative arrangements.
• 24/7 in-house support: Agents should be available around the clock and be able to easily access complete traveler context.

Duty of Care Documentation

Maintain formal documentation of your duty of care policies, including traveler responsibilities, risk assessment procedures, emergency protocols, and post-incident review processes. This documentation protects both travelers and your organization.

International Expense Management

International expenses create complexity that domestic programs don’t face: multiple currencies, VAT recovery requirements, country-specific tax rules, and longer timelines between travel and expense submission.

Currency Conversion Methodology

Document your exchange-rate methodology before international expenses start pouring in. After all, controllers need consistent rules: transaction date rate, payment date rate, or average monthly rate. Apply the same methodology across all international expenses for audit defensibility.

Platforms that capture transactions at point of purchase can apply exchange rates automatically, eliminating manual conversion and the errors that come with it.

VAT Documentation at the Point of Transaction

VAT recovery requires original invoices with VAT separately stated, proof of payment, and business purpose documentation. Chasing this documentation weeks after a trip can result in reclaiming only a fraction of the possible total amount.

Integrated platforms capture VAT-eligible expenses when transactions occur and maintain required documentation automatically. Navan automates VAT reporting, capturing the documentation finance teams need without manual work.

Country-Specific Compliance

Different countries have different rules for expense deductibility, per diem allowances, and documentation requirements. For U.S.-based organizations, IRS Publication 463 requires that international trips be primarily business-related for expense deductibility — meaning you need clear allocation between business and personal portions when trips include both.

Work with finance and tax teams to establish country-specific guidelines, then build them into your booking and expense systems so compliance happens automatically.

Program Reporting and Optimization

Accurate reporting is an essential piece of the management puzzle, as it helps drive program optimization. Without complete data, you can’t identify savings opportunities, demonstrate ROI to leadership, or make informed decisions about suppliers and policies.

Here are three levels of reporting to aim for — and the information they should include:

• Executive dashboards: Total spend by region, policy compliance rates, adoption percentages, and cost trends. Include industry benchmarking that compares your metrics against similar organizations — without context, you can’t tell whether spending patterns signal problems or reflect market reality.
• Compliance analytics: Potential savings from out-of-policy bookings, travelers with highest violation rates, and patterns by violation type (cost, lead time, fare class). If your APAC sales team consistently books last-minute because that’s business reality, the policy may need adjustment.
• Operational reports: Booking volumes by region, preferred supplier utilization, and traveler satisfaction. These reports support day-to-day program management and supplier negotiations.

Navan’s advanced analytics platform provides all three reporting levels. And direct integrations to Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems like NetSuite, QuickBooks, and Xero — as well as Human Resource Information Systems (HRIS) — enables automatic data flow without manual export.

Build an International Travel Program With Navan

International corporate travel management succeeds when the foundational elements work together: policies that are adaptable by region, suppliers that deliver competitive rates, booking systems travelers actually use, duty of care that protects employees anywhere, and expense processes that accurately capture data.

Navan’s all-in-one platform integrates booking, expense management, duty of care, and reporting in a single system that works consistently worldwide. When travelers find competitive rates and book in minutes, adoption is more likely to follow, giving you the visibility and data you need to run a strategic international program.

Get started with Navan to see how it works.