Introducing Navan Edge Managed: Personalized travel for small businesses

As a small business grows, opportunities to meet customers, build partnerships, attend industry events and bring teams together can mean more frequent trips abroad. Business owners need clear oversight and control of company travel without becoming full-time travel managers.

Navan Edge Managed is an AI travel agent that allows anyone in your organization to book business trips, while you maintain a travel policy that implements simple budget limits, and you have a clear view of all travel spend.

This guide explains who Navan Edge Managed is for, how it compares with Navan Edge and Navan Managed Plus, what it costs, and whether it’s right for your business.

What is Navan Edge Managed?

Navan Edge Managed is a personalized AI business travel agent for organizations looking for simple and intuitive control capabilities for their frequent business travel. It takes care of flights, hotels and restaurants in one app. Travelers can describe where and when they need to go, include as many preferences that they wish to mention in the chat, and it will surface relevant options. Connect any loyalty programs and those results will also show how much they’ll earn.

On the admin side, a business owner can easily and quickly set a travel policy for their employees, implement simple spend controls, and will have complete visibility into company travel spend in one overview. So your team can take care of themselves, while you can focus on running your business.

Who is Navan Edge Managed for?

Navan Edge Managed was built for small business owners who travel often, but also manage employees who are booking work trips. They don’t have someone handling company travel, so need a solution that handles it all quickly, without burning into their valuable time or budget.

How is Navan Edge Managed different from Navan Edge and Navan Managed Plus?

At Navan our mission is to make travel easy for every frequent business traveler. Navan Edge Managed is tailored specifically to small business travel management. Here’s how it differs from other solutions:

While the difference is largely determined by company size, a small business who does have a corporate travel program might consider Navan Managed Plus.

How do you book travel on Navan Edge Managed?

Booking travel is built to feel seamless on Navan Edge Managed. Simply describe where and when you need to go and the preferences that matter to you, and it surfaces options for flights, hotels and restaurants. The business owner (or admin of their choice) will have already pre-set any spending limits, so the results will be within budget.

Navan Edge Managed takes into account any connected loyalty programs, will show you what each option could earn you, and can actually complete the booking with your approval.

The more you use it, the better it understands how you like to travel, and the more personal the options become. An opening message could look like this:

I need to travel to New York next week Monday to Friday, and want to stay somewhere near the West Village that has a bar and gym with a Peloton bike. I’ll also need a quiet dinner near the hotel for 3 people Tuesday night.”

Once it knows you better, a prompt could be as simple as “Book my regular trip to New York”. No transaction will be made without your explicit approval, but the process could potentially be handled in seconds.

How do loyalty programs and customer support work?

The Loyalty Wallet in the Navan Edge Managed app holds all a traveler's program statuses in one place. These programs can inform the flight and hotel booking options that are surfaced, and help travelers book the most rewarding trips.

In addition to loyalty points and miles, travelers get 5% Amazon Gift Cards on eligible hotel bookings made through the app.

Access to Navan Edge Managed AI agents is around the clock. If at any time a user wants a human perspective or additional assistance, human travel agents can enter the same chat upon request, with all the history and context.

Employees having 24/7 travel assistance means that a business owner doesn’t need to be the default point of contact for every issue. If a flight home is cancelled at 4am, that premium experience can save time, admin and stress for all involved parties.

4 steps to set up Navan Edge Managed

There are 4 quick steps to getting your company set up after downloading the Navan Edge Managed app:

• Add your company address
• Create your travel policy
• Invite users
• Add payment method

The travel policy allows you to set guardrails for flights, hotels, restaurants and ground transport, and those limits can either be dynamic or set with a fixed price ceiling. When a booking is made, the admin can be notified, so if your team book out of policy, the admin has the option to cancel.

Navan Edge Managed also has a user-friendly dashboard, so you have full visibility into what you’re spending, where you're saving, where there’s potential to save more, booking reports and more.

Is Navan Edge Managed the right fit for your business?

Whether a work trip is about meeting a customer, visiting a site, or something completely different, Navan Edge Managed makes booking personalized business travel easy, without the need for a dedicated team in-house.

For a small business, that means less time coordinating trips and more attention to the opportunities that made them worth taking in the first place.