How to select a TMC: Here's your criteria, checklist, and RFP template

Why does choosing the right TMC matter? 

It matters because travel is a top-three controllable cost and a genuine duty-of-care obligation, so getting it wrong is expensive twice over. 

Every stakeholder in your business has a different reason to care. Finance wants visibility and savings they can show the board. HR and operations want a real safety net for travelers, not a PDF policy nobody reads. Logistics leaders want ground transport and itineraries that stay coordinated even when a trip changes at the last minute. Executive assistants and travel bookers want their evenings back. And the C-suite just wants to see how to maximize ROI from corporate travel management, in numbers they can take straight to the board.  

Here's what's at stake for each part of the business: 

The backdrop makes this more urgent, not less. Global business travel spending hit a record high in 2025 and is forecast to keep climbing through the decade, per GBTA. At the same time, industry consolidation among providers has pushed plenty of mid-market buyers to re-evaluate their current setup, which is a big part of why RFP activity has picked up lately. Layer in "booking leakage", which is the sneaky term for staff booking outside your negotiated channels and policy, and a poor TMC fit starts costing you savings you never even knew you had. 

Global business travel spending is on track to pass $2 trillion by 2029. Source: 2025 GBTA Business Travel Index Outlook Report. 

What should you look for in a TMC?  

Look for a TMC that fits your company’s size, travel patterns, and culture, weighing technology and service together rather than chasing the lowest fee. 

There's no single "best" TMC on the market, so read the fine print before you swipe right on the first one with a slick pitch deck. There's only the best fit for how your company travels, and that's the mindset to bring into every conversation with a provider. This is the anchor list of TMC selection criteria, so bookmark it. Service quality is what your travelers feel every single day, and it deserves top billing here, even though technology is what most industry surveys rank first. The two still need to be weighed side by side, since a beautiful booking tool means nothing if nobody answers the phone at 2am. 

A quick translation, because TMC pitches love acronyms:  

• The OBT is the online booking tool your staff use 
• The GDS is the global distribution system that aggregates airline, hotel, and rail content 
• NDC is the newer standard that unlocks richer fares and ancillaries beyond classic GDS content  

None of that matters if fee transparency isn't there too, since itemized, no-surprises pricing is what separates a genuine strategic partner from a low-cost transactional vendor. 

Here's what to look for in a TMC: a criteria table to run every shortlisted provider through. 

Company size changes what "good" looks like here too, and so does geography: whether you need a local versus global TMC footprint matters as much as any line item on this checklist. An enterprise with a dedicated procurement team can absorb a slower, heavier onboarding process. A growing SME usually can't, and shouldn't have to. This is genuinely where Corporate Traveler earns its keep: we're built around the niche needs of growing businesses, not bolted onto an enterprise model as an afterthought. If you want to weigh these criteria against each other, jump ahead to the weighted scorecard section below. 

What questions should you ask a TMC? 

Ask about technology adoption, support structure, full fee breakdowns, data ownership, and how they've handled a real disruption. 

The goal of every question below is the same: confirm that what you see in the sales pitch is really what your account will receive after the ink dries, since a slide deck has never once rebooked a flight at midnight. 

• What are your OBT adoption rates for clients our size and travel mix, and what negotiated rates and service standards come as standard? 
• How is 24/7 support staffed, and what are your response-time SLAs? (For reference, Corporate Traveler runs 24/7 service with an emergency line staffed around the clock, calls picked up within five rings, and requests actioned within four hours.) 
• Can you provide a full, itemized breakdown of fees and add-ons? 
• Who owns our travel data, and how is it secured against standards like PCI DSS and GDPR? 
• Who is on our named account and service team day to day? (With Corporate Traveler, you'll always have a dedicated Travel Manager and team assigned to your account, not a rotating call center.) 
• What does your implementation timeline and training look like? 
• How do you measure and report traveler satisfaction? 
• Can you share a recent example of managing a major disruption? 

What should you include in a TMC RFP? 

A TMC RFP should cover your company profile, travel data, service expectations, technology requirements, pricing, risk needs, sustainability goals, and a scoring matrix. 

Quick terminology check before you draft anything: an RFI (Request for Information) is for shortlisting, an RFP (Request for Proposal) is the full document for comparing providers, and an RFQ (Request for Quotation) is narrowly about pricing. Most TMC selections use an RFI to shortlist, then a proper RFP to decide. 

Resist the temptation to recycle a generic 30-page procurement template, the kind that makes bidders' eyes glaze over by page three. Tailor your questions to your actual program, and share the same baseline travel data with every bidder so the comparison stays fair, one of the simplest travel management procurement strategies for SMEs looking to punch above their weight at the negotiating table. 

Here's what a solid TMC RFP template should include: 

 If you want this TMC RFP template laid out as a ready-to-copy document structure, use this order: 

1. Introduction and objectives 
2. Company and travel program profile 
3. Scope of services required 
4. Technology and integration requirements 
5. Service, support, and account management 
6. Pricing and commercial terms 
7. Risk management and duty of care 
8. Sustainability and reporting 
9. Implementation and transition plan 
10. Evaluation criteria and weighted scorecard 

How much does a TMC cost? 

TMC costs vary by service level, travel volume, and pricing model, so focus on total value rather than the headline fee. 

Three fee models cover most of the market: 

Here's the bit that's easy to miss when you're staring at a fee schedule: a good dedicated agent's experience is worth far more than their line item on the invoice. An agent who proactively rebooks around a storm system, picks smarter routes and layovers, and knows which hotel locations actually save your travelers time, is the difference between a minor delay and a full-blown emergency that costs your business real money. A transparent TMC itemizes every charge and ties its pricing to savings you can measure, so the program pays for itself over time rather than just adding another line to your overhead costs. 

The fee is typically more than offset by what you save, plus the staff hours your travel bookers no longer spend hunting across the open web. For our customers in 2025, every $1 spent on managed travel returned $1.51 in savings, a ratio that's hard to beat with a spreadsheet and a prayer. For SMEs, Corporate Traveler's dedicated Travel Managers and Melon booking platform are built specifically to deliver these results without enterprise-level complexity.