Corporate Group Travel: Why Flying 20 Colleagues to One Event Is a Mess

Corporate group travel is a complex, high-stakes operation. A single trip can involve multiple itineraries, diverse traveler preferences, and tight budget constraints. Yet much of the process remains poorly automated. Planners still rely heavily on emails, phone calls, and spreadsheets to coordinate bookings, changes, and approvals, which slows the workflow and increases the risk of errors for both organizers and travelers.

AltexSoft encountered this challenge at the TMC level while working with our clients. This prompted us to take a closer look at the corporate group travel ecosystem: the main bottlenecks, the technologies already in place to address them, and how the landscape may evolve in the coming years.

What is group travel: When 10 is not enough

Group travel is the practice of multiple people journeying together to a shared destination or following a structured itinerary. Such trips are common in both corporate and leisure travel, so let’s look at both before focusing on business trips entirely.

Examples of corporate group travel include:

• sales kickoffs,
• conferences and summits,
• candidate interview programs (large firms fly multiple candidates for final interview rounds),
• new hire onboarding programs (when сompanies fly cohorts of new employees to headquarters for training), and
• incentive trips (top performers earn travel to a luxury destination).

In corporate travel, planning and organizing group trips are usually handled by travel management companies (TMCs) or travel managers inside organizations.

In the leisure segment, these responsibilities are handled by tour operators, travel agencies, event management companies, and similar service providers. Typical use cases in leisure travel include:

•  group tours (usually 15-50 travelers on a multi-city itinerary),
• destination weddings,
• study tours organized by universities and high schools,
• cruise and charter groups,
• professional or amateur teams traveling to tournaments, etc.

However, the McCallister family's trip to Paris in Home Alone doesn’t fit the definition of group travel, although they were supposed to be 15. To be classified as "group travel", a trip should meet these criteria:

Economies of scale. By booking rooms or seats for a group, organizers can secure lower group rates that wouldn't be available to an individual.

Coordinated management. Most group travel involves a third-party organizer who handles payments, logistics, safety, and scheduling.

Shared experience. Even if there is "free time" built in, not only transport and accommodation, but also core activities are experienced collectively.

What about the minimum number of travelers? Navan, for example, defines “team travel” as a trip for ten or more people. But opinions differ.

“It depends on the supplier”, says Aash Shravah, VP of Client Success at Traxo, a centralized data platform for corporate travel managers. “An airline might say anything over 10 people is a group. A hotel might say anything over 20 rooms. The definition matters because that’s where negotiated benefits and amenities come into play. If there’s no better rate or added value, there’s no real reason to group people together. They could just book individually”.

In short, the main difference between individual and group travel is control: It’s handed over to a third party to deliver specific value to many people within a shared budget. This distinction affects the workflow and the level of automation.

“Modern technology over the past years has entered the individual travel experience,” says Alexis Rochat, Senior Director of Product at Spotnana. “We moved from calling an agent to booking through a variety of online tools. But group travel largely stuck. You typically need an agent to build an itinerary manually, email suppliers, and track everything in spreadsheets.”

Operating via spreadsheets and endless email chains creates a "black box" of data that fuels compliance risks and reimbursement delays.

Corporate group travel process: Why OBTs don't work

In corporate travel, the primary booking interface is an online booking tool (OBT), optimized for individual business travelers rather than groups.  Employees search for and book flights and hotels within preconfigured budget limits, preferred suppliers, and corporate travel policies. Because these parameters already reflect company guidelines, most bookings can be approved automatically.

But for group bookings, OBTs are far less practical. In a recent travel survey, 80 percent of travel buyers said their meetings and event travel programs are either completely siloed or only partially integrated with OBTs.

Let’s break down the process to understand why.

Pre-booking activities

In case the company wants to send 20 people to a conference, the process starts long before booking. After a responsible person or team within the corporation defines the need (number of travelers, destination, timing, and a preliminary budget), it’s necessary to:

• make a list of participants and collect information from them (personal data; departure airport—since people may be located in different cities and countries; food preferences, etc.);
• establish a budget for the entire group and a travel policy that reflects both individual allowances and shared travel rules (for example, sales managers are capped at $250/night hotel, executives at $500, and no one gets a rental car—everyone must use the shuttle); and
• contact suppliers (airlines, hotels, car rentals, rail, etc.) by sending them a request for proposal (RFP) to determine whether they are ready to provide a certain number of seats/rooms, and discuss group discounts.

OBT doesn’t help with these tasks. For example, group rates are usually negotiated on a case-by-case basis with the supplier. OBT also can’t handle various travel policies in a single flow. On the other hand, the blanket rules established for a particular event struggle to account for individual exceptions or complex edge cases.

“Let's say I have an executive and an analyst traveling together for an off-site. Which policy rule applies to them? How do I book for them if they fly from different airports? Do I allow one of them to stay longer at the destination airport than the other one? There are many more rules and oversight that you require in the group travel context,” comments Alexis Rochat.

Some people may prefer to arrive earlier or later than others. As bleisure (combining business travel with leisure activities) is a growing trend, participants often want to spend the weekend at the event location. So, there should be a human in the loop to account for these individual requests.

When everything is agreed, it’s time to book.

Air group booking

Air travel is frequently booked individually, even when negotiated as a group. One reason is rooted in corporate policy. Many organizations prohibit more than 3-5 senior executives and a certain percentage of employees from traveling on the same flight for safety reasons. As a result, the “group” often dissolves into multiple individual bookings linked only by a spreadsheet.

But imagine the Los Angeles Lakers traveling for an NBA road game, or a multinational company flying an entire regional sales force to a global annual sales conference. They need to fly together, and problems on the carrier’s side come up here.

Technical constraints. Most OBTs connect to airline inventory through a global distribution system (GDS). In the traditional GDS booking flow, PSSs are configured to limit the maximum number of seats per booking class to 9 that can be displayed and reserved in a single transaction. To request more, agents must use a special input (e.g., NG 35 for a 35-passenger group), which triggers the group booking workflow. It has some additional functions compared to individual bookings (e.g., adding/removing names from the list is easier, plus there are payment/deposit reminders). The flow is quite cumbersome, though. “It is very clunky to start splitting the passengers, and you need to keep track of them so that they belong together”, comments Ann Cederhall, airline retailing expert and IATA external instructor.

Some low-cost carriers (LCCs), which focus on direct distribution and use PSSs with no cap at 9 passengers, let you book for tens of passengers within a usual workflow. However, there’s a nuance.

“Carriers like EasyJet and Ryanair allow you to book more than nine seats, say 15 seats or more, but for the same price as individuals. The purpose of group booking is to get something in return — a discount or special terms, like extended ticketing deadlines, flexible name policies, bundled ancillaries”, explains Ann.

Though the process of negotiating special rates and completing the subsequent steps remains largely manual.

Legacy workflow. The workflow for group booking was created decades ago — here’s how it unfolds. Travel managers typically submit a request to an airline, which prices the group separately. 

After that, a TMC or OTA confirms part of the group and gradually adds passengers as names become available. Currently, this process requires the travel seller to send an email with a spreadsheet to add or remove names. The airline’s group desk team updates the names and makes the changes in the PNR manually. Then tickets are issued, and ancillaries added (if needed). The whole process can take 10 —18 days.

 Misaligned commercial goals. Airlines don’t have a big appetite for group bookings and approach these deals with caution, prioritizing inventory control over bulk volume.

“Blocking large seat allotments can disrupt dynamic pricing models. If you want to book 100 seats from New York to London that can be sold anyway, why will the carrier give you a discount? Unless a group does a full aircraft buyout — which is a totally different and much more expensive story – airlines have limited incentive to overhaul legacy workflows”, says Aash Shravah.

Ann Cederhall believes it’s a mistake from the aviation industry side: “Airlines should be interested in automating group bookings. There’s an estimated 3–5 percent increase in profitability if done properly”. And these numbers translate into significant revenue at scale.

Hotel and transfers booking

Unlike flight bookings, GDSs are largely excluded from non-air group arrangements. “Most of the activity related to the group is done outside the GDS. I would say almost 90 percent, if not more”, says Aash. “Hotels, ground transfers, meals and beverages, and events are all booked outside. GDSs' focus has always been on transient individuals, so they have very little knowledge of group bookings.”

Hotels view groups as a multifaceted revenue stream because bookings often include not only rooms but also dining, meeting space, and events — part of the broader MICE tourism (meetings, incentives, conferences, and exhibitions). As a result, the process is more structured and predictable than airline group bookings.

The organizer typically sends a rooming list (guest list) to the hotel several weeks before arrival — often 14 to 30 days in advance, depending on the group contract. The hotel creates a room block, reserving a certain number of rooms for the group in the property management system (PMS) and temporarily removing them from general availability in public distribution channels.

Payment arrangements also differ for group bookings. While individual travelers often pay by card at checkout, group reservations are usually settled through invoices and bank transfers. Credit cards are less convenient for group payments for two main reasons:

• card limits and authorization constraints may make it difficult to cover large group expenses;  and
• individual payments by each traveler complicate reconciliation, requiring the hotel and organizer to match multiple charges with the group contract.

“Often invoice payments and bank-to-bank ACH transfers are used between the company and the hotel, which reduces reconciliation needs—provided details are managed properly”, explains Aash Shravah.

When booking shuttle transfers to the hotel, travel managers also work directly with the transport provider or with a local destination management company (DMC). They provide a quote based on your specific itinerary. Instead of buying a per-person ticket, you pay for the entire vehicle, usually in advance.

Now that we understand how all of this works—and that it usually involves a lot of time and paperwork—let’s take a look at the tools available to help automate group travel management.

How technology is trying to fix group travel

Group travel software solutions are fragmented across multiple specialized platforms. Different tools handle airline group reservations, hotel room blocks, event logistics, or corporate travel policies.

Solutions for group air booking

The tools airlines could use to simplify group bookings for organizations already exist, though not many. Here are several examples.

Negotiated Space by Amadeus, one of the Big Three GDSs, allows airlines to allocate a predefined number of seats from their inventory to specific leisure travel agencies or TMCs under negotiated agreements. This ensures those partners have guaranteed access to a reserved seat allotment when making bookings.

For airlines, the feature provides greater control over contracted inventory: they can adjust, release, or recall allocated seats as needed and monitor bookings made by specific agencies or TMCs.

Group Sales Optimizer (GSO) by PROS, a cloud-based SaaS provider specializing in revenue management and dynamic pricing, enables carriers to:

• receive structured group requests digitally instead of handling them via email,
• automate approval workflows and conditional pricing,
• define deposit rules and payment deadlines,
• trigger reminders and status updates, and
• manage name reporting and passenger substitutions more flexibly.

PROS GSO is GDS-agnostic. Airlines can expose its functionality via web interfaces or partner integrations, allowing TMCs, travel agencies, and even non-agency clients (such as sports federations or event organizers) to submit and manage group requests directly. Among GSO clients are Japan Airlines and Turkish Airlines.

As you can see, technologies for reducing friction in air reservations are available. However, such tools must first be integrated by airlines so that TMCs and corporations can search and book their content. The ball is on the airlines’ court.

Specialized tools for group hotel booking

These platforms help organizations arrange accommodation for multiple travelers through a centralized workflow. Users can submit trip requirements, search or receive hotel offers, compare options, and manage guest lists and room assignments. Many tools also automate hotel outreach, track reservations, and consolidate billing.

Depending on the platform, the process may be fully automated or supported by travel managers.

Groups360 is a successful startup backed by four of the top global hotel brands – Accor, Hilton, IHG, and Marriott. The company also works with Hyatt and other partners. Its existence reflects how seriously the hospitality industry views corporate group travel.

Its GroupSync tool enables end-to-end online group booking, allowing planners to search hotels, view real-time rates and availability, and instantly reserve room blocks, meeting space, and related services in a single transaction. More complex events, however, still rely on the traditional RFP negotiation process.

Engine, a modern all-in-one business travel platform, evolved from its original focus on hotel bookings (as Hotel Engine) into a broader corporate travel solution, though hotels remain its main strength. For most trips, companies can search and book properties directly through the platform’s negotiated hotel inventory.

For bookings of eight or more rooms, Engine states that it can secure competitive, discounted rates that are typically unavailable through individual bookings. The workflow in this scenario becomes more hands-on: users submit trip details, and an Engine travel manager follows up with tailored hotel options and pricing. Once a property is selected, the platform supports group coordination tasks such as room assignments, traveler lists, reservation tracking, consolidated invoicing, reporting, and analytics.

Groupbook, a smaller hotel block management platform, primarily serves sports teams, tournaments, and event organizers. It automates hotel outreach for group block pricing and presents the offers in a single interface, allowing the organizer to approve a preferred option with a single click and share a booking link with travelers.

Participants then book their rooms directly through the link, while the platform tracks reservations against the room block. In many cases, the system also allows event organizers to earn commissions or rebates from the bookings.

Event management platforms

Event management platforms play a key role in coordinating the logistical and administrative aspects of group travel for meetings and events.

Cvent is a leading enterprise-grade event management platform used worldwide for corporate meetings, conferences, and large group events. It supports end-to-end event planning, including registration, venue sourcing, room block management, onsite operations, and analytics.

The platform integrates with SAP Concur Travel, enabling companies to connect event registration with corporate travel booking. Through this integration, attendee data and travel details can be synchronized between the two systems, allowing participants to register for an event in Cvent and book their flights through Concur within a connected workflow.

Groupize is another major platform in this space, positioning itself as an AI-driven solution that connects travel, spend management, compliance, duty of care, and event logistics. One of its key strengths is its close integration with SAP Concur Travel and Expense, allowing companies to align meeting-related travel bookings with expense management and financial reporting.

Platforms like Groupize — as well as smaller event-management applications — also support the onsite event experience. “You can now have a web page for the meeting, automated badge printing, and apps that show your agenda and send reminders,” says Aash Shravah.

Perk (formerly TravelPerk) offers a dedicated Events & Groups solution for coordinating trips involving nine or more travelers. The platform allows organizers to create event pages and share booking links with attendees, aligning travel arrangements with company travel policies and traveler profiles.

Group booking requests are typically recommended at least three weeks in advance, although earlier planning is encouraged to secure the most competitive negotiated rates and ensure availability.

Navan previously promoted a dedicated tool called Team Travel for coordinating group trips. While the branding is no longer prominently featured on the platform, the company still highlights capabilities for planning group events and team travel while maintaining spend control, policy compliance, and visibility within the broader Navan travel and expense ecosystem.

Gather by AmTrav allows an organizer to define event dates, destinations, and travel policies for a group — including check-in and check-out windows, maximum nightly hotel rates, payment options, and preferred or recommended hotels if negotiated rates already exist.

The trip manager can then send booking links to attendees, allowing them to self-book flights, hotels, and other travel while staying within those predefined rules. The Gather tool enforces company travel policies in real time for the entire group.

So, again: where automation lags and what future holds?

To understand why corporate group travel hasn’t fully embraced automation, we broke down what group travel actually entails, how current workflows function, and where technology adds value by automating parts of the process. Let’s summarize where it still falls short – and whether these problems might be solved.

Group bookings lack end-to-end orchestration within OBTs

Problem. Current online booking tools are designed for standardized individual bookings, where corporate policies, budgets, and supplier preferences are preconfigured. This doesn’t work for group bookings.

Potential solution. Industry players have to treat individual and group bookings as part of the same system. Alexis Rochat from Spotnana argues that both should rely on the same policy engine, booking infrastructure, payment controls, and reporting — with an orchestration layer added specifically for group coordination. As he puts it, “the biggest gap in corporate group travel today is not booking flights or hotels, but orchestrating the entire program.”

Negotiated fares and rates require human intervention

Problem. Rates and fares for air, hotel, and transportation group bookings are manually negotiated because pricing depends on many variables (group size, seasonality, special requirements, and the perceived value of the client to the supplier).

Potential solution. Partial automation may be possible if suppliers adopt more structured pricing frameworks, share real-time inventory and demand data, and use AI models trained on historical negotiation outcomes to generate dynamic offers tailored to specific group profiles.

Air group booking relies on legacy infrastructure

Problem. The airline GDS-centric distribution ecosystem was built for small reservations, so group bookings are more complex than the individual workflows.

Potential solution. Industry efforts around New Distribution Capabilities (NDC) and Offer & Order management are gradually improving this situation.

Order Management Systems (OMS), like Retailaer's, allow you to automate group bookings and can easily integrate with any group booking tool. The advantage of using an OMS is that you can pull all reservations into a single overview, regardless of whether PNRs are split.  

The NDC schema supports group bookings: travel resellers can request the creation of a single record for multiple passengers traveling under one commercial name, while the airline retains the ability to manage and service that booking throughout its lifecycle.

However, each carrier implements its own group rules — such as minimum and maximum passenger numbers, the information required at the time of booking creation, and payment conditions. In practice, the usage and structure of group bookings are still defined through bilateral agreements between airlines and distributors, which limits the degree of automation currently possible.

So far, only three industry players — Oman Air, Hitit Computer Services, and IBS Software (the latter two being airline technology providers) — have certified the Order Management for Groups NDC capability with IATA.

If the industry eventually transitions to ONE Order and moves away from the traditional PNR structure, these capabilities could expand further. According to Ann Cederhall, “ONE Order is a long way off, but we can assume it will improve both group and individual reservations as we phase out tickets and consolidate all information in one place”.