Travel Program Maturity Model
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Stage 1
Early
Staffing
Travel Policies
Method of Booking
Method of Payment
Travel Data
Suppliers
Traveler Safety
Stage 3
Average
Stage 5
Mature
Staffing
Stage 1
Key Players
Knowledge of
Travel
Main Focus
Stage 3
Part-time clerks Full-time
or admins
Travel
Manager
Very limited,
Good, but
very tasklimited to local
oriented
conditions
Arranging travel Managing
travel policies
and suppliers
Stage 5
Regional and
Global Travel
Councils
Strong, well
aware of
global travel
issues
Strategic
management
of travel
category
Travel Policies
Stage 1
Stage 3
Stage 5
Quality of
Travel Allowed
Vague or not
specified
Fairly clear
Very clear and
fair
Methods of
Booking and
Payment
Vague or not
specified
Fairly clear
and mostly
practical
Very clear and
practical
Support of
Preferred
Suppliers
Not a focus
“Should” or
“Expected”
“Must” with
few exceptions
Enforcement
Light or
inconsistent
Moderate,
mostly
consistent
Strong, very
consistent
Method of Booking
Stage 1
Stage 3
Stage 5
Main Resource
Local travel
agents
Automation
None
Global
Consolidated
Travel Agency
Self-booking
available for
most trips
Agent Support
Varies greatly
Countryspecific Travel
Agency
Self-booking
tools with
limited
content
Local, fairly
consistent
Regional call
centers, high
standards
Method of Payment
Stage 1
Stage 3
Stage 5
Administration Mostly manual
and Control
Mix of manual
and
automated
processes
Quality of
Travel Data
Poor, very hard
to consolidate
Varies a lot by
country
Regional or
global admin
via issuing
bank’s
platform
Excellent, easy
to consolidate
Reconciliation
None
Reconciliation Highly
takes time
automated
Travel Data
Stage 1
Stage 3
Stage 5
Airlines
Low-value
manual reports
Basic segment
data, no
booking class,
uses city codes
Hotels
Top hotels per
expense reports
TMC and carddriven data
TMCs
Low-value
manual reports
Monthly
operational
metrics
Highly
automated,
detailed,
scrubbed and
summarized
Booked, billed
and expensed
with room
night detail
Real-time KPIs
and dashboards
Suppliers
Stage 1
Preferred
Suppliers
Buyer’s
Reputation
Selection
Process
Very few, not
well identified
Stage 3
Stage 5
Good
Excellent
coverage, well coverage,
identified
supported at
POS
Suppliers do not Core suppliers Most suppliers
know, or do not trust the local trust the
trust
buyer
Regional
program
Ad Hoc, unclear, Standard RFP Global or
maybe unfair
from local or
regional RFP
regional buyer
Traveler Safety
Stage 1
Stage 3
Stage 5
Where Are My
Travelers?
Who knows?
Itinerarybased guess
Mobile phonebased GPS
Destination
Risks
Not monitored
Country-based Actively
pre-trip advice monitored
Emergency
Services
Ad Hoc
“Who to call
for what
issue” list
Contingency
planning and
training, safety
audits