What is a Travel Management Company (TMC) in Travel?

I know what you're thinking. TMC? Another acronym? Yep, but this one's a cinch. You know that T is for Travel -- of course! Let's dig into the rest of what a travel management company (TMC) is all about. (And for all the other gnarly acronyms you'll come across here's our abbreviated travel term glossary. We got you.) 

What is a Travel Management Company (TMC) in Travel?

Often there are multiple travelers within a company but not enough to justify hiring an employee or starting a corporate travel department (CTD) that focuses on booking travel. That's where a TMC comes in.

Travel management companies are essentially an outsourced travel agency hired to handle a company's travel programs. Just like a company might hire an outside accounting firm to do their taxes, companies hire TMCs to help with their travel needs.

Travel management companies handle all the aspects of the trip, including but not limited to: 

• Booking air, hotel, car, etc. 
• Confirming that company policies are followed during travel, including cost management 
• Tracking expenses and conforming to approved budgets for the travel 
• Offering live support during and after the trip (from availability by email, all the way to concierge-level handling) 

Here's the thing though. TMCs go (way) beyond booking and making changes to the reservation. They play a key role in being able to quickly and efficiently pull data and reports for the company that result in cost savings and ensuring the company's travelers are safe.

Here's a few examples of the advantages of working with a TMCs, beyond booking: 

• There's civil unrest in Bangladesh, where your company has a factory.
• How a TMC helps: The TMC has resources that alert them of any unrest and proactively reaches out to your team with a report of travelers in destination and other important information. They schedule a call with the company to discuss the situation and how to safely extract the team through a charter flight. 
• That darn volcano in Iceland blew its top again and now all flights to Europe are cancelled for the foreseeable future.
• How a TMC helps: The TMC runs a report of which travelers are affected by the situation and other important information for you. They use the GDS to quickly rebook your travelers on the earliest flights and extend their lodging, which is in high demand. During a meeting with the company, the TMC gives alternative options including bringing employees home via the Queen Mary or airports not affected by the ash.
• You currently allow employees to book the travel suppliers of their choosing. 
• How a TMC helps: TMCs run reports on which suppliers you're using and can look for cost savings. They discover that you're currently diluting your $5M air spend between 3 different carriers. On top of that, they find the employees are booking multiple car rental companies and hotels in the same destination. The TMC proposes a cost savings of $300k by tightening the travel policy so that your air/car/hotel spend is concentrated with one vendor  in each category whenever possible. This allows you to negotiate better pricing and/or amenitites.

In short, a TMC takes all the complexities of moving a bunch of people from one place to another and streamlines the whole deal for maximum cost savings and minimum headache for the organization and their employees. 

TMCs versus Travel Advisors

But I can hear the wheels turning in your head. This all sounds an awful lot like what a travel advisor does. What's the diff?

Honestly, it all comes down to scale and services offered. There are indeed corporate travel advisors who single-handedly and expertly wield their powers for the good of large businesses (such as the amazing Molly Williams who works with a small team of outstanding women to move bands around the world).

A TMC is typically a very large operation by contrast, which do employ travel advisors as a piece of the puzzle, but whose makeup additionally includes the following roles: 

• Travel policy experts (especially in the corporate arena, including legal expertise) 
• Client relationship managers (those dear client-facing souls that know how to make others feel comfortable)
• Data analysts (special place in our hearts -- you know how we love our data at HAR) 
• Risk management specialists 

As you can see, there is a range of services here that are especially pertinent to larger companies (though they may very well serve smaller ones). Have you ever wondered who the U.S. government calls when they have to get a number of *cough* federal employees out of a sticky geopolitical situation? Yep. They bring in the big guys, the TMCs! And think of the compliance required on that level. If you thought the travel world had a lot of acronyms, trying merging that with the government and their GSA, the FTR, not to mention the DOD with their DTS (Defense Travel System). Yikes! 

Good thing they have that long list of experts above. 

So, who are the "big guys"? Who are the bigger players in the TMC arena? 

Examples of TMCs [maybe infographic]

• American Express Global Business Travel (GBT)
• BCD Travel:
• Carlson Wagonlit Travel (CWT):
• Egencia: A part of the Expedia Group
• Travel Leaders Group
• Frosch: luxury and concierge-level services 
• Concur Travel: contracts with the Department of Defense 
• Navan (formerly Trip Actions) 
• CTM (Corporate Travel Management)
• Key Travel

May the Best TMC Win! 

After an organization has determined a travel need, they put out what's known as a Request for Proposals or (you guessed it) an RFP. This defines the requirements for travel management services.

TMCs are then invited to submit their own counter-proposals or bids on how they would meet those needs. This gives the organization the chance to shop around a bit and determine the best fit, including whether the TMC will have a good grasp on their company's culture and values.

Finally, the organization makes a choice, and they're off and running! 

Is there a Connection between TMCs and Host Agencies? 

We here at HAR obviously have a soft spot in our hearts for dogs, data, and astronomy -- but most importantly, host agencies. So why bring up TMCs? TMCs are a crucial part of the travel ecosystem.

Some host agencies are a part of larger organizations that have a TMC branch, allowing you to tap into some of the perks TMCs experience due to their high air/car/hotel bookings. 

In recent years, some of them have consolidated, as reported by Business Travel News in January 2024, but they still remain the significant players in the corporate travel arena. Their technologies have grown extremely precise, and this growth has especially enabled them to remain current and relevant to the fast-moving travel needs of larger organizations. 

Also, when it comes to you, our dear reader, perhaps your needs are shifting. Maybe you've been in leisure travel for a while and you'd like to break into the corporate arena -- a TMC might be the kind of culture and scope you'd like to be a part of! Check out our article Want to Become a Corporate Travel Agent? Here's How!

Wrapping Things Up

And that's it, folks! Hopefully you've walked away having a better idea of what a travel management company (TMC) is and what it isn't, who some of the big travel management companies are, and what they can do for companies that have large travel spends!