How were the most important rules in your company's travel policy created?

Was the $350 per night hotel cap for London based on a careful analysis of recent market rates? Or did someone just pick a number that sounded about right a few years ago? Was the ban on a specific airline the result of a data-driven cost-benefit analysis, or was it because one executive had a single bad experience?

For too many companies, the travel policy is a document built on a foundation of guesswork, outdated assumptions, and one-off complaints. It’s based on feelings, not facts.

A policy built on guesswork is almost guaranteed to be wrong. It creates friction for your travelers, encourages non-compliance, and fails to support what your business actually needs. The key to breaking this cycle is simple: stop guessing and start using your own travel data as your guide.

The Problem with a "Gut-Feel" Policy

When your policy isn't backed by data, you expose your company to hidden risks and inefficiencies.

• •
  You solve the wrong problems: You might spend a month debating a stricter meal policy because of one person’s expensive dinner, while completely ignoring the fact that your biggest financial drain is the cost of last-minute flight bookings.
• •
  You can't defend your decisions: When an employee complains that a budget is unfair, your only response is "because that's the rule." You can't confidently reply, "Our data shows that 90% of our travelers to that city are able to book well within this budget."
• •
  You miss huge opportunities: Your gut instinct won't tell you that you could save 15% on your annual hotel spend by making Marriott a preferred partner, but a simple data report will.

How to Let Your Data Write Your Policy

You don’t need to be a data scientist to do this. You just need access to a clear travel analytics dashboard and the willingness to ask a few simple questions.

1. Ask Your Data: "Where is the policy actually failing?"

Your compliance data is a treasure map that points directly to your policy's weakest spots.

Look at: Your report on "Out-of-Policy Bookings" or "Most Frequent Exception Requests."

The Insight: If you see that 80% of your travelers to New York are booking hotels over the policy cap, the problem isn't your employees, it's your policy. The data gives you undeniable proof that the rule is unrealistic and needs to be adjusted.

2. Ask Your Data: "Where can we make the biggest impact?"

Your policy should focus on the areas that matter most. Your spending data will show you what those are.

Look at: Your "Spend by Category" or "Spend by Vendor" dashboards.

The Insight: You might discover that you spend more on last-minute booking fees than you do on business-class upgrades. The data tells you to create a policy that strongly encourages a 14-day advance booking window. This is a simple, data-backed rule that can save you a fortune without hurting your travelers' comfort.

3. Ask Your Data: "How is our policy affecting our people?"

Your data can also provide clues about traveler well-being and frustration.

Look at: Trends in booking behavior.

The Insight: Does your data show that a specific team is consistently booking red-eye flights that arrive just hours before a meeting? This is a factual starting point for a conversation with that team's manager about the risk of burnout. Did non-compliance rates spike right after you introduced a new, more restrictive rule? The data is telling you the new rule isn't working in the real world.

The Payoff: A Smarter, Defensible Policy

When you shift from guesswork to data-driven governance, everything changes. Your policy becomes:

• •
  Objective and Fair: Rules are based on evidence, which increases employee trust and buy-in.
• •
  Strategically Sound: Your efforts are focused on the changes that will have the most significant positive impact.
• •
  Defensible: When you make a change, whether you're increasing a budget or tightening a rule, you can support it with clear facts and figures.

Stop letting anecdotes and old habits dictate your travel program. The data you need to build a smarter, more effective policy is already at your fingertips. It’s time to use it.