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Nearly one-third of companies using a corporate online booking tool (OBT) report that 20% or more of travel spend is booked outside the approved platform, with 53% citing missing content as the main driver, reveals new research from Trip.Biz, the business travel brand of Trip.com Group.
The findings, revealed in Trip.Biz’s newly released whitepaper, The Invisible Spend in Business Travel, highlight that many organisations assume spend is under control as long as they have a managed travel programme. The study however shows that gaps in content and cross-regional travel mean a significant portion of travel occurs outside the programme, resulting in "invisible spend".
The research shows that leakage is often a content issue, not a behavioural one. Employees are not intentionally avoiding compliance, they simply cannot find what they need within the managed workflow. The result is an increasing pool of “invisible spend” – the gap between the travel spend managed through approved channels and the total travel spend a company incurs, reducing compliance, weakening duty of care and increasing reconciliation burdens for travel and finance teams.
According to the research, 93% of travel managers are confident that their corporate booking platforms offer complete and competitive content. Yet 69% report that travellers frequently find flights or hotels on consumer websites that are unavailable within approved corporate channels. Meanwhile, only 33% say non-GDS content is fully integrated into their primary booking workflow.
Together, the research highlights a fundamental trust gap: while most travel managers believe their programmes provide comprehensive access to travel options, travellers are still regularly finding options elsewhere, eroding confidence in approved booking channels. The findings also suggest that traditional approaches to reducing leakage – including policy controls, approvals and incentives – are often addressing the problem too late.
“Many organisations view leakage as a behaviour issue, but our research shows it often starts as a content issue,” said Tao Song, CEO of Trip.Biz. “Travellers go where the options are. If employees believe the best fares, routes or travel choices exist elsewhere, they will naturally look outside the programme. The challenge for travel managers today is not simply enforcing compliance, but earning the booking by providing the content travellers expect to find.”
The whitepaper highlights that solving invisible spend requires more than improving user experience or tightening policy controls. Instead, organisations need broader access to integrated content sources, including NDC, low-cost carriers, rail providers, direct supplier connections and local travel inventory.
The report also identifies AI as a key enabler of future programme adoption. From conversational booking assistants and policy guidance to intelligent itinerary planning and spend optimisation, AI can help travellers find compliant options faster and reduce the need to book elsewhere.
Looking ahead, Trip.Biz expects agentic AI to play an increasingly important role in end-to-end travel management, helping organisations manage complexity, optimise supplier performance, automate routine decisions and generate deeper strategic insights from travel data.
The research also notes that ultimately, the effectiveness of AI depends on the completeness of the underlying travel data. Organisations that make invisible spend visible will be best positioned to unlock its full potential.
The full whitepaper: The Invisible Spend in Business Travel can be downloaded here: https://www.trip.biz/reports/whitepaper-business-travel-2026
