#580 The Opportunities and Risks of Travel Policies | Article by Niels Brabandt

The Night That Decides Everything: What Good Travel Policies Really Protect

Ask someone to imagine a colleague being sent on a business trip, and the room splits instantly. Some will say it is simply part of the job. Others will immediately think of booking systems, approval forms, the question of whether a hotel falls inside or outside the policy, rooms that are no longer available, and an hour and a half of commuting in each direction. That split happens for a reason, and it is worth examining properly, especially now, in the middle of trade fair season, when thousands of employees across Europe are being asked to travel for the same events under wildly different conditions.

Why Travel Policies Exist At All

This episode was recorded the week of Zukunft Personal, the largest HR decision-maker trade fair in the German-speaking world, where Niels Brabandt is once again opening all three days as keynote speaker for the HR Roundtable, Germany's largest network of HR professionals for HR professionals. Travel, in other words, is happening regardless. The real question is how, and under what conditions. Anyone arguing that organisations should simply return to letting everyone book whatever they like is ignoring exactly why that freedom was withdrawn in the first place. There were good reasons: informal networks, inflated bills, bookings that served personal comfort rather than the organisation's interest. A travel policy is not a vote of no confidence in employees. It is a reasonable response to real history.

Categories, Not Blanket Rules

Every sound travel policy recognises categories, and for good reason. An executive who travels fifty, a hundred, or two hundred days a year carries a fundamentally different load than a colleague who spends one night away every other month. Employees who complain that the board gets suites while everyone else is locked into the cheapest possible train ticket have a legitimate point when that comparison is genuinely unfair, but the comparison itself is frequently a false one, since the board, in most organisations today, actually travels less often to any single fixed location and rarely occupies anything resembling a presidential suite. What does exist are categories based on frequency, on the financial exposure a role carries, and on the nature of the event itself. Ignoring those categories in either direction, forcing frequent travellers onto the cheapest possible arrangement or pretending seniority alone justifies any expense, produces the same result: a policy nobody trusts.

The Myth That Any Bed Equals Rest

The single most expensive assumption in corporate travel planning is that recovery happens automatically the moment someone lies down. Move employees from Cologne to Düsseldorf or Frankfurt during a major expo purely because rooms are cheaper there, and the saving is only on paper. Anyone commuting an hour and a half each way will not be joining the client dinner that evening, will not be walking the city with the very people the trip was meant to build a relationship with. They will simply go back to their hotel, report internally that everything went well, and quietly have withdrawn from the actual purpose of the trip because they had nothing left to give it. That is entirely human, and it is also expensive, because the client relationship the trip was supposed to strengthen is exactly what gets lost.

Context Beats a Spreadsheet

A travel policy has to reflect the real cost of a specific city at a specific moment, not a comfortable average. A nightly rate that is reasonable in a normal week in Cologne is not reasonable during its largest trade fair, and a rate that works in a smaller city does not translate to London or New York. Niels Brabandt's own organisation uses a baseline of one hundred and fifty euros, pounds, or Swiss francs per night, with or without breakfast, left to the traveller's own judgement. During Zukunft Personal, that ceiling is deliberately lifted, and he personally pays more than three hundred euros a night that week, because proximity to the venue determines whether an early start and a late finish are survivable. The public sector offers a cautionary parallel: organisations that need cybersecurity specialists to travel across the country, yet trigger a full debate over an eighty euro nightly rate, will simply lose the willingness to travel that their own security strategy depends on. Compliance departments are essential and should not be dismantled, but compliance can never become the excuse leaders use to avoid exercising judgement about context.

The Cost of Getting It Wrong Twice

When a policy is unreasonable, the response is rarely open confrontation. It is quieter and more expensive. Employees who already know they will be booked into a cheap, distant hotel for an expo sometimes decide in advance that they will leave a day early and call in sick the next, a small, private act of retaliation for a decision that felt disrespectful. Others simply stop volunteering to travel at all, and Niels Brabandt notes with some surprise that fewer and fewer people in his own industry now want business travel, even as leisure travel among younger professionals keeps rising. None of this shows up as a line item, yet the true cost of an unreasonable policy routinely runs to two, three, or four times whatever was saved on the room rate, once lost client relationships, sick days, and quiet disengagement are counted.

Relatability: Every Travel Decision Sends a Message

The concept that ties all of this together is relatability: can the employee actually make sense of why a decision was made the way it was made? When an organisation is under genuine financial pressure and says so plainly, most employees accept a modest hotel near the station without resentment, because they understand the reasoning and want to protect their own jobs. When the same organisation is clearly performing well and still books people into a two-star airport hotel reachable only by regional train, the mood shifts immediately: employees conclude the decision is purely about maximising profit that will never reach them. The same damage occurs when leaders send their teams second class with a fixed ticket while travelling by chauffeur themselves. That gap is not negotiable for employees, and it socially delegitimises the leader responsible for it, regardless of how well everything else in the organisation is communicated.

What Leaders Should Do Now

Building a travel policy should start with reality, not a spreadsheet: what event is actually happening, what does it demand physically and mentally, and what do rooms genuinely cost in that location this week. Categories are necessary and legitimate, provided they are transparent and explainable. And every individual decision deserves one honest question: what message does this send to the people who have to live with it? A leader who genuinely wants to minimise travel is entitled to say so openly, rather than disguising that choice behind deliberately poor hotel arrangements. A leader who wants people to travel willingly needs to ensure that, whatever the situation, employees can look at the decision and understand exactly why it was made that way.

Niels Brabandt

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More on this topic in this week's videocast and podcast with Niels Brabandt: Videocast / Apple Podcasts / Spotify

For the videocast's and podcast's transcript, read below this article.

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Website: www.NB-Networks.biz

Podcast and Videocast Transcript

Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc

Let's go on business travel. What are your thoughts now? And probably now the audience is split already. Some will say, "Yeah, why not? It's a good thing we can do business travel." And some might think, "Yeah, it's a bit much," but I think it's okay. Some might think, "Nah, it's a bit much." It's not okay. And some people say, "Absolutely not."

This whole compliance mess, this whole booking system, all of that is a nightmare. Everything is just run-down, cheap, cheap, cheap, and it's a nightmare from start to finish. And as soon as I want to go to some sort of trade fair or expo, always the hotels are too expensive. So either I live 2 hours away, have to commute every single day, or I have to apply for, "Oh, could you please relieve me from this travel policy?" And that takes forever. And until they say, "Yes, there's no room left," so it's all a nightmare. I'm not going to travel.

And that's exactly the reason why we have this session today. It's the future HR in Germany. That's the largest decision-maker trade fair/expo in my industry, and this starts by next week. I record this while I'm in London, and next week I'm going to be on the expo, where thankfully I am again all 3 days. I'm the opening keynote speaker for the largest decision-maker network. Thank you very much for booking me here again.

However, the whole point is that for weeks already we have arguments going on of people who should travel there because their companies tell them to go there, and some are very motivated, some are really hyped for the whole event, and others are on the exact other side of that spectrum. And the question is, what happened in between? How is it possible that this split happens for the same event, in the same industry, with pretty much companies who do, I don't want to say the same, but at least similar service towards the similar audience? And that's why we're going to talk about the opportunities and risks of travel policies today.

So when you talk about travel policies, what do you think of? And many will think of, "Well, back in the days it was all much easier. We should do it again as we did back in the days. Anyone just books their thing and then everything is going to be fine from there." Just be real. It is good that it's not. It is not the situation we had like back in the days.

Back in the days, anyone had their preferred hotel, anyone had their preferred venue, networks were prevalent, and you even booked against the interest of your own organization. Let's face it, this happened. We had lots of people traveling and pretty much getting drunk on corporate bills. That's not what corporate travel should be. And when you say, "Hey, I enjoy a drink," nothing bad with that. The question is always, and that is the first thing we have to determine here.

When you talk about people need to travel, the first aspect you need to take into consideration is what kind of event is happening there. I give you two examples. Example number one is someone says, "We have a really important client. You have to travel there, even if it's just for an hour." It's all about appreciation, to meet them in person, to show them we actually want to work with them, that they really see we want this. So please travel there. It's only for a day, one night, and then you travel back.

The other scenario is that someone says, "Look, we have this big trade fair/expo coming up next week in Cologne. You need to travel there. You have to arrive on Sunday, and you know how expo goes. It's 3 days, basically getting up at 5:00 a.m., going to bed at 1:00 a.m. if you're lucky because you know client events, and when they go through the city, go through the pubs. You, of course, join them, have a good relationship, build everything up, take everything from there. Of course you're going to do that. And basically, oh, oh, by the way, and that's something which happens to me this year. After the whole expo thing, on Thursday when it's over, you travel straight to Amsterdam and you work on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and not before Sunday 2:00 p.m. you have time off.

You see, both are business travel, but the events are remarkingly different. Remarkingly different. You really have to see that there are many different occasions that need to be served. It is not a one-size-fits-all. And of course, one aspect I have to address immediately because that was often questioned when people contacted me via email about this whole travel policy discussion. People say, "Oh, there is one rule for them and one rule for us." I am sitting in a standard room while our board is sitting in a suite. That is not fair.

Okay, here are the news. There are categories. And there are categories when you are, let's say, an engineer who every other month has to do one or two nights somewhere, while your board probably has to travel 100 days and more per year. And that, of course, is a different category of travel. So of course you should not have what we sometimes have, that you say, "Oh, well, you know, everyone has to travel by a standard train and you have to connect yourself to a certain train. No open return at all."

So you really have to stick to the cheapest of the cheapest while our board, and the board, by the way, travels less than you. They are in a way higher category. That, of course, is nonsensical and not fair, obviously. But accept that there are categories. There are categories who travel which often, how often, and there are categories who travel with which financial impact. And we have to see there is a different financial impact between the board, between the sales department, between the ops department, and between interns.

And I don't mean this in a hierarchical way, but there are different impacts on what you do. Job choices and the stress connected with it have an impact on how you can travel. And that is not unfair. That is simply reality. And please accept this reality. It's not unfair. It is simply the reality of having different jobs with different impacts. However, of course, this category cannot ignore that one aspect needs to happen. And often we have this that people say, "Yeah, well, you know, after work you should relax." Yes, but there's a different relaxation needed compared to what you do.

I'll give you a very simple example. I am now in London. I'm staying here at the London Novotel. It's west in the west of London. It's Hammersmith. Not a luxury hotel. It has four stars. Yeah, I give you that. But there's a conference here, and I just went to the same conference, so I stayed in the same conference hotel. That's why I'm here.

And you see that as soon as work is over, you need relaxation. However, there's a big myth, and the big myth is that people think that relaxation always happens no matter where you lay down. I give you a very simple example. What do you expect when people end the day during an expo, during a trade fair? So what do I expect? What will I do?

In Cologne, of course, after that, I'm going to meet clients. I'm going to go for dinners. And of course, often after the dinners, they say, "Should we go to the pub? Should we go for one drink or whatever else?" And of course, you do that as well. And I have a central hotel in Cologne, which is expensive. I give you that. However, it is expensive because I need to be close to the place where I am going to stay. I need to be close to have a trip back which is reasonable.

And I have companies, and I'm not, it's absurd. It's nothing I can see how this anyone with a clear train of thought would not do that. Some people, because of, and I accept that Cologne is expensive, but well-settled organizations tell their people to commute to Düsseldorf, to Leverkusen, to Frankfurt, so they travel an hour and a half each day. And then you want them to be motivated to do social activities with your clients. Here are the news. They will not do that.

What they will do is the expo every day ends at 7:00 p.m., sorry, at 5:00 p.m. They will have a dinner from 5:00 to 6:30, and then they will go back to their hotel. And then they will write, "Oh, yeah, we had such an amazing time." They will simply pretend that they did what you expect them to, but they won't. Because what you did sticks to one major problem. And the one major problem is, and we now have to get to the point of where it's the problem.

Many people think that when in theory you lay down somewhere, it's always going to be relaxation. Okay, look, let's just assume you want to go for vacation and say, "Oh, I want to have a beach holiday, and I just want to have a calm time." Okay, I can tell you really cheap beaches where you can sit and relax and do nothing. And then you will say, "Yeah, well, I mean, I need a bit of infrastructure, right? Bit of a nice place, nice hotel, nice food, nice dinners, nice lunches, nice breakfast, bit of nice walks, bit of a city around, maybe a bigger city commutable where I can go for a day or two, and then everything else is then a bit more kind."

Aha, here we go. So between theory and practice, theory, just give me a beach, practice, I need a lot more than a beach. And the theory of as soon as you lay down, you have relaxation is omnipresent in corporate business travel. We have people who are expected to travel from Frankfurt to Cologne every single day to then stay at a cheap two-star hotel. I give you that the hotel they chose there. It looks like three stars, but it's two. And they should stay there and commute every single day and then be motivated to the best expo/trade fair they ever did. Hint: they won't. They really will not.

So it is extremely important that when you look into a theory, you always have to tell people there are situations where travel policies need to be more flexible. And I give you an example. My organization has a travel policy. Most of the travel happen within Europe, and our policy is the hotel should cost 150 euros per night. In Britain, 150 pound. In Switzerland, 150 Swiss franc. If with or without breakfast, you can choose by yourself, but that's the rough guideline. Should be within 150 euros per night.

So what happens now when we have a trade fair? Here are the news. We tell people that we expect to choose reasonably priced hotels in context of that trade fair. And I know that this will be way more expensive. I'm paying more than 300 euros per night during the expo, but I need to go there in the early morning and need to leave pretty late. And I can't travel for an hour and a half because then I'm going to be dead next morning, and I need to be pretty reasonably awake to deliver a keynote.

The theory of any hotel will do is simply not the reality. I've seen way too many colleagues who learned it the hard way. And by the way, there's a reason why I with my clients also say I book my hotel. No one else is going to book my hotel because I know how it goes. You simply go to your travel system and say, "What is the cheapest? Where do we have bonus points? Where can we put that person just as quickly and as cheaply as possible?" Not happening with me.

So very important is there needs to be a guideline, but there also needs to be the moment where you simply say, "Look, you have to book something which is reasonable, and you have to justify in case we question you on it. However, when you have a trade fair/expo, pricing will hike, and that is simply normal." But what most organizations today say, they say, "Yeah, I know it's frustrating, but you know, compliance." And they drop the word compliance as if it is a reasoning in itself.

Compliance is very important, and we need brilliant compliance departments. Many things went wrong without them. It's good to have a compliance department. However, even compliance knows that there is something like a rule, and then there is context. If you do not understand that any rule needs context, you lack pretty basic leadership skills. Because as soon as people should travel for you, and by the way, when you think, "Oh, people want to see the world, they like to travel. We see young people traveling more." Yes, leisure, not business.

Less and less people want to travel for business. I am astonished by myself how people in my industry now say, "I'm not traveling anymore," or "I'm only traveling same day back and forth," or "I'm traveling the minimum amount to get back as quickly as possible." Very surprised. I'm the opposite. I like to see the world. I'm traveling a lot, and I love it. However, that's just personal choice.

Your compliance department needs a rule which applies to the vast majority of the year. As soon as there is a reasoning why the rule cannot apply, there needs to be a quick process around that. And the process cannot be someone has to write a page for justification, send you that page, it takes two weeks for you to get back to them, and then they're able to book a hotel where, of course, no night is available anymore. So they're now living two hours apart, and you say, "Oh, I'm very sorry. Couldn't do it any quicker. Didn't have the time."

So you need to have a quick process because when people waste money on corporate bills, it usually means they inside themselves, they quit mentally already. Because any person that likes to, that any person that likes the place where they work is not going to waste that person's money. So the compliance department is there to give a guideline. And then you need context with that guideline. Because if you do not give that context, the cost that you think you save, double, triple, quadruple, will get back to you with.

So I can tell you, when you give these people a cheaper sort of, I know already that there are people who are forced to go to the expo/trade fair, stay in Frankfurt, and they already decided that on Thursday they go home and they call in sick on Friday. They already decided that right now. That is their revenge for what you've done before. And then you're sitting there with all of your leads and you can do all of that by yourself. Good luck. I really wish you all the best.

So it's very important that the cost you think you save can easily be wasted double, triple, quadruple times, three, four, five times as much by simply having unreasonable travel policies in place. And it's quite astonishing that in times of AI, we still have that discussion. With AI, you can very quickly have a really good bot there that can give answers of, "Hey, it's an expo. You see the link to the expo after go to the expo. Can I please have a more expensive hotel?" And they will probably say yes or no when it's way too expensive.

So it's very important that when you implement this now, because the question now is, how do you implement all of this in your organization? So first step always is check the reality. And there is a different reality per position and per job. You cannot say one rule has to apply to them all. We have a rule, I give you an example, a rule of 150 euros per night. And as soon as people travel more than 30, 60, 90 nights per year, that rule changes because I know that people otherwise will not travel. And rightfully so.

For me, it's easier. No family, no children. Let me travel. I'm good with it. But it is a psychological burden when you don't see your family, when you don't see your partner, your spouse, your wife, your husband. It is a burden when you don't see your children. It's a burden when you suddenly get back from 30 days traveling and you think children are growing pretty quickly and I'm missing the vast majority of that and I only get videos on WhatsApp from that. That is a psychological burden.

So the reality really is that you need to see what people do. And then you can still have a rule, have a set of rules which still apply, but it's adjustable in a framework with context. Because as soon as you say go for the cheapest, one thing immediately gets lost, and that's relatability. I give you a very simple example. When you say to your people who love where they work, when they say, "We have great leaders, and I love the place where I work," and you say, "Look, the organization's not doing well. We need to save money. We don't want to lay people off, but we need to save on travel."

They will say, "I understand, and I will save with you," because they say it's relatable. But when they see you're making profit left, right, and center, and it ends up somewhere but not with them, the relatability is gone. And when you as a leader then say, "Oh, we need to save money," then you socially, what you do on a social level, you delegitimize yourself. And as we talked about before in former episodes, the social delegitimation.

When you lose your social legitimization, when you are not a socially legitimate leader anymore, but you're only following, people will not follow you. They will find a way around the process, and then they will do whatever they want. They will say that it is as you like, but they didn't. When the relatability is gone, that people say, "I can relate to what's happening here," then people will stay. By the way, the worst people stay the longest, and the best people leave quickest. And you are sitting there with the worst people who do whatever they want to do.

Relatability needs to be maintained because every single decision you make regarding corporate travel sends a message. And the message can be appreciative. The message can be, "We need to save some costs on our level." The message can be, "We love what you do for us. Thank you very much." But the message can also be, "We love what you do because we make a penny of it, and you know it's nothing in for you. Good luck from here."

And you want. As we have discussed here before, everything regarding the policies in your company will be way better than before. And I wish you all the best implementing this in your organization. And when you now say, "Hmm, I think I have like five to 67 questions regarding this," feel free to contact me anytime.

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