Choosing a travel management company is no longer just about who can book the cheapest airfare or answer the phone quickly. Senior decision-makers are under pressure to reduce spend, manage supply disruption, and meet rising expectations around duty of care and sustainability. That means your questions need to move beyond fares and service levels into how a partner supports your wider business goals.
In New Zealand, there is another layer to consider. Local governance requirements, sector-specific compliance expectations, and public scrutiny all shape how corporate travel must be managed. Healthcare, energy, universities, government, and other regulated sectors need a partner that understands New Zealand’s context, while still providing consistent global support when people travel offshore.
Our aim here is to give you a structured set of executive-level questions you can use when you talk with any travel management company. These questions will help you test strategic fit, technology maturity, data capability, and alignment with your risk, sustainability, and financial frameworks.
A good first step is to understand who actually owns and governs the travel management company, and how that influences the advice you receive. Key questions to ask about ownership and governance include who owns the business and where decisions are made, how neutrality is ensured in airline, hotel, and technology recommendations, and whether the company is tied to any particular suppliers or global chains that may influence what it proposes.
In the New Zealand market, being 100% locally owned and operated means decision-making, accountability, and service delivery sit here, not offshore. It also means the partner is directly exposed to local economic, regulatory, and reputational risks, which often leads to stronger alignment with New Zealand organisations. When this is combined with the backing of ALTOUR’s global network, you gain local governance and accountability with consistent international support.
At the same time, your travellers need support in every time zone. That’s why you should also probe the global servicing model, specifically what global network is used for international servicing and how it is governed, how New Zealand-based account management is maintained while tapping into global support (for example, through a network like ALTOUR), and how traveller data is shared and protected across the global network.
Your evaluation should also test whether the partner can work in a way that reflects your sector realities and internal operating model. Ask how they will support the specific needs of healthcare, energy, pharmaceuticals, media, universities, professional services, or government, how they will work with your internal travel, finance, sustainability, and risk teams, and what examples they can share of aligning a travel programme with an organisation’s wider strategy and KPIs.
Interrogate technology, integration, and traveller experience
Your travel management company’s technology stack will shape how easy or hard it is for your people to do the right thing. You need clarity on both current platforms and future direction, and you should expect a practical view of how technology supports policy compliance, approvals, and day-to-day adoption.
Integration and automation are now central for finance, HR, and procurement teams, so you should test how well the travel programme will connect with the rest of your enterprise systems and processes.
Adoption only happens when the tools and service model work for different user groups, including travellers, executive assistants, and travel coordinators. Explore how online booking and Orbit Enterprise adoption is driven across different user groups, what training and support is provided for EAs and travel coordinators, how 24/7 traveller support is delivered and monitored for quality and response times, and what the approach is to after-hours disruption management.
When technology and service are aligned, you can reduce manual work, support policy compliance, and give your people a smoother experience from request to reconciliation.
Go deep on duty of care and risk management
Duty of care is now a board-level topic. You need to know exactly how a travel management company will help you meet legal and ethical obligations to your people, across both domestic and international travel.
Start with their overall duty of care framework by confirming how travellers are located and contacted during an incident, what tools are used to monitor disruptions and high-risk events, and how incidents are escalated to your internal teams and who makes decisions.
Then explore 24/7 response capability, including who answers the phone after hours and where they are based, what access they have to traveller profiles, approvals, and contact details, and how they coordinate with a global network such as ALTOUR while keeping New Zealand oversight.
Sector needs can materially change risk settings and operational requirements, so you should ask directly how the provider supports clinical trials travel or restricted destinations for healthcare or pharmaceuticals, how remote worksites, high-risk locations, or media deployments are managed for energy and media, and how government and AoG organisations are supported in aligning with internal approvals, security expectations, and reporting needs.
Finally, ask about governance and review cadence to understand how robust and reviewable the duty of care programme really is:
Demand strong data, reporting, and sustainability insights
Corporate travel is a significant line in most budgets. Without clear data, it is hard to control spend or support procurement decisions, so you need to understand not just what reporting exists, but how actionable it is for finance, procurement, and business leaders.
Start with basic reporting capability:
Data should support measurable decisions, not just visibility. Explore how the provider will help consolidate spend across the organisation to support supplier negotiations, whether travel data can be linked with finance and procurement systems for budgeting and accruals, and how programme reviews are supported with clear, actionable insights rather than raw data only.
Sustainability is another critical lens, and you should be clear on both methodology and how insights are used to drive change:
Test governance, implementation, and public sector readiness
Even the best travel programme will not deliver its potential without strong governance and disciplined implementation. You should test how onboarding, change management, and ongoing governance are handled in a way that fits your organisation’s complexity.
Ongoing account management is just as important, because value is often created through continuous improvement over time rather than at go-live alone.
Turning these questions into a structured evaluation framework can help you compare travel management companies clearly and fairly. By focusing on strategic fit, technology, duty of care, data capability, and governance, you improve the likelihood of building a long-term partnership that supports both your travellers and your organisation’s wider objectives.
Partner with Orbit World Travel New Zealand to streamline bookings, policy compliance and traveller safety through our dedicated travel management company services. We work alongside your team to tailor solutions that control costs while keeping your people supported on every trip. If you are ready to improve how your organisation manages travel, simply contact us and we will help you get started.
