Business Travel Costs Are Up Through 2027. Here's What That Actually Means for Your Business.
Business travel costs are expected to remain high through 2027. We break down the specific impact on small businesses and actionable steps to manage your travel budget effectively.
You don't need us to tell you business travel costs are up this year. You've experienced it firsthand—every fare that came back higher than budgeted, every hotel bill that ran past what you'd planned to pay.
What's less obvious is what that should actually change about how you book, manage, and budget for travel if you're running a 15-person company instead of a 15,000-person one.
That's the real question worth digging into. Costs are up—the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) puts global business travel spend on pace for $1.71 trillion in 2026—but the headline number isn’t actually what matters. Business travel prices are forecast to remain elevated globally through the remainder of 2026 and into 2027; while some easing is expected next year, a return to 2025 levels is unlikely. As you consider how to manage travel through 2027, you should be thinking about what to do differently at your size, with your budget, and ultimately, what you hope to accomplish.
Key Takeaways
- Don't budget off last year's rates. Global airfare is averaging $756 in 2026 (up 4.7%), hotel rates $168 a night (up 3.7%), per GBTA—build the increase in now, not after you're over budget.
- 2027 brings relief, not a reset. Price growth may slow next year, but GBTA is explicit that costs won't fall back to 2025 levels. Plan accordingly.
- "Managed travel" is not a size-appropriate ask by default. The discipline that controls these costs—policy enforcement, visibility, negotiated rates—doesn't require a TMC contract and a dedicated travel team. It requires the right platform.
What's Actually Changing
Two forces are driving this, according to GBTA 2027 Global Business Travel Forecast: a 2026 energy-market shock (the largest oil supply disruption on record, following the Strait of Hormuz closure) and ongoing labor cost inflation across airlines, hotels, and ground transport.
- Airfare is the sharpest increase: global average $756, up 4.7%—economy fares up 8.7% to $536, premium fares up 9.5% to $4,488.
- Hotel rates are climbing more slowly: up 3.7% to $168 a night globally, with wide regional variation.
- This isn't a one-quarter blip: Aircraft delivery delays, new sustainable aviation fuel requirements, and labor shortages have made these permanent features of the market, not passing conditions. GBTA's own 2027 forecast shows pricing growth decelerating (airfare to 1.5%, hotel to 1.8%)—not reversing.
What This Means You Should Actually Do
Stop assuming 2027 fixes this. If your 2027 plan is "wait it out," you're planning around a reset that GBTA itself says isn't coming. Build the higher cost baseline into next year's budget now.
Audit what you're actually paying for control. If you're already working with a travel management company, check what that relationship is actually buying you at your volume—negotiated rates matter far more at enterprise scale than at 20 or 50 travelers a year. If you're not managing travel formally at all, rising per-trip costs are exactly when that starts to cost you the most.
Decide what "managed" should cost you. GBTA's own conclusion, facing this cost environment, is that well-managed travel programs are essential to controlling it. That's correct. But managed doesn't have to mean the enterprise version—a TMC contract, contracted minimums, dedicated staff. It means policy enforcement, visibility, and rate access, however you get there.
Get the outcomes without the overhead. The job GBTA is describing—automatic policy compliance, real-time spend visibility, supplier discipline—is something software can already do at the point of booking.
Why More Enforcement Isn't Closing the Compliance Gap
GBTA's research shows 65% of companies already require or encourage booking through a TMC or corporate tool; managed travel is already the default for most businesses, not a new ask. And yet, per Deloitte's 2025 Corporate Travel Study, overall booking compliance sits at just 42%, even as 60% of travel managers report actively increasing enforcement efforts to close that gap. More policy reminders and more manual review haven't moved people’s behavior.
That's the real case for outcome over org chart. Carrying the overhead of a managed program isn't proof that "managed" is working—the compliance data says it mostly isn't. The gap won't close with more oversight or documentation. Instead, it closes when policy is enforced automatically at the point of booking, preventing non-compliant spend before it happens.
Managed Travel: Enterprise Program vs. Businesstravel.com
Same outcomes. Different overhead.
What Managed Travel Should Actually Cost an SMB
Managed travel should not require a service contract or additional headcount.
A platform built for smaller travel programs can apply your policy automatically at the moment someone books, surface corporate rates through established partner networks, and give you the same spend visibility a Fortune 500 travel manager has—without a travel department to run it. That's not a smaller version of enterprise travel management. It's the same outcome, built for how an SMB actually operates.
This is where the exposure Deloitte flagged matters most: Smaller companies are more optimistic about growing travel budgets in 2026 than larger ones, right as per-trip costs climb industry-wide. That combination—more travel investment despite market volatility, less negotiating leverage, no enterprise cost structure to absorb the increase—is exactly why getting this right now matters more for an SMB than for the company 10 times its size.
Start your free trial with Businesstravel.com and see what policy-compliant, corporate-rate booking looks like without the TMC contract.
Frequently Asked Questions
Growth will slow, but prices won't return to 2025 levels. GBTA forecasts airfare growth decelerating to 1.5% and hotel rate growth to 1.8% in 2027—real relief, not a reversal.
Not necessarily. TMCs deliver policy enforcement, negotiated rates, and reporting—but typically through contracts and management fees sized for enterprise travel volume. Smaller companies can get the same core outcomes through booking platforms built specifically for smaller travel programs, without the contract.
Budget for the higher cost baseline now rather than waiting for 2027 relief, and evaluate whether current travel management—formal or not—is actually delivering policy control and rate access, or just adding cost without those outcomes.