Business travel cost calculator

See what corporate travel is really costing you, and how much you could save with ACE travel management ATG UK.

Enter your annual travel spend and the time your team spends booking it, then sit back and let our calculator do the work.

You’ll get an estimate of your potential fare savings, corporate rewards and recovered admin time. All in less than a minute!

Calculate your savings
1 Your travel spend

What do you spend a year?

Rough annual figures are fine. Add what applies and leave the rest blank.

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Adjust savings rates by category

Defaults reflect ACE's case-study average of ~13% against published fares (up to 27% on some routes). Tune these to whatever ACE can stand behind.

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2 The hidden time cost

Who books it all today?

If a PA, EA or office manager arranges travel, that's salaried time that could go elsewhere. This is the cost most calculators ignore.

Across everyone who touches it: booking, changes, chasing, expenses.

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Salary ÷ ~1,800 working hours. A £40k PA ≈ £22/hr.

Adjust time & value assumptions

How much of that admin ACE removes, plus the extra value levers beyond headline fares. All editable.

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Total annual value with ACE
£0
money saved + time given back
💷 Money saved
£0
of your travel spend
⏱ Time given back
0 hrs
worth £0 in salaried time

Where the value comes from

Smarter fares & rates£0
Corporate rewards / kickbacks£0
Unused tickets & change fees£0
Favours & waivers£0
Reduced leakage / out-of-policy£0
Recovered team time£0
Total annual value£0

This is an estimate from your own numbers. Let an ACE specialist build the real picture from your actual travel data.

Book your free travel review No obligation · takes 30 minutes

Why an expert saves you more

🎟️

Fares you can't see

Access to local-market and negotiated rates that don't appear on public booking sites.

⏱️

Hours back

An expert does in minutes what takes your team hours: booking, changes, chasing and expenses.

🎁

Rewards captured

Corporate reward schemes, rebates and unused-ticket value that self-booking quietly leaves behind.

🛟

Cover when it matters

24/7 human support and duty-of-care evidence for when a flight's cancelled at 11pm.

The hidden cost

Most businesses judge their travel by the fares they can see. The bigger number is hidden: the savings you are not capturing, and the salaried hours your team loses booking, changing and chasing it all.

This calculator brings both into one figure so you can decide whether managed travel is worth it for your business.

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How the business travel cost calculator works

Three short steps, no sign-up, no obligation.

1. Enter your annual spend

Add rough yearly figures for flights, hotels, rail, car hire and other travel. Leave anything that does not apply blank.

2. Add the time it takes

Tell us how many hours a week your team spends booking and managing travel, and what that person’s time costs.

3. See your savings

Get an estimated annual saving broken down by source, from smarter fares to the admin time handed back to your team.

Calculate your savings

What a travel management company saves you

A travel management company (TMC) does more than book a trip.

It negotiates fares you can’t see on public booking sites, applies your travel policy automatically, recovers the value of unused tickets and change fees, and captures corporate rewards that self-booking quietly leaves behind.

Add the admin time it removes from your team, and the saving is far greater than the fare difference alone.

Our calculator works with six sources of value. The ranges below reflect the editable benchmarks used in the tool, drawn from our client work. Your own figures will vary by route, booking pattern and policy.



Source of value What it is Typical range
Smarter fares & rates Negotiated and local-market fares on flights, hotels, rail and car hire 6% to 15%
Corporate rewards Airline and hotel reward schemes and rebates ~1.5% of spend
Unused tickets & change fees Value recovered from cancelled or amended bookings ~1% of spend
Favours & waivers Negotiated fee waivers on behalf of managed clients ~0.5% of spend
Reduced leakage Less out-of-policy and off-channel booking ~2% of spend
Recovered team time Booking admin handed back to a PA, EA or office manager Up to 80% of hours

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Is a travel management company worth the cost?

The honest question is whether the fee is worth paying when someone in the office could book it themselves.

Most UK travel management companies charge a small transaction fee per booking or a flat management fee, rather than a percentage of your spend. Set against negotiated fares, recovered rewards and the salaried hours handed back, that fee is often a fraction of the saving.

Rule of thumb: if your team spends more than a couple of hours a week booking travel, the recovered time alone often covers the cost of managing it, before a single fare is improved.

Cutting-edge technology, backed by human expertise

Reviewed by the ACE Travel team, corporate travel specialists. ACE Travel Management ATG UK manages business travel for UK companies of all sizes, from single bookings to fully managed programmes, backed by 24/7 human support.

FAQs

What is a travel management company (TMC)?

A travel management company (TMC) books and manages business travel on a company’s behalf, including flights, hotels, rail, car hire and transfers. Alongside booking, a TMC negotiates fares, applies your travel policy, provides 24/7 support and reports on spend, so your team saves both money and time.

How much does a travel management company cost?

Most UK travel management companies charge a small transaction fee per booking or a management fee, rather than a percentage of your spend. In practice, the negotiated fares, corporate rewards and recovered admin time usually outweigh the fee. Use the calculator above to estimate your net saving before any fee.

How much can a TMC save on business travel?

For many of our clients, savings average around 13% against published fares and can even reach as high as 27% on some routes, before corporate rewards, unused-ticket recovery and reduced out-of-policy spend are added. The calculator lets you model this on your own figures.

Is a travel management company worth it for a small business?

Yes, because smaller teams rarely have time to compare every fare or chase refunds. Even at modest travel budgets, fare savings plus the hours handed back to a PA or office manager usually cover the cost several times over.

How do I reduce business travel costs?

The biggest levers are booking through negotiated and local-market fares, tightening travel policy to cut out-of-policy spend, recovering unused tickets and change fees, capturing corporate rewards, and removing booking admin from salaried staff. A travel management company delivers all five in one place.

Is the calculator’s estimate a quote?

No. It is an illustrative estimate based on the figures you enter and editable benchmark rates. Your actual saving depends on your routes, booking patterns and travel policy. Our team of specialists can build the real picture from your own travel data.

What information do I need to use the calculator?

Rough annual figures are enough: what you spend on flights, hotels, rail, car hire and other travel, plus approximately how many hours a week your team spends booking and managing it. Leave anything that does not apply blank.

How does a TMC give my team time back?

Instead of a PA or office manager booking, rebooking and chasing expenses, a single point of contact handles it. The calculator values that recovered time at the hourly cost you enter, which is often the largest single line in the result.

Ready to see your real numbers?

Get in touch with our team, and we can build the real picture from your actual travel data. Expert advice, no obligation.

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