Corporate Booking Tool Best Practice Guide
Objective
The objective of this Best Practice Guide is to define the core functionality that should be available within Corporate Booking Tools (CBTs) to ensure that travel agents and end consumers can efficiently make online reservations for all vehicle rental requirements.
The guide is intended to support consistency, transparency, policy compliance, and a seamless booking experience across corporate travel programmes and booking platforms.
Company & Traveller Profiles
Well-structured company and traveller profiles are essential for improving booking efficiency, enforcing travel policies, and ensuring accurate rental processing.
Company Profile
The Company Profile should contain the following information:
- Preferred car rental suppliers/vendors
- Authorised vehicle categories in accordance with company travel policy
- CD/Corporate Discount numbers for each car supplier
- Central billing or billing reference numbers
- Company-specific payment and invoicing requirements
- Preferred rate agreements or negotiated corporate programmes
- Travel policy indicators and approval rules where applicable
This information should automatically populate availability and reservation requests wherever possible.
Traveller Profile
The Traveller Profile should contain the following information:
- Traveller loyalty or renter ID numbers for multiple vendors
- Multiple frequent traveller/frequent flyer programme numbers
- Authorised vehicle categories
- Vehicle transmission preference (e.g. automatic or manual)
- Special requests and service preferences (e.g. non-smoking vehicle)
- Preferred rental suppliers
- Contact information for booking notifications and confirmations
- Emergency or travel assistance contact details where required
Traveller profile information should be reusable across bookings to minimise manual input and improve booking accuracy.
Availability Request
Availability requests should support seamless connectivity for car suppliers that provide this functionality.
The booking tool should allow users to search and request:
- Airport rental locations
- Non-airport rental locations
- One-way rentals
- One-way rentals between:
- Airport locations
- Airport and non-airport locations
- Non-airport locations
The /RC-BEST value should not be used as a mandatory default setting and should instead remain configurable by supplier/vendor.
Corporate & Discounted Rates
If the renter is eligible for contracted or discounted rates, the applicable CD number(s) associated with the car supplier(s) should automatically be included within the availability request message when stored within the company or traveller profile.
Travel Policy Compliance
Travel policy restrictions, such as authorised vehicle categories, should be reflected within the availability request itself rather than applied as a filter after availability is returned.
Example:
If a traveller is authorised to rent up to a Compact category vehicle, the availability request should search only for Economy and Compact categories rather than retrieving all vehicle types and filtering them afterwards.
This approach:
- Improves booking efficiency
- Reduces unnecessary results
- Supports supplier response optimisation
- Enhances policy compliance
Availability Display
The booking tool should provide functionality to display car suppliers according to supplier priority or preferred supplier status.
The secondary sorting criteria should be:
- Total rental charges displayed from low to high
Availability Display Requirements
The availability display should clearly indicate:
- Preferred supplier status
- Non-compliance with travel policies
- Vehicle availability status
- Free sell and “on request” vehicles
- Applicable restrictions or special conditions
The display should also include:
- All vehicles with valid SIPP/ACRISS codes that fall within travel policy guidelines
- Not be restricted solely to specific body types or code combinations (e.g. second letter “C”)
- Clear identification of contracted or discounted corporate rates
Rate Transparency
The rate section should clearly indicate:
- Whether the displayed rate is a contracted corporate rate
- Whether a corporate discount has been applied
- Included and excluded charges where available
- Estimated total rental cost
This supports improved transparency and informed decision-making for both travellers and travel managers.
Reservation / Sell Request
Vehicle reservations (“sell requests”) should be made directly from the availability display.
The booking tool should support:
- Free sell reservations
- On-request reservations
Traveller Information
If the renter is a frequent traveller, the booking tool should automatically retrieve and include relevant profile information within the sell request, including:
- Renter ID numbers
- Frequent traveller programme numbers
- Credit card details where permitted
Alternatively, users should be able to manually enter or update this information during the booking process.
Flight Information
If the vehicle reservation is associated with a flight segment, the arrival flight number should automatically be included within the sell request message.
If no associated flight segment exists, users should still be able to manually add:
- Arrival flight number
- Private flight details
- Estimated arrival information
This helps suppliers manage delayed arrivals and improve service delivery.
Additional Services & Requests
Users should be able to request additional services and rental options during the reservation process, including:
- Child seats
- GPS/Satellite navigation
- Winter tyres
- Ski racks
- Delivery and collection services
- EV charging accessories where applicable
Billing Information
Additional billing or accounting information required by the renter’s company should either:
- Automatically populate from the company profile, or
- Be manually added by the user during the reservation process
This may include:
- Cost centre references
- Project codes
- Employee numbers
- Internal billing references
Messaging & Notifications
All advisory, informational, warning, and error messages returned by the car supplier during the reservation process should be clearly displayed to the user.
This includes:
- Policy warnings
- Availability restrictions
- Additional qualification requirements
- Payment or billing issues
- Vehicle request limitations
- Supplier-specific advisories
Clear messaging improves transparency and helps reduce booking errors or failed reservations.
Best Practice Principles
Corporate Booking Tools should aim to provide:
- A seamless and efficient booking experience
- Accurate policy compliance
- Transparent pricing and rate visibility
- Consistent supplier display standards
- Full support for corporate travel requirements
- Integration with traveller and company profile data
- Support for evolving mobility and rental technologies
The overall objective is to ensure that travellers, travel managers, travel agents, and suppliers can manage rental reservations efficiently while maintaining consistency, compliance, and transparency across the booking process.