Oversight, the global leader in spend management and risk mitigation technology, released its latest Spend Insights Report, “The Comeback of Business Travel: How New Patterns & Risk Could Emerge,” which depicts the current state of travel-related spend. Based on the company’s proprietary spend data, the report reveals that nearly 60% of employee spend activity in Q2 2021 was in travel categories, including hotels and motels (31%) and airlines (27%).
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“To protect the integrity of their financial processes and bottom line, it’s important that they put the processes, policy and controls in place to manage spend effectively.”
With this uptick in travel comes new trends in employee spend behaviors as the hospitality, restaurant and transportation industries continue to re-emerge from pandemic. Notably, the report found spend violations skyrocketing to a 125% increase in Q2 2021 compared to 2019. Additional trends include:
- Transportation Spend Remains Strong: With auto rental companies reestablishing their fleets as demand normalizes, employees turn to taxis and rideshare services. They’re also opting to drive their personal cars in response to the rental shortage, leading to out-of-pocket expenses and potential spend risks.
- Out-of-Pocket Spend Ramps Up: Out-of-pocket violations were up 44% in June compared to March 2021. The majority of violations tied to hotel and restaurant expenditures, which hints that risks will persist as travel activity increases as expected in Q3.
- Excessive Daily Meals & Expense Outlier Violations Increase: Excessive daily meals violations increased more than 200%, with dinner expenses triggering most of the risky spend. Similarly, outlier expenses like unusual meal and lodging purchases climbed more than 160%, which could be due to increasing demand for lodging in certain markets.
“More and more often, we’re hearing from our customers that they have or are planning to resume business travel, and employees are ready to hit the road. This undoubtedly means that organizations should ensure that they have the tools needed to see all the spend and track new and recurring patterns that might arise,” said Terrence McCrossan, CEO of Oversight. “To protect the integrity of their financial processes and bottom line, it’s important that they put the processes, policy and controls in place to manage spend effectively.”
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