Business Travel

Are You Ready for These 2025 T&E Trends? CFOs Weigh In

Every year, TravelBank samples and analyzes hundreds of thousands of travel bookings and expense reports submitted on our platform. In our latest report, we saw three major shifts in 2025 T&E trends:

If that sounds risky or inefficient, you’re not wrong. We hosted a deep dive on these T&E trends with the CFO Leadership Council and polled CFOs to see if their travel teams, H&R departments, and T&E policies are ready. In short, they aren’t.

The Rise of Retailers

By far, the biggest of the 2025 T&E trends is the rise of business expenses from retailers like Amazon, Walmart, and Target. Retailers are now the most commonly expensed merchants – surpassing meals, hotel stays, and flights. And among retailers, Amazon was expensed more than 2x any other.

Comparison table showing the top ten most expensed merchants in 2024 and 2023, with rankings and changes indicated by upward and downward arrows.

And yet, most companies have not adapted to the surge of business expenses from Amazon, Walmart, and Target. When we polled the CFO Leadership Council, almost 90% of organizations did not have a clear policy for general retailers like Amazon.

Pie chart showing responses to a company policy question. 88.9% answered "No," 5.6% answered "Yes," and 5.6% answered "Unsure.

And unless companies used expense report automation software, they had to manually review receipts to see what was actually purchased.

Pie chart showing oversight on purchases: Yes 51.3%, No 41.0%, Unsure 7.7%.

Runaway Food Delivery Fees for Business Meals

Last year, UberEats surged to the second most popular merchant for business meals. Food delivery apps (and their fees) are now more common than in-restaurant business meals.

A table comparing the popularity rankings of ten brands in 2024 to their rankings in 2023, showing changes in their positions with up and down arrows.

But food delivery app fees dramatically inflate costs – we’re talking 92% more expensive than the pickup price (source). And among the apps, UberEats has some of the highest and most unpredictable fees (source).

But when we asked CFOs is they’d clarified a delivery app policy to reflect 2025 T&E trends, more than 97% said no.

Pie chart showing responses to "Do you have a delivery app policy?" 2.4% Yes, 97.6% No.

Paying a Parking Premium

In 2019, personal vehicles were used in just 25% of trips. But since the pandemic, the share of personal vehicle has grown to 63%. Most business travelers now use their own cars and expense mileage (at $0.67/mile, plus parking).

But daily parking rates are increasing. The average cost of day parking in Manhattan is now $69/day (source). And it’s cheaper to ride share to/from the airport than to park for a long weekend at 14 of the 50 largest U.S. airports (source).

Yet when we asked if organizations are helping employees decide when to drive, fly, take a train, or use a ride share, 71% of CFOs said no.

Pie chart titled "Do you help employees decide between driving, flying, taking a train, or taking a Lyft?" with sections: "Yes" 26.3%, "No" 71.1%, "Unsure" 2.6%.

The ROI of a Good T&E Policy

In the end, policy adherence is probably the most important part of T&E management.  In our recent study with Forrester, they modeled that improving policy compliance nets the greatest financial benefit:

A bar chart showing the cost of t&e management challenges in travel expenses.

>> Related: The Importance of Well-Defined Travel and Expense Policies <<

Having a clear policy that reflects how employees spend T&E budget today will help minimize confusion and errors, and ultimately save time and money.

©2024 TravelBank. All rights reserved. The content above includes data and information from the 2024 State of Business T&E Report that is the proprietary property of TravelBank. Reproduction, distribution or use of the study, in whole or in part, without the express written permission of TravelBank is strictly prohibited. All trademarks are the property of their respective owners.