2025 Rearview: The Year in Business Travel

TL;DR: From record booking volume to hundreds of millions saved, 2025 marked Engine’s strongest year yet. The data points to a simple truth: companies need a travel solution that powers their business and saves time, money and effort. Increasingly, those companies are choosing Engine. ‍

When you power travel for more than a million people, you get to see some interesting trends.

Behind every number is the same pattern. Companies want to move quickly, spend wisely and keep their teams focused on the work that moves the business forward. Legacy systems no longer match the pace or purpose of today’s work, and modern tools are desperately needed to make it possible.

Engine is built for this shift.

• This year, more than 22,000 businesses booked travel through Engine, up from approximately 13,000 in 2024. 
• These customers represented 1.1 million travelers, and the average business booked 168 trips. 
• Engine customers saved 113 million dollars in travel spending, a figure that rises to 273 million dollars when including refunds delivered through Flex and FlexPro.

This has been Engine’s strongest year yet, but the story is bigger than our growth. 

‍‍

How business travel is changing

If 2025 made anything clear, it’s that business travel no longer follows a predictable rhythm.

More than 80% of all Engine trips were booked within 7 days of travel, showing how quickly decisions are made and how often plans shift. Teams need tools that support this pace.

But it’s not always about immediacy. Even though they represent a smaller share of total trips, we saw a 43% increase in bookings made 30 or more days in advance. Industry data shows that domestic flights booked one to three months before departure are often meaningfully cheaper than last minute fares, giving companies a clear incentive to plan ahead when they can.

These evolving behaviors are happening at a time when travel itself is less stable. Airlines and airports faced significant operational stress throughout the year and the government shutdown brought staffing shortages that forced the cancellation of thousands of flights in November. Travelers felt the effects through more delays, tighter schedules and less predictable travel windows.

All of this highlights the importance of flexibility.

This year, 48% of Engine trips were booked using Flex. When schedules shifted or priorities changed, Flex and FlexPro returned a staggering $160 million to businesses. These products allow predictability within turbulence and give Engine customers permission to pivot quickly and make decisions based on where they need to be most, not hotel policy. 

‍

Teams are choosing to gather in person 

Engine’s group travel volume more than doubled this year and the average group booking size reached 17 people. Today, most large hotel chains still offer limited options for booking multiple rooms online, which slows teams down. Engine is solving for scale so people and companies can move together without friction.

Deloitte research shows that the majority of companies increased their travel spending year over year, with smaller companies raising budgets by 21% on average in 2025. The post pandemic era has shown that Zoom cannot replace in-person connection and teams are choosing to gather with more intention than ever.

In the past year, we expanded the markets we serve with broader group booking capabilities, opening the door to consumer groups like weddings and sports teams. This brought exciting new partnerships to Engine, including The Knot, the San Antonio Spurs and others soon to be announced.

A fun fact from this year: more than 10,000 wedding parties booked on Engine and Chicago was the most popular city for I do's. 

‍

Where momentum is building

Austin, Houston, San Antonio, Las Vegas and Jacksonville topped our destination list for business travel in 2025. These cities are home to fast growing industries and represent a continued shift toward markets beyond the traditional coastal hubs — a trend we commented on back in May with Business Insider.

Our fastest growing destinations told an interesting story too. Columbus, Raleigh and Birmingham saw the largest percentage increase in year over year booking volume.

‍

What this means for 2026 

There is a massive gap between how fast businesses need to move and what traditional travel systems have been able to accommodate for. We built Engine to close that gap.

When travel runs smoothly, businesses can direct their energy where it matters most. Closing deals. Building relationships. Staying ahead of the competition.

That is why we are building the modern travel operating system. It is powerful enough for large enterprises, intuitive enough for small teams and flexible enough for whatever the world throws at you next.

Thank you to every traveler, every admin, every partner and every supplier who helped us build this momentum in 2025. We are just getting started and I cannot wait to share what is coming in 2026.