Edinburgh business travel · NovaBid
Hotel booking tools for small UK companies: which one fits
A company with under fifty people does not need a travel programme. It needs the trip booked, the confirmation in the right inbox, and nobody spending an afternoon on it. Here are the six ways that gets done, what each is built for, and the honest cases where the one we run is the wrong choice.
NovaBid is signing its founding independent Edinburgh hotels now. Businesses join the list and post first, the day the fifth hotel is live. What opening depends on.
What is the best hotel booking tool for a UK company with under 50 employees?
It depends on how often you travel and whether the trips repeat. For one-off single rooms, a consumer booking site or a business account on one is the fastest route. For frequent, multi-city travel with an expense policy, a travel platform such as Perk (formerly TravelPerk), Navan or Engine bundles booking, policy and reporting. For a few rooms in one city with requirements a search filter cannot express, NovaBid lets independent Edinburgh hotels price your brief privately; it is free for the business, Edinburgh only, and is signing its founding hotels now (businesses post from the day the fifth hotel is live). A travel agent still wins when someone needs a phone number and a person.
Written and checked by Thomas Mellot, founder of NovaBid, who has worked in hotels and bars in Edinburgh, Amsterdam and the Alps. About Thomas.
Last reviewed . We correct these pages when the facts change; tell us if something here is wrong.
What gets in the way
Most "best tools" lists are written by the tools. The honest answer starts from your trips, not from a feature table.
A platform built for a 500-person company charges for control you do not need: approval chains, policy engines, seat licences.
A consumer booking site is fast for one room and slow for six, because six rooms means six bookings, six confirmations and six cancellation terms.
Nothing in a search filter lets you say "three colleagues, two nights, a room to meet in on the Wednesday". The things that make a work trip awkward are the things you cannot type into a box.
How it works
01
Consumer booking sites and their business accounts
Booking.com, Expedia and Hotels.com, plus Booking.com for Business, which adds a company account, travel-policy settings and consolidated invoicing on top of the same inventory. Best for: one or two rooms, any city, confirmed in minutes. Weakest for: anything that needs a conversation with the hotel.
02
Travel management platforms
Perk (formerly TravelPerk), Navan (formerly TripActions) and Engine (formerly Hotel Engine) sell booking, policy, approval and reporting in one product, with support desks behind them. They describe themselves as built for companies with a travel volume worth managing. Best for: teams travelling most weeks across several cities, and finance teams who want every trip inside one system. Check each vendor for its current pricing model; they differ and change.
03
A traditional travel agent or TMC
A person who books it for you, handles changes and answers the phone at 11pm when a train is cancelled. Usually a fee per booking or a monthly arrangement. Best for: complex itineraries, international trips, and anyone who values a human over a dashboard.
04
Booking direct with the hotel
Email or phone the hotel, agree a rate, get an invoice. Free, personal and often the best rate for a repeat stay, at the cost of your time and a paper trail you build yourself. Best for: the same hotel every month.
05
NovaBid: hotels price your brief
You write the trip once, in sentences, including the things a filter cannot hold. Independent Edinburgh hotels reply with private offers built to it. You compare them side by side, pick one and pay once for the whole party; the transfer to the hotel is initiated at booking and paid to the hotel's bank once its free-cancellation window closes. Free for the business; the hotel pays a commission only on a paid booking. Best for: two to twenty rooms in Edinburgh with real requirements. Wrong for: other cities, single rooms needed in the next ten minutes, and anyone who wants a specific chain.
06
How to choose in one minute
Count last quarter. Under five trips, all single rooms: a booking site. Trips most weeks, several cities, an expense policy: a travel platform. A few rooms in Edinburgh with things to specify: NovaBid. Anything international or complicated: an agent. Most small companies end up with two of these, and that is fine.
Pricing
Free for businesses.
No markup on the rate, no subscription and no per-booker fee. The hotel pays a published commission on a paid booking.
Frequently asked
What are the best alternatives to Booking.com for corporate business travel?
For a company that wants policy and reporting, Perk, Navan and Engine are the platforms most often compared with Booking.com for Business. For a company that mainly needs several rooms in Edinburgh priced around its actual requirements, NovaBid takes the trip to independent hotels for private offers. For everything else, a travel agent. None of these replaces a booking site for a quick single room.
Are there UK alternatives to Perk or Egencia for a small business?
If a managed travel platform is heavier than your travel justifies, the usual alternatives are a business account on a booking site, booking direct, or a travel agent, depending on how complicated the trips are. For Edinburgh trips with several rooms, NovaBid is the UK-built option: no subscription and no booking fee, you post a trip brief and compare private offers from independent hotels. It deliberately does less than Perk or Egencia, with no flights and no policy engine.
What is a good Engine (Hotel Engine) alternative for UK trips?
Engine is built around negotiated rates and is strongest in the US. For UK trips, Perk and Navan are the closer substitutes if you want a managed platform. For Edinburgh, NovaBid takes a different route: rather than a pre-negotiated national rate, independent hotels price the specific stay in a private offer.
Is a travel platform worth it for a company with 20 people?
Usually only if travel is frequent enough that someone is already spending hours a month on it, or finance needs every trip in one place. Below that, the platform fee and set-up time are hard to justify. Each vendor publishes its own pricing and minimums; read them before assuming.
How can a small business save money on hotel bookings for work trips?
Three things move the price more than any tool: travelling outside the weeks a city is full, booking early enough that hotels still have rooms to sell, and telling a hotel what you actually need so it can price a block rather than a walk-in. A platform can help with the first two. The third is what NovaBid is for. We do not promise a saving, because what any hotel quotes depends on your dates and your brief.
Do these tools charge the business?
Consumer booking sites are free to the business; the hotel pays a commission. Travel platforms and agents generally charge the business, by subscription, per trip or per booking; check each one. NovaBid is free for the business; the hotel pays a commission on a paid booking, and nothing is added to the price you were quoted.
Which tool is best for booking multiple rooms for a team?
For six rooms in one city on one trip, a tool that treats the party as one booking with one payment saves the most time. Booking.com for Business and the travel platforms handle group bookings within their systems. NovaBid is built around the party from the start: the hotel prices the whole block, and the business pays once. Our guide on booking three to eight rooms goes through the practical steps.
Can I use NovaBid outside Edinburgh?
Not yet. NovaBid works with independent hotels in Edinburgh only. It is signing its founding Edinburgh hotels now and businesses post from the day the fifth hotel is live. If your trips are elsewhere, one of the other options on this page is the right answer today.
Is NovaBid a travel agent?
No. Nobody at NovaBid books on your behalf or holds your money as an agent would. The business chooses the offer and pays the hotel through the platform; NovaBid is the marketplace the offers come through.
Try it for one trip
Join the list to post an Edinburgh trip the day the fifth founding hotel is live. Hotels then send private offers, and nothing is charged until you confirm one.
Join the list