Business Leisure Travel Policy (Templates and Examples)

The rise of "bleisure" travel, where employees blend business trips with personal vacation time, is one of the most significant trends in the modern workplace. It's a highly valued perk that can boost morale, prevent burnout, and serve as a powerful tool for attracting and retaining top talent. However, to offer this benefit responsibly, a company needs a formal, well-defined policy to provide clarity on expenses, liability, and company obligations. An informal or unwritten bleisure policy is a recipe for confusion, disputes, and risk.

This guide provides a comprehensive template and practical examples to help you craft a business leisure travel policy that is clear, fair, and easy to manage. You can use this as a framework to build your first bleisure policy or to update your existing one to align with modern best practices.

The Core Principle of a Bleisure Policy: A Clear Division

The entire policy should be built on one foundational principle: drawing a clear and unambiguous line between the "business" portion of the trip and the "leisure" portion. Every rule and guideline should flow from this fundamental distinction.

Business Leisure Travel Policy Template

You can adapt this template for your own company's needs. We recommend making this a formal addendum to your main corporate travel policy.

[Your Company Name] Business & Leisure (Bleisure) Travel Policy

1. Purpose and Philosophy

[Your Company Name] encourages a healthy work-life balance and supports employees who wish to add personal leave to a business trip. This "bleisure" policy is designed to provide a clear framework for managing these blended trips in a way that is fair, transparent, and financially responsible.

2. Definition and Approval

2.1. Definition: A bleisure trip is a standard, pre-approved business trip that an employee requests to extend with personal vacation days, taken either immediately before or after the designated work days. The primary purpose of the trip must remain business.
2.2. Approval Process: All requests for bleisure travel must be submitted through the company's official travel management platform as part of the standard pre-trip approval workflow. The request must clearly specify the "business dates" and the "personal dates" of the trip. The entire itinerary, including the personal vacation days, must be approved by the employee's direct manager before any travel is booked.

3. Expense Management for Blended Trips

This section outlines how costs are allocated. The company will only pay for expenses directly related to the business portion of the trip.

3.1. Airfare & Transportation: The company's financial responsibility for airfare is limited to the cost of a standard, business-only round-trip flight.
- Cost Comparison Rule: At the time of booking, a "cost comparison" will be generated in the travel platform. This will compare the price of the requested bleisure itinerary with the price of a standard business itinerary for the same destination on the required work days.
- Employee Responsibility for Fare Difference: If the chosen bleisure itinerary is more expensive than the business-only equivalent, the employee is responsible for paying the fare difference at the time of booking. If the bleisure itinerary is cheaper (e.g., due to a Saturday night stay), the company will benefit from the savings.
3.2. Accommodation (Hotels):
- Company Responsibility: The company will pay for the hotel room and applicable taxes only for the nights required for business activities.
- Employee Responsibility: The employee is responsible for the full cost of their accommodation during all designated personal days. If staying at the same hotel, the booking should be split to ensure clear billing.
3.3. Meals & Incidentals (Per Diems):
- Company Responsibility: The company's standard per diem or meal reimbursement policy applies only on designated business days.
- Employee Responsibility: All meals, activities, entertainment, and incidental expenses incurred during personal vacation days are the employee's personal responsibility and are not reimbursable.
3.4. Ground Transportation:
- Company Responsibility: The company will cover the cost of business-related ground transportation only (e.g., travel from the airport to the hotel and to and from client meetings on work days).
- Employee Responsibility: All ground transportation used for personal sightseeing or activities during the leisure portion is a personal expense.

4. Duty of Care, Insurance, and Liability

This section clarifies the company's legal and safety obligations.

4.1. Duty of Care: The company's Duty of Care obligation to ensure the employee's safety and well-being applies only during the defined business portion of the trip.
4.2. Insurance: The company's corporate travel medical and liability insurance covers the employee only during the business portion of the trip.
4.3. Liability and Employee Responsibility:
- The employee is considered to be on personal, unpaid leave during the designated leisure days. The employee travels at their own risk during this period.
- [Your Company Name] is not liable for any incidents, accidents, injuries, or losses that occur during the approved personal/leisure days of the trip.
- It is strongly recommended that the employee purchase their own personal travel insurance to cover the leisure portion of their trip.

5. Companions

5.1. Policy: Employees are permitted to have family members or friends join them for the leisure portion of a bleisure trip.
5.2. Costs: The policy must be explicit that the company will not cover any costs associated with a companion. This includes their airfare, meals, activities, and any incremental hotel costs (e.g., a surcharge for an extra person in the room).

Practical Examples

Example 1: Airfare

Sarah needs to be in Chicago for meetings from Monday to Wednesday. A standard round trip for these days costs $400.
Sarah wants to stay for the weekend and fly back on Sunday. The flight for her preferred itinerary costs $480.
Outcome: The company pays $400. Sarah pays the $80 difference. This is all handled transparently at the time of booking within the travel platform.

Example 2: Hotel

John is at a conference in Las Vegas from Tuesday to Thursday. His company-approved hotel costs $200 per night.
He decides to stay for Friday and Saturday night for personal leisure.
Outcome: The company pays for the hotel on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday nights. John is responsible for paying for his hotel room on Friday and Saturday nights.

Implementing Your Policy Successfully

Use the Right Technology: A modern travel management platform like Routespring is essential. It can automate the airfare cost comparison, handle split billing, and provide a clear itinerary that delineates business vs. personal days. This removes the administrative headache and makes the process seamless.
Communicate Clearly: When you roll out the policy, frame it as a positive benefit that supports work-life balance. Make sure everyone understands the rules and responsibilities.
Be Consistent: Apply the policy fairly and consistently to all employees to maintain trust and transparency.

A clear, automated, and well-communicated bleisure policy is a win-win. It allows you to offer a highly valued perk that boosts morale and retention, while ensuring financial clarity and mitigating corporate risk. It's a key component of any modern, employee-centric travel program.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Is it better to have the employee book their own bleisure trip and get reimbursed for the "business portion"? No, this is a bad practice. It's incredibly difficult to accurately calculate the business portion after the fact, and it creates a major administrative burden. The best practice is to have all bookings made through the official travel platform, which can automate the cost comparison and payment splitting at the time of booking.

2. What happens if a business trip is canceled after an employee has already made personal plans? Your policy should address this. A fair approach is that if the business reason for the trip is canceled by the company, the company would be responsible for any flight change or cancellation fees associated with the ticket. The employee would then have the option to either cancel their personal trip or proceed with it, now covering all costs themselves.

3. Can an employee use their company's negotiated hotel rate for their personal nights? This depends on your agreement with the hotel. Many corporate hotel contracts allow employees to use the negotiated rate for personal leisure travel as an added perk. This can be a great additional benefit for the employee at no cost to the company. Your travel manager should clarify this during the hotel negotiation process.

4. How does a bleisure policy impact our Duty of Care? It requires you to draw a very clear line. It's essential that your policy and your communication to the employee state that the company's legal Duty of Care responsibility applies only during the designated work days of the trip. This is crucial for managing your company's liability.

5. How do we start implementing a bleisure policy if we don't have one? Use the template in this guide as a starting point. Circulate a draft to your leadership, HR, and finance teams to get their buy-in and feedback. Once finalized, communicate the new policy clearly to all employees and ensure your travel management technology is configured to support it.