Stop managing accommodation compliance manually. AltoVita's Policy Builder and Approval Flow stores your corporate accommodation policies within the platform and applies them automatically across search, approvals, and bookings.
Corporate accommodation policies only deliver value when they're applied consistently. Yet many organisations still rely on spreadsheets, manual checks, and back-and-forth approvals that slow down bookings and increase the risk of non-compliance.
With AltoVita's Policy Builder and Approval Flow, accommodation policies become part of the booking journey. Instead of relying on offline processes, policy rules are automatically applied throughout the search, approval, and booking journey, giving travel teams greater control while making it easier for employees to book accommodation that meets company requirements.
What It Does
The Policy Builder enables travel, mobility and relocation managers to configure corporate accommodation policies directly within AltoVita. Programme owners can define rate caps by location, unit type, stay length, and seasonality, alongside rules for preferred inventory, property types, and restricted destinations.
Those rules are then applied automatically across both AltoVita's managed and self-serve flow, ensuring every booking follows the same policy framework.
Why This Matters
For clients using our managed flow, our Customer Success team begins every search with the correct policy parameters already applied. That means recommendations are aligned with programme requirements from the outset, reducing manual checks and speeding up sourcing.
For travellers using our self-serve platform, AltoSearch, the booking experience becomes simpler and more transparent. They can immediately see which accommodation options are in policy and which require approval, allowing them to book with confidence while reducing delays and minimising policy breaches.
This gives organisations confidence that employees booking independently are still making choices that align with company policy.
Flexible Approval Flows
Not every booking fits neatly within policy, which is why Policy Builder includes configurable approval workflows.
Depending on your programme requirements, out-of-policy bookings can:
- be blocked from view entirely;
- trigger an approval request automatically; or
- be permitted within a defined tolerance (for example, a percentage above the approved rate cap), with a justification captured for reporting or approval purposes.
This flexibility allows organisations to maintain governance without creating unnecessary friction for travellers.
Setting Up Your Policies
Getting started is straightforward:
Step 1: Create New Policy
Navigate to Account Settings > Policy Builder to configure:
- rate caps by location, unit type, stay length, and seasonality;
- preferred inventory and property type rules;
- restricted countries; and
- tolerance thresholds, allowing slightly over-budget bookings with a required justification
Note: Policies can be created manually or imported using the AI assistant from an existing policy spreadsheet.
Step 2: Configure approvers
Assign a single approver for all requests or create approval workflows based on department, location, or cost centre.
Step 3: Choose how out-of-policy bookings are handled
Decide whether travellers can request approval, view but not book out-of-policy options, or only see options that comply with company policy.
Once your policy is live, employees using AltoSearch, our self-serve tool, see their company policy applied automatically across search results, with clear indicators showing whether each property is in or out of policy.
COMING SOON
Policy compliance will be visible through AltoInsights, our analytics and reporting dashboard, allowing programme managers to monitor in- and out-of-policy bookings, approval reasons, cost savings, and rate-cap performance over time.
Built for Scaling Accommodation Programmes
As more organisations look for self-service booking experiences similar, automated accommodation policy enforcement has become increasingly important.
Employees expect a booking experience that's as intuitive as consumer travel platforms, while organisations still need visibility and control over accommodation spend.
Our Policy Builder and Approval flow supports this by bringing policy, approvals, reporting, and booking into one connected workflow rather than relying on disconnected manual processes.
Take Control of Accommodation Compliance
Whether you're supporting a global workforce, managing relocation programmes, or enabling employees to book accommodation independently, our Policy Builder tool provides greater consistency, visibility, and control across every booking.
Policy Builder and Approval Flow is available to all AltoVita clients.
Speak to your AltoVita account manager to enable policy controls on your account, or book a demo to see it in action.
