In this article
You might like
No items found.
See the latest spending trends for 25k+ companies on Ramp

Benchmark your company's expenses with Ramp's data.
Thank you! Your submission has been received!
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.
Spending made smarter
Easy-to-use cards, funds, approval flows, vendor payments —plus an average savings of 5%.1
|
4.8 Rating 4.8 rating
Error Message
Thank you! Your submission has been received!
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.
Get fresh finance insights, monthly
Time and money-saving tips,
straight to your inbox
|
4.8 Rating 4.8 rating
Thanks for signing up
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.
Ready to partner with Ramp?
Time is money. Save both.
Ready to partner with Ramp?
Time is money. Save both.
Ready to partner with Ramp?
Time is money. Save both.
Table of contents

This week, we’re highlighting the most interesting trends from our newly released Fall 2024 Spending Report. See our first post on the latest AI that companies are buying. 

Fall conferences are in full swing—and travel expenses are rising accordingly. At Ramp, our data show average travel card spend shot up 14% in August and 8% in September. 

But this increase isn’t just from the seasonal uptick in trip volume. Prices are also going up: average car rental amounts grew 24% between March and July, and hotel transaction amounts have jumped 17% since June. According to Deloitte’s 2024 corporate travel study, high travel prices are increasingly causing some companies to cut back on trips, even though doing so could inhibit business growth. 

To help you better manage travel costs, we analyzed spending patterns in the nation’s most frequented cities. 

Lodging costs are rising—but increases differ by city  

Prices increased this year for nearly every city we track, but not all. Nashville saw the biggest jump in nightly rates (80%), while New York and Seattle rates actually decreased 5% and 4% respectively.  

Hotels charge a premium for conferences—here’s how much

To save on costs, avoid traveling to cities with major conferences unless you’re attending. A few Ramp team members learned this the hard way this past May, when they headed to San Francisco for a team offsite during the RSA conference. Tight inventory and higher-than-normal prices forced some to (voluntarily) stay in hostels!

Hotel itineraries uploaded to Ramp show just how high of a price you can expect to pay. A few examples: 

  • Dreamforce 2024: Of the major conferences we analyzed, Dreamforce had the worst pricing discrepancy. Median nightly rates in San Francisco soared a whopping 61% in the week of the conference compared to two weeks earlier.


  • SXSW 2024: 300,000 people attended SXSW this year, pushing Austin median nightly rates 28% higher the week of the conference than the three weeks prior.  


  • CES 2024: Headed to Vegas in January? If this year’s data is any indication, bookings during the week of CES will be 28% more expensive than in the prior weeks, so plan accordingly. 


Ensuring your team doesn’t book offsites or team visits in cities during major conferences will help you save. Here are some upcoming dates and locations to avoid if possible: 

  • Chicago, November 12-15, 2024 (Microsoft Ignite)
  • San Diego, November 19-20, 2024 (BrightonSEO)
  • Las Vegas, December 2-6, 2024 (​​AWS re:Invent)
  • Las Vegas, January 7-10, 2025 (CES) 

Tips to keep costs in check 

Since the launch of Ramp Travel earlier this year, hundreds of businesses have created travel policies on the platform to control employee spending before employees even book. For example, policy admins can block employees from booking business class altogether or if flights don’t meet a certain minimum length. They can use dynamic market rates to take seasonality and location into account when issuing limits, giving wider margin to employees traveling to more expensive areas. 

These policies are working:

On average, Ramp businesses with policies spend 21% less on airfares and 6% less on hotels than those without. 

With inflation and the economy still top of mind for many businesses, an easy way to save money is to keep your business travel under budget in the coming months. In case you need peer guidance, here are the average policy and booking metrics that businesses currently use in Ramp Travel:

See more spending benchmarks by industry and company size on our microsite. There, you can grab a full copy of our Fall 2024 Spending Report. Come back to the blog tomorrow to see how businesses are spending ahead of the holidays, especially in retail. 

Try Ramp for free
Error Message
 
Thank you! Your submission has been received!
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.
Senior Data Scientist, Ramp
Adam has a passion for exploring cutting-edge techniques in Machine Learning and Data Science. He holds a Master's degree in Operations Research from Columbia University (NYC) and CentraleSupelec (France).
Former Lead Product Marketing Manager, Ramp
With a background in B2B marketing focusing on product marketing, Jenny has worked with fast-growing companies aligning product visions with market needs. She helps companies drive product engagement and foster meaningful customer relationships.
Ramp is dedicated to helping businesses of all sizes make informed decisions. We adhere to strict editorial guidelines to ensure that our content meets and maintains our high standards.

FAQs

How Ramp helped modernize the Hospital Association of Oregon’s financial processes

"Our previous bill pay process probably took a good 10 hours per AP batch. Now it just takes a couple of minutes between getting an invoice entered, approved, and processed."
Jason Hershey, VP of Finance and Accounting, Hospital Association of Oregon

How Crossings Community Church upgraded its procurement process with Ramp

“When looking for a procure-to-pay solution we wanted to make everyone’s life easier. We wanted a one-click type of solution, and that’s what we’ve achieved with Ramp.”
Mandy Mobley, Finance Invoice & Expense Coordinator, Crossings Community Church

“An improvement in all aspects:" Why Snapdocs switched from Brex, Expensify, and Bill.com to Ramp

"We no longer have to comb through expense records for the whole month—having everything in one spot has been really convenient. Ramp's made things more streamlined and easy for us to stay on top of. It's been a night and day difference."
Fahem Islam, Accounting Associate

How MakeStickers started maximizing the value of its cash with Ramp

“It's great to be able to park our operating cash in the Ramp Business Account where it earns an actual return and then also pay the bills from that account to maximize float.”
Mike Rizzo, Accounting Manager, MakeStickers

How Align ENTA consolidated tools and gained control with Ramp

"The practice managers love Ramp, it allows them to keep some agency for paying practice expenses. They like that they can instantaneously attach receipts at the time of transaction, and that they can text back-and-forth with the automated system. We've gotten a lot of good feedback from users."
Greg Finn, Director of FP&A, Align ENTA

Why Abode's CEO, Tyler Bliha, chose Ramp over Brex

"The reason I've been such a super fan of Ramp is the product velocity. Not only is it incredibly beneficial to the user, it’s also something that gives me confidence in your ability to continue to pull away from other products."
Tyler Bliha, CEO, Abode

How The Second City expedited expense management and gained financial control with Ramp

“Switching to Ramp for Bill Pay saved us not only time but also a significant amount of money. Our previous AP automation tool cost us around $40,000 per year, and it wasn’t even working properly. Ramp is far more functional, and we’re getting the benefits at a fraction of the cost.”
Frank Byers, Controller, The Second City