The percentage of travelers affected by travel disruptions is on the rise, with costs from those disruptions making up about 4 percent of total travel budgets on average, according to data published by TravelPerk.
The data—based on a OnePoll survey of 7,000 business travelers, 4,000 of whom were split evenly between the U.S. and the U.K., with the remainder from Germany, Austria and Spain, conducted from Aug. 6 to 18—showed only about one in 10 travelers were untouched by travel disruptions during business travel over the past year, compared with 33 percent in 2023. More than half of business travelers surveyed said they faced delays of more than hour over the past 12 months, and more than a third said they had faced a cancellation.
Weather-related disruptions are happening more frequently, according to the survey. Nearly four in 10 respondents said they faced a travel setback from weather, up from 21 percent last year, and half of U.S. travelers faced weather disruptions, up from 30 percent in 2024.
"As weather and climates become more unstable and extreme, we expect this to continue to be a growing concern for travelers over the next few years," according to the report.
Cancellations are affecting more travelers as well, the survey indicated. Thirty-six percent of respondents said they had a canceled trip, up from 24 percent in 2023, and among U.S. travelers, that percentage was 42 percent, up from 25 percent in 2023.
In the report, TravelPerk estimated that costs related to delays account for about 4 percent of annual business travel spending—$17 billion a year cumulatively for U.S. companies, and £1.6 billion a year for U.K. companies. Additional accommodation and overtime are the highest expense categories related to disruptions, and those travelers who had to rebook a trip on the go in the past 12 months, 72 percent of respondents, did so at an average cost premium of 27 percent, according to TravelPerk.
"A delay or cancellation doesn’t have to derail an entire trip or drive up costs," TravelPerk CFO Roy Hefer said in a statement. "Companies that include flexible fares, cancellation cover and buffer time in their travel policies are far better positioned to boost productivity and ensure return on investment."
Besides the budget impact, travelers in the survey said they lost an average of four hours and 45 minutes of productivity during a disrupted trip, and a quarter of respondents said a disruption caused them to miss out on new business, according to the survey. About two-thirds of respondents said disruptions caused them added stress, and 56 percent said they negatively affected their work-life balance.
For managing disruptions, a phone call with a human agent is the most popular option, preferred by 33 percent of respondents in the survey, and an additional 24 percent prefer an in-person chat; 4 percent said they prefer chatting with a live agent online. An increasing percentage of travelers prefer self-service options—30 percent, up from 24 percent in 2024—and only 7 percent said they prefer chatbots or other AI-powered online services.