The Complete TMC RFP Template, 45 Mandatory Questions & Weighted Bidder Scoring Matrix

How the 45-question RFP is structured and weighted

Each category maps to one criterion in the scoring matrix, and the weights reflect where mid-market programs lose money after award. Commercial transparency carries the most weight because fee definitions and supplier income decide total cost; technology carries the next most because online adoption and NDC handling drive the fee mix.

Adjust weights to your program, but keep them fixed before responses arrive. Changing weights after reading proposals is the most common way an RFP drifts back to the incumbent.

Questions 1–17: commercial terms and technology

Category 1 · Commercial terms & fee transparency (25%)

1. Price every line of the attached mock basket of 1,000 transactions. Any fee not shown will not be payable.
2. Define in writing each event that triggers an agent-assisted fee, including bookings that fail in the OBT because content or fares are missing.
3. Do you bill per ticket, per PNR or per trip? How is a three-ticket itinerary billed?
4. State fees for voluntary exchanges, refunds, voids and airline-initiated schedule changes; confirm whether involuntary changes are free.
5. List every after-hours, emergency, VIP and premium surcharge, and the time zone that defines after-hours.
6. Disclose all supplier income you expect to earn on our program: GDS segment incentives, airline overrides, hotel commission and card incentives.
7. What share of hotel commission will you pass through or offset against fees, and how will it be reconciled monthly?
8. Will you accept a benchmarking clause with a right to reset fees at the midpoint of the term?
9. State all charges for OBT licensing, implementation, profile migration, custom reporting and termination.

Category 2 · Technology, OBT & NDC content (20%)

10. Which online booking tools do you support, and which are licensed by you versus by us?
11. List carriers with live NDC connections and confirm whether NDC tickets can be booked, exchanged and refunded in the OBT.
12. How are GDS/EDIFACT distribution surcharges passed to the client, and how will you route bookings to avoid them?
13. Do you charge an NDC servicing fee on top of the standard transaction fee? State the amount and triggering events.
14. How are unused ticket credits tracked, and are they applied automatically at the point of sale?
15. Provide the distribution of online adoption across your clients of similar size, not the best case.
16. How do you load and audit our negotiated hotel rates in the OBT, and how often is rate display tested?
17. Describe integration with our expense platform, HR system and traveler mobile messaging.

Background for Q11–Q14 is in airline NDC surcharges and unused ticket recovery; benchmark ranges for Q1–Q9 are in the 2026 TMC fee benchmarks.

Questions 18–31: service levels, data and audit rights

Category 3 · Service delivery & SLAs (15%)

18. State SLAs for average speed of answer, abandonment rate, email response time and first-contact resolution.
19. What service credits apply when an SLA is missed, and how are they calculated?
20. Where are our agents located, which hours do they cover, and which languages do they support?
21. Will we have a dedicated or pooled agent team? State team size and average agent tenure.
22. Describe disruption support, including how calls are triaged during mass flight cancellations.
23. How is VIP servicing delivered, and who approves additions to the VIP list?
24. State your ticketing accuracy rate and confirm that agent errors are corrected at your cost.

Category 4 · Data, reporting & audit rights (15%)

25. Provide a sample monthly reporting package and the transaction-level invoice file layout.
26. Will every invoice line carry PNR, ticket number, fee code, booking channel and agent ID?
27. Will you accept an annual audit right over fees, supplier income and commission, at your cost where overbilling exceeds 2% of fees?
28. How do you report hotel attachment, savings against BAR and LRA compliance by property?
29. Can you deliver ARC/BSP settlement data matched to our invoice lines?
30. Confirm that we own all program data, and state the format and timeline for delivery at contract end.
31. How do you report out-of-policy bookings and spend booked outside your channel?

Questions 32–45: duty of care, compliance, implementation and exit

Category 5 · Duty of care, security & compliance (10%)

32. Describe traveler tracking, risk alerting and two-way messaging during incidents.
33. State your target time to locate and contact every traveler in an affected area.
34. Provide current SOC 2 Type II or ISO 27001 certification and its scope.
35. How do you meet GDPR, CCPA and other data protection obligations for traveler profiles?
36. Can you enforce Fly America Act routing and per diem limits on government-funded trips?
37. How do you capture travel provided to healthcare professionals for Open Payments reporting, where applicable?
38. Describe your emissions reporting methodology and data source per trip.

Category 6 · Implementation, account management & exit (15%)

39. Provide a dated 60–90 day implementation plan, including profile migration and parallel running.
40. How will you migrate unused ticket credits and in-progress bookings from the incumbent?
41. Name the proposed account manager and state their portfolio size and review cadence.
42. Which performance metrics will you commit to in quarterly business reviews?
43. State termination-for-convenience terms, notice periods and any minimum-volume penalties.
44. What exit assistance do you provide for data return, profile transfer and service continuity?
45. Provide three references of similar spend and geography, including at least one client onboarded in the last 24 months.

Q35–Q36 matter most for defense contractors and life sciences programs.

Running a standardized mock basket of 1,000 transactions

A mock basket converts every fee schedule into one comparable number. Each bidder prices the same 1,000 transactions; you multiply and sum. Build the mix from your own last 12 months of TMC data; the illustrative mix below reflects a typical North American mid-market program at about 70% online adoption.

Require bidders to state, for the same basket, the GDS surcharge exposure on the air lines, the commission treatment on the 200 hotel lines, and how the 30 schedule changes are billed. Put the basket pricing into the contract so it cannot be restated after award.

RFP instruction 2.3 · Binding basket pricing

The bidder’s priced response to the mock transaction basket shall form Schedule A of the resulting agreement. Any fee, surcharge or servicing charge not priced in the basket response shall not be invoiced during the initial term, and the per-unit fees stated shall apply irrespective of booking channel unless the basket defines a separate channel line.

A 12-week TMC RFP timeline

1. Weeks 1–2 — Data and requirements. Pull 12 months of invoice, ARC/BSP and hotel data; build the basket; fix weights and scoring rules.
2. Week 3 — Issue the RFP. Send to four to six bidders with a single question window and a published answer log.
3. Weeks 4–6 — Response window. Three weeks is enough for a complete response; longer windows mostly produce longer marketing sections.
4. Week 7 — Scoring. Score independently by category before the panel meets; reconcile differences of two points or more.
5. Week 8 — Scripted demonstrations. Give the two or three finalists the same scenarios: an NDC exchange, a mass disruption, a VIP rebooking.
6. Weeks 9–11 — Best and final offer and contract. Negotiate clauses against the basket, then award.
7. Week 12 onward — Implementation. 60–90 days with parallel running; see the transition playbook for incumbent exit steps.

Shortlisting help: the independent TMC comparison hub sets out how the major platforms differ before you decide whom to invite.