Contracts

What is the Statewide Travel Program?

The Statewide Travel Program, under the California Department of General Services, helps government travelers by securing the most economical travel rates and fares through contracted services. These services include:

• Airline
• Commercial Car Rental
• Lodging
• Rideshare
• Travel Management Services
• Travel Payment Services
• Virtual Card Program

The Statewide Travel Program gathers data to ensure transparency. We then use the data to negotiate reduced rates and fares for travelers on official government business.

What are the services the Statewide Travel Program provides?

Airline: The state's preferred carriers for all domestic and international flights are listed on the resources page of our website, located here. Contracted rates, amenities and terms have been loaded into Concur.

Commercial Car Rental: Enterprise is the state’s contracted vendor for car rental. Where Enterprise is unavailable, National may be utilized. Contracted rates, amenities, and terms for short-term vehicle rentals have been loaded into Concur. Long-term and specialty vehicles can be reserved through an alternate process, found on our Car Rental resources page.

Lodging: The Preferred Hotel Program represents negotiated rates at preferred hotel properties in California. Contracted Preferred Hotel Program properties will be visible in Concur as “Preferred” or “Most Preferred.” Contracted rates, amenities and terms have been loaded into Concur.

Rideshare: Agencies who participate in the Statewide Travel Program can opt into Uber for Business. This program allows travelers to direct bill their Uber rides to their agency account and avoid the reimbursement process. Please see State Travel Ridesharing Ground Transportation for more information.

Travel Management Services: CI Azumano is the state’s contracted travel agency. CI Azumano uses an online booking tool, Concur to provide travelers with the ability to book their business travel online. Reservations that are urgent, mid-trip changes or last-minute travel can be handled over the phone with a travel agent. Concur also offers a mobile app, which is an optional tool for travelers and not required.

Travel Payment Services: U.S. Bank is the state’s contracted bank to pay for all travel-related services. Agencies who participate in the Statewide Travel Program can opt into Meeting Management. This program provides a physical card for agencies to use to pay for conference-related costs. This card can also be used to pay for EV charging, Uber for Business, and the card on file for hotel reservations.

Virtual Card Program: Agencies who participate in the Statewide Travel Program can opt into the Virtual Card Program. This program allows travelers to pay for lodging with a virtual card instead of paying with a personal card and going through a reimbursement process. Please see Virtual Payment and Virtual Card Number VCN Resources for more information.

Is my agency eligible to participate in the Statewide Travel Program?

Any publicly funded government agency within California is eligible to join the program. Please email StatewideTravelProgram@dgs.ca.gov and a Travel Specialist will reach out to discuss the enrollment process.

What is the process to access the state’s contracted, negotiated rates?

To access the state’s contracted, negotiated rates, participating agency travelers must make all travel arrangements through the Statewide Tavel Program’s authorized travel agency, CI Azumano, or designated online booking tool, Concur. If you administer travel for your agency and are interested in joining the Statewide Travel Program, please email StatewideTravelProgram@dgs.ca.gov and a Travel Specialist will reach out to discuss the enrollment process.

Can we choose which contracted services we want to use?

To maintain our deep discounts with contracted vendors, use of all contract components is required for participating agencies. The following contracts are mandatory for executive branch agencies when using the Statewide Travel Program:

• Airline
• Commercial Car Rental
• Lodging
• Travel Management Services
• Travel Payment Services

Participating agencies are required to make business travel bookings exclusively through the contracted vendors of the Statewide Travel Program to access its services and available discounts.

The following are additional programs that agencies can opt into when using the Statewide Travel Program:

• Rideshare
• Virtual Card Program

What if our agency uses other SAP Concur products such as Concur Request and/or Concur Expense? (for non-executive branches)

To integrate Request and/or Expense with Concur Travel, your agency will need to work directly with the dedicated Concur contact (typically, a Concur Project Manager) that implemented your other SAP Concur products. The two parties will provide guidance on integrating either or both products into Concur Travel. This involves setting up the necessary configurations and ensuring seamless alignment between the different Concur solutions to optimize travel and expense management processes.   

Are there any fees to join/use the Statewide Travel Program?

There are zero enrollment, implementation, or setup fees to join the Statewide Travel Program.

There are transactions fees associated with the contracted Travel Management Services provider, CI Azumano. All transaction fees are paid by the participating agency.

*Flat fee for booking any combination of domestic or international air, rail, car, and hotel.

**Reservation made without agent assistance.

***The Statewide Travel Program offsets hotel and/or car-only reservations and virtual payment transaction fees to agencies who are in compliance with the program.