TRAVEL TECHNOLOGY
prnewswire | March 27, 2023
Brex today announced Brex travel, a premium travel management experience that delivers comprehensive booking and management capabilities, all in the Brex dashboard and mobile app, with unbiased global inventory, self-service trip changes, and 24/7 agent support.
With the addition of travel, Brex is extending Empower to provide the first, all-in-one global system that integrates card, expense management and travel in one app. Brex has partnered with Spotnana, to build its travel capabilities from the ground up on top of Spotnana's modern, cloud-based Travel-as-a-Service platform. Empower was designed to address the needs of companies as they grow, from startups through enterprise-level companies.
With business travel picking up, modern companies need an effective solution to manage global travel end-to-end. Brex delivers an integrated experience providing employees with a self-serve solution to book and manage trips. Automated receipt capture and approvals drive higher compliance and real-time visibility for finance teams. Live budgets allow them to proactively provision and track spend in real time to keep everyone accountable, within policy and on budget.
Manage travel budgets in one place.
With Brex Empower's integrated card, spend and travel management system, finance teams can create budgets and policies to manage travel across the entire company. Brex travel enables finance teams to roll out customized travel budgets across an organization, enabling individuals and teams to book travel compliant with spend policies. When all trip expenses are managed in the same budget, there is real-time visibility into how spend is trending, giving leaders the ability to manage travel spend proactively, putting travel dollars to where they have the most impact.
Employee experience drives compliance.
Brex travel delivers a consumer-grade booking experience, with an unbiased global inventory that provides employees with the most comprehensive choices and gives companies access to preferred rates. This reduces the need to book travel outside of the system, increasing adoption and improving policy compliance. With automatic approval of expenses that are in policy, managers can focus only on the exceptions while employees book their flights, swipe their card at restaurants, and check out from the hotel. And, a modern UI and easy-to-use mobile app increases employee adoption, helping keep travel in policy and in budget.
"Most employees find it hard to comply because they don't know what the policy is, and it takes a lot of effort to collect receipts and memos for every purchase," said Henrique Dubugras, co-Founder and co-CEO of Brex. "With Brex travel, you can easily see the right policy on the mobile app at the time of booking, and we automate receipt collection, memos and approvals on trips."
"Our previous solution was clunky and slow. Brex's easy-to-use platform takes the hassle out of booking business travel with built-in controls to ensure total compliance. The difference has been night-and-day." – Jeff Cullinane, Vice President of Strategy, Integration, & PMO at Satellite Healthcare
A global travel platform.
As a truly global solution, employees can book travel to anywhere in the world and access 24/7 customer support wherever they are. Brex's travel inventory is unbiased and not impacted by commissions, a common practice in the business travel industry. Brex travel increases trust and adoption by providing the most comprehensive inventory and range of choices to a business traveler — including global distribution system (GDS) fares, direct API integrations with airlines, basic economy seats, local and low-cost airlines (often left out of most travel systems), as well as hotels and car rentals in all major countries.
"Brex is an innovator that shares our passion for delivering superior customer experiences," said Sarosh Waghmar, Founder and CEO of Spotnana. "We are excited to partner with Brex and provide the core travel infrastructure that enables them to expand the Empower platform and create an end-to-end travel and expense solution."
Brex travel builds on the momentum of the Empower platform. Since launching in 2022, Empower has experienced rapid growth, onboarding hundreds of thousands of employees globally and adding hundreds of new capabilities and integrations. Empower is supported in more than 100 countries and used by companies like DoorDash, Coinbase, Indeed, Superhuman, SeatGeek, Built Technologies, and Scale AI to manage their global spend on one platform. Travel customers on Empower include GoGuardian, Miso Robotics, FMX, Satellite Healthcare, and more.
About Brex
Brex is the first fully unified global spend platform — with corporate cards, expense management, reimbursements, bill pay, and travel, all in one place. Brex makes it easy for finance teams and founders to manage every aspect of global spend at scale by empowering their employees anywhere to make better financial decisions. Brex proudly serves tens of thousands of businesses, from enterprises to startups.
About Spotnana
Spotnana powers unparalleled global travel experiences. We are modernizing the infrastructure of the travel industry in order to bring freedom, simplicity, and trust to travelers everywhere. Our Travel-as-a-Service Platform makes travel simpler and more affordable for corporations, while enabling our ecosystem of agency, supplier, and technology provider partners to increase operational efficiency, unlock new revenue sources, and accelerate innovation.
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BUSINESS TRAVEL
phocuswire | April 18, 2023
Host travel agency InteleTravel has acquired Hickory Global Partners, a corporate travel alliance, to cater to demand for blended travel. The purchase price was not disclosed.
“With the new blending of leisure and business travel, the idea of separate consortia for these markets is now outdated,” InteleTravel president James Ferrara said. “This merger creates a single source of advantages and support for all travelers and the professionals who serve them – the consortium of the future.”
Hickory will continue operating as its own brand “newly powered as a wholly owned unit of InteleTravel.” InteleTravel expects to create more than 100 jobs during the development of new programs.
Established in 1991, InteleTravel has a network of more than 90,000 independent, home-based advisors across the United States, United Kingdom, Caribbean, Mexico and Republic of Ireland, and is approaching $1 billion in sales. The Florida-based company said it has developed its own booking technology for all verticals and packaging tools including cruises, discount leisure hotel rates, short-term rentals, low-cost air carriers and activities and entertainment.
Hickory, whose members are corporate travel agencies, corporate travel departments and corporations, said it negotiates with hotels, airlines, ground transportation companies and ancillary partners “to provide our members with the best rates, incentives and opportunities available.”
Ferrara and Hickory president Chris Dane will work together to lead the focus on emerging market opportunities and initiatives for systemwide advancement, including a new Hickory business travel education and certification program for InteleTravel advisors. Hickory also said it will expand InteleTravel advisors’ earning opportunities with “business travel-focused education, negotiated travel products and services through Hickory’s air portfolio, preferred hotel and amenities programs, expense management tools and ancillary supplier partnerships.”
“We have a vision for a consortium that leads into the next decades with a modern view of business and leisure travelers, and advantages, technology and supply for our members to satisfy those needs,” Dane said. “InteleTravel’s resources and reach will help us do that.”
AboutInteleTravel
Turn a passion for travel into a flexible source of income and reward. When you become an InteleTravel agent, you can sell travel to anyone, including yourself. Book cruises, vacations, hotels, all-inclusive resorts, tours, airline tickets, car rentals and more. You’ll earn a commission based on the travel you sell. InteleTravel gives you the opportunity to benefit from your love of travel. Become an independent travel agent with InteleTravel and you’ll make a profit – guaranteed!
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COMMERCIAL TRAVEL
Sabre Corporation | May 17, 2023
Sabre Corporation, a leading software and technology provider that powers the global travel industry, today announced a long-term technology renewal with one of Taiwan's biggest travel agencies. The agreement means that South East Travel will continue to benefit from advanced Sabre solutions to support business expansion.
South East Travel has chosen to continue to deploy an extensive suite of Sabre products, including Sabre Red 360, which unlocks a full spectrum of bookable content to enable agents to create, sell, and service tailored trip experiences. The Taipei-headquartered agency is also using Sabre's Ticket Express, Automated Exchanges, Automated Refunds, and Bargain Finder Max. It will continue to use Sabre technology to automate repetitive tasks, increase productivity, reduce operational costs, understand customer preferences, and help agents to create optimum offers for both leisure and corporate travelers.
"We're delighted to extend and expand upon our strategic technology agreement with Sabre," said Joe Huang, General Manager, Ticketing Division of South East Travel. "Sabre has been our valued travel technology provider for more than 30 years, and we've already seen the benefits to our own business, and to our travelers, brought by a combination of technology and local support. It is essential for us to have continued seamless access to the advanced Sabre solutions we need to support our business expansion plans."
South East Travel was established more than 60 years ago. The group's services include domestic and international group travel, independent travel, air tickets, cruises, and business travel. It has more than 70 outlets across Taiwan, China, Japan and the United States.
"As Taiwan accelerates its recovery to pre-pandemic levels, we're thrilled that Sabre products will continue to support South East Travel so it can play an important role in the recovery and growth of the travel ecosystem in Taiwan, and beyond," said Brett Thorstad, vice president, Sabre Travel Solutions, agency sales - Asia Pacific. "This strategic agreement will support South East Travel to meet its diverse customer needs while scaling its business, and is a testament to its confidence in Sabre, and the ability of our advanced technology and our team to drive agency growth."
"Given the long-term relationship between South East Travel and Sabre Taiwan, we are incredibly excited by this expanded cooperation between the two companies. Sabre Taiwan will continue to work with South East Travel to optimize their operational efficiency and business growth with Sabre's automation solutions and localized products as well as our rapid and high quality service level," added Simon Lee, General Manager, Sabre Taiwan.
About Sabre Corporation
Sabre Corporation is a leading software and technology company that powers the global travel industry, serving a wide range of travel companies including airlines, hoteliers, travel agencies and other suppliers. The company provides retailing, distribution and fulfilment solutions that help its customers operate more efficiently, drive revenue and offer personalized traveler experiences. Through its leading travel marketplace, Sabre connects travel suppliers with buyers from around the globe. Sabre's technology platform manages more than $260B worth of global travel spend annually. Headquartered in Southlake, Texas, USA, Sabre serves customers in more than 160 countries around the world.
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