TRAVEL TECHNOLOGY
businesswire | May 30, 2023
Summer travel is set to explode, with 85% of adults planning to travel this summer, up 5% from last year’s post-pandemic high. As millions of Americans head online to research and book their summer travel, FullStory today released the results of a consumer survey that examines the digital preferences and behaviors of U.S. consumers.
The survey provides new proof that digital dominates travel planning, but not necessarily in the ways that brands may expect. Nearly 8 in 10 (78%) Americans always or frequently research and book at least some portion of their trips online. And 44% research and book the entirety of their travel plans online, from airlines to hotels to activities. Once they hit the road, half (48%) of Americans say they rely heavily on mobile travel apps.
High earners making more than $150,000 a year are even more likely to rely on digital channels for planning, with 83% always or frequently researching and booking online. Almost half (49%) lock in every piece of their trip online before departure.
Income aside, the majority of travelers (57%) would pay a premium for a guaranteed flawless digital experience. They’re more interested in practical enhancements like interface/navigation improvements (23%) and technical stability and reliability (17%) over buzzy features like AI chatbots (7%) and augmented reality (6%).
“Digital properties are the most prevalent way customers make travel decisions and transactions, so travel brands can’t afford any digital missteps,” said Darren Kennedy, SVP of Customer Experience for FullStory. “Our research continues to show that customers are loyal to experiences, not brands, and they’re searching for brands to do the basics really well – even more than ones that offer fancy new features. With so many trips almost entirely planned online in advance, brands need to start channeling empathy for the digital consumer and proactively find and fix digital issues before they impact customers.”
FullStory’s survey of 1,500 U.S. consumers, conducted online in May 2023, is the latest in a research series that addresses key questions in the travel digital experience:
Does the digital experience enhance or detract from the overall travel experience? Three-quarters (75%) of Americans surveyed say that digital makes the travel experience better. But some travel sites fare better than others. Hotel sites rank highest for digital experience, while car rental sites score lowest among travelers.
How common are bad digital experiences, and what is at stake? Travelers have low tolerance for digital struggles and are one click away from booking elsewhere. More than half (55%) say they are likely to book with another travel provider when they are frustrated with a site or app. With nearly 21% of respondents always or frequently struggling when booking or researching online, there is a significant opportunity for travel providers to improve the digital experience they deliver to customers.
What makes for a good travel experience? According to another recent FullStory survey, the #1 factor to ensure a great digital experience in 2023 is the ability to “quickly accomplish what I came to do” — a priority for 81% of Americans. However, only 26% of U.S. consumers describe the digital experience as “simple,” with 21% saying the experience is “stressful” or “difficult.
About FullStory
FullStory's digital experience intelligence (DXI) platform empowers businesses to deliver the best digital experiences across their websites and apps. Teams from product and engineering to marketing and customer support use FullStory to save time and money, innovate confidently, and ultimately grow revenue. Built on a patented DX Data Engine, FullStory transforms previously unnoticed, unstructured, and unindexed information into actionable DXI. The company is headquartered in Atlanta, with regional teams in London, Hamburg, Sydney, and Singapore.
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TRAVEL TECHNOLOGY
businesswire | March 29, 2023
Travel bookings with Boatsetter, the leading marketplace for on-water experiences and boat rentals nationwide, have increased almost 80% year-over-year with renters using the platform’s on-demand “Instant Book” feature, allowing renters the flexibility to get out on the water within 48 hours or less of making the original booking. The growth in reservations follows an early indication of record breaking consumer demand in major hubs such as Austin, Dallas, Phoenix, and San Diego. The company has grown the fleet of boats in each of these locations by more than 100% in the past 12 months, providing renters with an even greater array of on-the-water experiences to choose from.
The company attributes its unprecedented growth in these areas to its success in innovating the platform to meet growing consumer demand driven by popular work-and-play trends, including “bleisure” (business and leisure) trips, “workcations” (trips employees take during working hours with some time leftover to explore new locales), and "staycations" (vacations spent at home involving day trips to local attractions).
“As working consumers continue to take advantage of flexible remote work and hybrid work models, it’s easier than ever to extend a weekend trip with a partial day, full day or multi-day boat trip,” said Boatsetter CEO Michael Farb. “Boatsetter makes it easy for travelers to spend a day working from a boat, enjoy a sunset cruise after work, or even reserve an early morning fishing experience before logging on to the work day.”
Boatsetter has evolved its mobile-app and website experience to offer almost unlimited flexibility and customization options. Prospective renters can find varying trip durations, from half or full-day rentals to 2, 3, and 6-hour excursions, and even multi-day reservations. Multi-day bookings, an ideal option for renters who want to get out on the water for consecutive days in a row, have skyrocketed, with a 70% increase compared to data from this time last year. In addition, Boatsetter observed increased interest in day boat rental styles; the most popular vessels being pontoons, followed by center consoles, and bowriders.
“Our goal is to create a platform that makes getting on the water an accessible option for as many people as possible,” added Farb. “The Boatsetter team is consistently tracking consumer trends and the needs of our renters to innovate and expand our marketplace options.”
With over 1,500 captains to choose from, Boatsetter also offers the largest network of USCG-certified captains, allowing renters to enjoy a stress-free boating environment without any previous experience. To learn more about Boatsetter or book a rental, please visit www.boatsetter.com.
About Boatsetter
With more than 50,000 boat listings available in over 700 locations worldwide, Boatsetter is the leading marketplace for on-the-water experiences and boat rentals. Boatsetter makes it easy to discover and enjoy a wide array of on-water experiences by connecting qualified renters directly to boat owners and licensed captains. Featuring the largest database of USCG-certified captains, Boatsetter makes it possible for even those with no prior boating experience to tap into an incredible array of water activities. Credited with pioneering the first ever peer-to-peer boat rental insurance policy, Boatsetter has empowered boat owners with the tools and support to become entrepreneurs on the water. Launched commercially in 2014, over one million boaters and boat owners alike have turned to Boatsetter to discover the endless possibilities the water provides.
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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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