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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HOSPITALITY TRENDS
businesswire | May 05, 2023
Life House has been selected to manage two more hotels in California - Hotel Royal in Long Beach and Hotel La Rose in Sonoma County. Life House now operates seven hotels throughout California. Both owners faced similar challenges prior to switching to Life House, including fatigue keeping up with the day-to-day operations and a heavy reliance on expensive OTAs, all while desiring to preserve their connection to the property.
Hotel La Rose, a landmark 48-key property in the heart of Santa Rosa, has been welcoming travelers for over 100 years. The owners were attracted to Life House's ability to enhance their hotel's profitability while allowing them to devote more time to their other businesses. For the hotel’s owners, Lukhbir Gill, Hardeep Gill and Jim McCalligan, preserving the historic charm and unique character that had been cultivated through a century of heartfelt operations was very important.
“We wanted to free up our time, but deeply care about Hotel La Rose and the special experience our guests have enjoyed for so many years. Therefore, we could never see it being flagged,” said Hardeep Gill. “Life House is the perfect solution to operate this historic asset in a very sophisticated manner to optimize profitability, whilst maintaining the specialness & extraordinary charm.”
Hotel Royal, a 1923 Art Deco boutique hotel in Long Beach’s trendy East Village Arts District, had just celebrated its 100 year anniversary when the owner Victor Beauchamp retained Life House to take over management. “I had spent 20 years renovating and building our unique brand,” Beauchamp shared. “I was exhausted and needed help but couldn’t allow our family legacy to become just another corporate hotel. Life House’s personalized approach really appealed to us as a chance to maximize performance and compete with bigger, better resourced hotel brands while retaining what we love most about our property.”
This is a familiar tale for independent hotel owners who pour their heart into their properties but have difficulty keeping up with technological advances and increasing operational complexity. From transition through ongoing management, Life House’s partners have a dedicated Asset Manager who liaises with 140+ corporate experts within all pillars of hospitality operations, ensuring that the hotels employ best-in-class systems & processes at all times.
The owners of both Hotel Royal and Hotel La Rose were encouraged by the 258% increase in NOI versus pre-Life House management that was experienced by a historic property in close proximity to Hotel La Rose. Life House boosted revenue and decreased operating expenses by automating back-of-house functions, increasing profitability without adversely affecting the guest experience.
The Management Agreements for both properties were executed early this year. With an efficient transition process, they have both already launched under Life House management.
We are excited to partner with the owners of these special hotels, as they seek to spend their time in more meaningful ways,” said Rami Zeidan, Founder & CEO of Life House. “We’re excited to continue growing in California as there is an abundance of quaint independent hotels with similar attributes to the many hotels we’ve helped on the East Coast.”
About Life House
Life House is a vertically integrated hotel management & technology company focused on serving small and medium independent hotels with institutional quality service. Life House uses advanced software & operating systems to increase profitability and reliability for independent hotels throughout North America. Life House was founded in 2017 by real estate, hospitality, and technology veterans and is backed by world renowned private equity and venture investors. The company is ambitiously investing in its operational systems to make hotels far more profitable, predictable, and seamless for owners.
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BUSINESS TRAVEL
prnewswire | April 11, 2023
Spirit Airlines is offering frequent travelers a fast-track to the best benefits of the Free Spirit program, including free carry-on and checked bags, seat selection, onboard snacks and drinks and other valuable perks. The airline today announced a new partnership with StatusMatch.com, which allows elite members of more than 30 loyalty programs to apply to receive Free Spirit Gold® or Free Spirit Silver® Status for one year.
Free Spirit Status rewards the airline's most loyal Guests with valuable, enhanced benefits and flexibility.
Guests who hold frequent traveler status with 16 airline and 16 hotel loyalty programs throughout the Americas are eligible to match their status to Spirit. To view the full list of qualified programs and apply for this limited-time offer, visit Spirit.StatusMatch.com.
"Spirit offers convenient, nonstop routes for Guests who are regularly crisscrossing the country, and we're excited to offer road warriors the opportunity to continue enjoying the benefits they're accustomed to while flying Spirit," said Rana Ghosh, Vice President of Omnichannel Sales at Spirit Airlines. "We're incredibly proud of our Free Spirit program, which offers Gold and Silver members a long list of perks on every flight."
Guests who invest $49 to match to Free Spirit Silver Status receive valuable benefits including Shortcut Security & Boarding, free seat selection at check-in and fee waivers for award redemptions and overweight bags.
Perks of Free Spirit Gold Status, for a promotional rate of $99, include the benefits of Silver Status plus a free carry-on and checked bag, Flight Flex, free seat selection at booking and a complimentary drink and snack on board.
"With many airlines and hotels downgrading elite members, this is a great opportunity for members of the eligible airline and hotel programs to switch to Spirit Airlines," said Mark Ross-Smith, CEO of StatusMatch.com. "This is an amazing value for frequent travelers. We encourage eligible travelers to compare the affordable investment of the status match with the great benefits associated with Free Spirit Status."
The Free Spirit program makes it easy for elite members to requalify for Status and continue enjoying their valuable benefits. Participating Guests earn Status Qualifying Points (SQPs) on fares and À La Smarte® options and can earn additional SQPs by using an eligible Free Spirit credit card.
Invest in the Guest
The expanded program is Spirit's latest commitment to Invest in the Guest, which entails a number of initiatives aimed at delivering the best value in the sky:
Upgraded, wider seats with added cushion and headrests will debut on 26 new planes projected for delivery in 2023.
The Big Front Seat® offers more space, extra legroom and no middle seat. It's the best deal in the sky.
Spirit's Fit Fleet is one of the most fuel-efficient fleets in the industry.
Fast onboard Wi-Fi that allows Guests to watch content from streaming services.
About Spirit Airlines
Spirit Airlines is committed to delivering the best value in the sky. We are the leader in providing customizable travel options starting with an unbundled fare. This allows our Guests to pay only for the options they choose like bags, seat assignments, refreshments and Wi-Fi something we call À La Smarte®. Our Fit Fleet® is one of the youngest and most fuel-efficient in the United States. We serve destinations throughout the U.S., Latin America and the Caribbean, making it possible for our Guests to venture further and discover more than ever before. We are committed to inspiring positive change in the communities where we live and work through the Spirit Charitable Foundation. Come save with us at spirit.com.
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