DESTINATION AND TOURISM, COMMERCIAL TRAVEL
KAYAK | January 27, 2023
KAYAK, the leading search engine for travel, recently announced that it has partnered with Affirm, a payment network, to make its payment operations flexible and to empower its travelers in the United States.
According to KAYAK search data, flight prices are rising by about 40% per year. Despite increased flight prices, travelers are still searching for flight bookings in 2023. With Affirm, KAYAK is making it easier for travelers to plan and pay for their trips this year. Now, approved KAYAK travelers can split the cost of flights, hotels, car rentals, and car sharing over $150 into monthly payments by choosing Affirm when they check out. Thus, KAYAK can reach 15 million of Affirm's consumers and 245,000 merchants, including American Airlines, Priceline, Vrbo, Vacasa, and more thereby, enhancing its new reach, overall sales, repurchase rates, and average order value.
Paul Jacobs, General Manager and Vice President of KAYAK North America, says, "It's good to have choices, especially in this economy. In addition to showing travelers all their options on KAYAK, Affirm gives travelers the ability to plan how they pay."
(Source – Business Wire)
Geoffrey Kott, Chief Revenue Officer at Affirm, remarks, "This past fall, Affirm's consumers increased purchases at airlines over seven times compared to the prior year, demonstrating higher consumer demand for payment flexibility when booking travel." He adds, "By partnering with KAYAK, we are able to bring consumers a flexible and transparent way to pay for travel, especially at a time when many are looking for ways to regain financial control and spending power amidst rising costs."
(Source – Business Wire)
About KAYAK:
KAYAK is part of Booking Holdings Inc, one of the world's most prominent search engines for travel. It helps people find the vacation package, hotel, rental or shared car, and flights they want. The company enables travelers to search for the best flight deals and book with flexibility, as it's pretty reliable and completely free to use. With trip planning tools like a flight tracker, trip planner, and bag measure, KAYAK ensures that travelers' overall experience is more than just a flight search site!
Read More
TRAVEL TECHNOLOGY
Tripleseat | February 03, 2023
Tripleseat, a prominent cloud-based sales and catering management platform for hotels, recently announced a collaboration with Cvent, a leader in events, meetings, and hospitality technology, creating a new integration that will unite and automate the event management and inquiry process.
This integration will connect the Tripleseat platform to the Cvent Supplier Network. As a result, event planners utilizing Cvent to submit a request for proposal (RFP) to venues will automatically be added as new leads on the Tripleseat accounts of the respective venues. To benefit from this integration, venues must be a Cvent Supplier Network member as well as a Tripleseat customer.
Moreover, the integration allows venues, particularly hotels, to gain from the global reach of the two companies. More than 15,000 hotels, restaurants, and unique venues worldwide use Tripleseat to book 10 million events and experience a 35% increase in customer revenue. Additionally, over 90,000 corporate planners use Cvent to source venues and manage events.
Jonathan Morse, CEO of Tripleseat, said, "There is no doubt that the number of events being planned and the cost per event is growing." He added, "Which is exactly why we partnered with Cvent. Our new integration will help venues that work with both Tripleseat and Cvent to reach thousands of event planners who are looking for properties to host their events in 2023."
(Source – PR Newswire)
About Tripleseat
Tripleseat is a web-based catering and event management platform for hotels, restaurants, and distinctive venues headquartered in Concord, Massachusetts. It collects leads from the venue's website and Facebook page and automatically populates everything to make the event manager's job easier. With a few clicks, the platform can create a client database, track their booking history, generate all the necessary documents, and display the information on an accessible web-based calendar. Tripleseat is disrupting the restaurant industry by providing solutions and streamlining the entire event process.
Read More
BUSINESS TRAVEL
Deem | February 24, 2023
On February 23, 2023, Deem, a pioneer in mobile-first corporate travel management software, announced that its improved Etta business travel booking website is now available for early access. Deem representatives can provide customers with access, allowing them to experience new features, including:
A new e-commerce-style shopping cart enables users to search and select hotels, flights, and rental cars in any order and then check out when finished.
Responsive design that improves the booking experience no matter what device is used.
EcoCheck tool features the same functionalities and data as Etta for iOS and Android.
Etta's award-winning accessibility features are now fully realized in the desktop app, allowing everyone to book corporate travel on the Etta website easily.
The delegate booking feature, available in both classic and updated Etta, enables travel managers to book, manage, and monitor travel for their entire team.
Responsive design is a crucial requirement today, as 92% of people browse the internet on their phones. Moreover, website traffic through phones is on the rise, with 59.5% as of 2022's third quarter. The new version of Etta will automatically reformat for optimal performance on the platform used to access it.
Sustainability information is also important to travelers, with 77% of business travelers responding that reducing their carbon footprint during travel is a moderate or top priority. Those between 18-34 account for the highest percentage (86%) of the respondents. EcoCheck offers reliable carbon emissions data, contextual information, and hotel ratings during the travel booking process.
Better accessibility is crucial to enable more people to benefit from digital platforms. With Deem's award-winning accessibility functionality now on the Etta website, it meets the WCAG 2 AA-level guidelines.
Customers with early access can activate the latest Etta web experience by toggling a button in the screen's top right corner. Once enabled, the toggle is applied across the site. This new version of the Etta business travel software will be available for all locations this summer.
About Deem
Deem is a corporate travel management software provider with solutions designed to help employees work and travel more efficiently while companies can apply policies and control costs. Its platform allows travel managers to customize travel programs and easily service travelers. The company's products give employees the tools to make better travel decisions, save money, and stay connected. Its technology plugs into travel management and expense providers, and its suite of tools is used by corporate customers and travel management companies globally. Deem is headquartered in Silicon Valley, California, and has offices in Bangalore, India and Dublin, Ireland. It is wholly owned by Enterprise Holdings.
Read More