To serve corporate travel accounts with $1.5 million or less in annual travel volume, Travelocity Business announced a turnkey booking-through-expense option powered by expense management firm Certify, online booking technology provider nuTravel Technology Solutions and Sabre's TripCase itinerary management.
Travelocity Business Express allows companies to set travel policies and pre-trip notifications and provides travelers with online and mobile booking capabilities, unused ticket tracking, seat selection, travel discounts, frequent flyer account information and 24/7 travel agent support, according to the companies.
According to Travelocity Business' marketing and product development vice president, Blake Goodwin, the product also will include management reports on spending.
Travelocity Business will provide customer support while Certify will provide limited account management.
Both Travelocity Business and Certify expect to sell the new offering. Based on client needs, sales reps could recommend either the Express option or the Travcelocity Business midmarket solution, Goodwin said.
Online bookings through Express cost $8 each; a phone reservation through an agent would incur a $25 fee.
The small-business solution has no additional setup or implementation fees and can be provisioned in minutes, according to the companies.
"The growing demand for travel and expense management for small companies is underserved in today's market," according to Goodwin's prepared statement.
While Travelocity Business serves midsize accounts and some of the largest managed travel programs, it previously didn't offer a booking-to-expense option for small businesses, according to a Certify spokesman. To fill the void, officials turned to technology partners that already had created an end-to-end solution.
Expense vendor Certify in January, for example, announced its Certify Travel end-to-end option, developed with booking technology provided by nuTravel.
Certify plans to continue selling and servicing that solution. Certify also works with FCm Travel Solutions on another product, but is not in the market for other technology partners, according to company executives.
Source: Business Travel News