Customers of corporate travel booking tool TripActions now can
access inventory from Expedia and its subsidiary Hotels.com, as well as
Priceline subsidiaries Agoda and Booking.com. TripActions already brings in content
from Sabre and a limited Priceline inventory, according to TripActions founder
and CEO Ariel Cohen. More than half of TripActions bookings come from the
consumer booking tool selections, he added.
In April, the startup completed its series A financing with
$12.5 million. Lightspeed Venture Partners led that funding and Zeev Ventures
also participated. TripActions has used the funds to expand its team to support
new and current customers, Cohen said.
How TripActions Works
The tool establishes a price to beat, based on real-time
market data and trip factors like date, origin and destination. If a traveler
beats the estimate, he or she keeps 30 percent of the savings in the form of a
gift card, Cohen explained. Using machine learning, the platform learns users'
preferences and tailors results for future bookings while staying within company
policy. TripActions charges $20 per trip.
TripActions targets midsize companies; digital storage
company Box and British audio equipment manufacturer Bowers & Wilkins are
among its clients, as are startups like business intelligence software company ThoughtSpot
and public sector software company OpenGov.
Cohen
claims TripActions also has gained business from the likes of American Express
Global Business Travel, Concur, Egencia and Carlson Wagonlit Travel. "A
lot of our very successful implementations are being done as a replacement of
an existing TMC," Cohen said. "These customers are really looking for
something that is more friendly, saves money and delivers the basic idea of
corporate travel, which is to have certain controls on the spend and make sure
the employees are loving the system and having an effective trip."