Travel and spend management platform Engine has acquired
travel management company Options Travel, with plans to launch an AI booking
tool for TMCs, the company announced.
Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed, but
an Engine spokesperson said the acquisition has been completed. Engine is
retaining the Mount Prospect, Ill.-based Options' brand identity, with the TMC
continuing to operate independently and its current leadership team intact.
Engine already has been working with Options for nine months
in exploring solutions for TMC agents in booking and management, the company
said, and those plans are accelerating now following the acquisition. Together,
they are developing an "AI-native OBT" capable of managing bookings,
payments, reporting, customer management and duty of care for TMCs, the
companies said.
"TMCs are the relationship experts at the center of the
industry," Engine founder and CEO Elia Wallen said in a statement.
"The technology behind them hasn't kept up. Working with Options Travel
showed us exactly where it falls short. TMCs deserve modern technology behind
them, and that's what we're here to bring."
Originally launched as Hotel Engine, a subsidiary to
corporate housing company Travelers Haven to help guest with hotel bookings,
Engine has
grown into a platform offering booking for flights, hotels, rental cars and
meetings as well as a spend management and corporate
card product. It reports more than 33,000 businesses among its customers.
Options Travel general manager Brett Buynack in a statement
said that joining Engine "lets us help build what our industry has been
waiting for: real technology, for every TMC that's been underserved by legacy
software."