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 TBiz 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 TBiz 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.