12 Things We’re Thankful for This Thanksgiving
1. Further delivering on our all-in-one experience with SuperItinerary
This fall we announced a new product we are developing that will change the entire business travel experience. With it, users get access to a mobile itinerary view for their business trips, creating an easier, organized, and more streamlined travel experience. They will also have integrated trip budgets to help guide spend based on their company’s travel policy, support faster return on reimbursement, make it easier for employees to see what their travel policy is, and help admins spend less time processing expense reports. And lastly, users have access to the TravelBank Marketplace, a one-stop shop for all their business travel needs.
2. The incredible partners that help us power TravelBank Marketplace
Within the TravelBank Marketplace, our users can shop for anything they may need to support a business trip such as airport lounge passes, ground transportation, and even bleisure activities. The marketplace is already available to registered TravelBank users with over 30 brand partners including Clear, Lyft, Brex, GroundLink, Uber, SkyRoam, Wag! and Turo offering exclusive deals.
3. Exclusive offers on hotels
Speaking of exclusive offers, this year we introduced new discounted rates to our inventory, averaging 20% off for more than 40,000 hotels. We partnered directly with hotels to provide these rates exclusively to our entire community, since we know that many of our small business clients don’t qualify for discounts with their own volume alone. As for our larger clients with their own negotiated corporate rates, they can also work with us to integrate those rates in the TravelBank app for their employees to book.
4. Trust and transparency in flight bookings
In an effort to increase consumer trust through transparency, we unveiled a new flight booking experience this year, the Next Generation Storefront (NGS). The NGS addresses the growing variety and nuances in branded fare classes. It allows users to quickly scan flight options across multiple airlines and fare classes, choose a flight, and select seat preference – all on one screen to help them find the best product for their travel needs. This way, travelers know exactly how their travel experience is going to stack up in terms of comfort and productivity.
5. Seeing TravelBank work for more customers than ever
We feel so grateful to get to build a product and see it work for our customers, whether that’s watching a company cut booking time in half by switching from Google Flights to TravelBank, or helping a team cut costs while also increasing visibility into travel spend. It is our goal to help businesses manage their travel and expenses effectively with ease so they can focus on growing their business and hitting their goals.
“TravelBank has provided us with excellent visibility into our employee bookings,” said Kandi Phillips, Office, Perks and Events Manager at Clearlink. “We are able to see spend as a whole and within departments, and easily see issues such as users booking flights less than 7 to 14 days out.”
6. Welcoming new customers to the TravelBank family
It delights us that road warriors, budget trackers, innovators, and travel planners, from companies of all sizes who use TravelBank to manage their travel and expenses. Welcoming new customers this year like Doordash, Wag!, Westbrook, and Acorns to the TravelBank family remind us why we work so hard to deliver an excellent product and user experience.
7. Growing and restructuring our teams
To ensure we are providing the best possible customer experience along the way, we’ve restructured our teams to deliver product innovation faster, and put the customer first with support, whether that be for the product or travelers on the road. Our team of travel agents is available 24/7 via phone, chat, or email, and customer success managers are there every step of the way from fun travel program launch parties to implementing successful travel policies.
8. Growth of our annual event Altitude
Last year we launched Altitude, a new kind of global gathering, at which we hosted learning sessions for partners and customers and gave them a first look at our plans for the product. This year we added a main stage, made some major announcements, hosted more than a dozen speakers and panelists, grew attendance by over 200%, and discussed all things business travel and expenses.
“Thank you so much for hosting a wonderful conference!” said Wendy Lue who attended from Lyric and spoke on one of our panels. “I thought that the Altitude was particularly thoughtful, well organized, and a ton of fun. I’ve added it to our list of conferences to attend next year to ensure that we have budget allocated so that we can return”
9. The investors who believe in us
After going through Series A and Series B funding, it was with great excitement that we announced that Dreamers VC, the venture capital fund set up by American actor Will Smith and Japanese soccer player Keisuke Honda, invested in our all-in-one business travel and expense management platform this year.
“Our team has experienced first-hand the positive impact TravelBank’s technology can have in the workplace, and how its simple to use approach streamlines important, yet time-consuming and sometimes confusing processes,” says Co-founder and Managing Partner at Dreamers VC Tashi Nakanishi. “TravelBank is already improving the lives of its users, directly aligning with our mission, and we’re excited to be a part of what’s next.”
10. Over one million expenses processed
Two and a half years ago we launched the first version of the TravelBank app with the goal of creating a smarter and better way for companies to manage their business spend. And as of this year more than 1 million expenses have been created in TravelBank. That many receipts could sack to the height of the Statue of Liberty! We analyzed what 1 million expenses looks like, what business travelers are spending the company dime on, and are so thankful for the growth and all of the businesses that trust us to help them manage their expenses.
11. The love we got from the press
For another year running we’ve been blown away by the media attention we’ve received, from a feature in The Company Dime highlighting our latest innovations and industry trends of partnership to a Q&A session with BTN on what small and midsize enterprises want in a booking tool. We were listed by Fast Company, along with our customer Acorns as one of 13 apps that can help you save and make money, and we were honored to be included on the Skift 2019 Corporate Travel Innovators List.
12. Being recognized for the work we do
Earlier this year we were absolutely humbled when we were named by the SF Business Times as one of the best places to work. Company culture is extremely important to us and we truly believe that investing in happy and fulfilled employees translates to better work, a better business, and better delivery of our products and services. We were also proud to see our CEO and co-founder, Duke, names as one of Skift’s Top Corporate Travel Innovators and to be named one of PhocusWire’s Hot 25 for 2020.
