It's well known that the experience and functions of corporate booking tools don't match up to the ones we use when booking a holiday. In the race to 'consumerise' business travel products it will come as no surprise that there are some newcomers looking for a piece of the pie.
In the third of this series, we caught up with Nag Palavalli, president and CEO of San Francisco-based TripCloud.
When did you launch?
In August 2016, we launched TripCloud beta to a handful of customers in the United States. Our public launch is this month just in time for the Business Travel Show.
How many people are working for the company?
We are a team of six.
Sum up what your company/product does in one sentence?
TripCloud is an online travel desk application for small and mid-sized businesses.
What problem does it solve?
Small and mid-sized businesses are rapidly adopting cloud-based applications like Salesforce, Zenefits, QuickBooks and G Suite to manage the different aspects of their business — sales, HR, accounting, communications etc. Yet they don't want to use travel management tools offered by incumbents because they are bloated, outdated and expensive.
Although many companies spend more than $100,000 a year on travel, much of this is unmanaged and booked through consumer booking sites. Companies struggle to keep track of spend and don't have enough data to optimise their travel. TripCloud gives companies everything they need to effectively manage travel for their employees in one place. No contracts or expensive monthly fees.
What do travel managers like about it?
- It arms them with enough information through an interactive and data-rich travel dashboard so they can identify potential cost savings
- It helps them control spend by setting flexible policies
- They can easily offer personalised travel assistance for every employee in the organisation
Why is it unique?
- It combines the best features of enterprise travel management tools with an intuitive user experience on par with consumer booking tools like Kayak/Airbnb in a package that is well suited for small and mid-sized businesses.
- There are no contracts to sign or expensive monthly fees; TripCloud only charges a nominal booking fee.
What platforms is it available on and can integrate with?
It is available on the web and is coming soon to iOS and Android smartphones.
What markets is it available in?
Currently available in the United States. Coming soon to the UK and India, then further into Europe.
Find disruptors in Launchpad at Business Travel Show 22-23 February. Register here