Travel management platform slashes hotel, flight, train and rental car costs by rewarding employees for saving.
NEW YORK – Rocketrip, the first commercially available platform that rewards employees for saving money on business travel, announced that its customer FreeWheel has saved over 30 percent on travel and expense (T&E). Since signing with Rocketrip in January 2014, FreeWheel employees have saved an average of $333 per trip.
In 2013, FreeWheel, a leader in television ad technology and monetization, discovered that with rapid growth came hefty travel expenses. The company had expanded from its headquarters in San Mateo, CA to four additional offices in New York, London, Beijing and Paris to meet worldwide demand. As their sales and implementation teams travelled more frequently, T&E costs grew substantially.
FreeWheel’s employees booked on a variety of travel sites, which made it difficult to track and report on expenses. Beyond meeting the company’s travel policy, employees had no incentive to make cost-effective choices. FreeWheel implemented Rocketrip in January 2014 with goals to reduce T&E by 20 percent, incentivize cost-efficient travel, and simplify accounting and reporting.
Before booking each business trip, FreeWheel employees spend 30 seconds entering their plans into Rocketrip.com, and Rocketrip generates a personal “Budget to Beat” based on company policy and real-time prices for flights, hotels, trains and rental cars. Next, employees book their trip and forward receipts to Rocketrip, which automatically parses receipts and records the savings.
Initially, employees booked travel on the open market. Today, as a Comcast subsidiary, FreeWheel combines Rocketrip seamlessly with Comcast’s corporate travel agency. When an employee books under budget, FreeWheel and the employee split the savings. For every $2 saved, employees earn $1 back to use toward merchandise from retailers such as Amazon, Best Buy, Bloomingdale’s, J. Crew and many others.
By motivating employees to save, Rocketrip has significantly reduced travel expenses for FreeWheel. Today, employee savings have increased to an average of $355 per trip, $125 per hotel night and $105 per flight. 50 percent of employees now book travel 14+ days in advance, slashing flight costs by an average of 23 percent.
Employees generate the savings using a variety of tactics. At FreeWheel, staying with a friend rather than booking a hotel, selecting a lower hotel star class and booking with Airbnb account for the majority of hotel savings. On the flight side, employees are choosing the lowest fares available, opting for less expensive carriers and even using personal miles to bring down costs and rack up Rocketrip points.
“Rocketrip has been an instrumental tool in the travel savings generated by employees for FreeWheel both through the open market and our new travel partner,” said Claudia Klossner, VP Finance and Corporate Controller for FreeWheel. “Employees love the rewards, and we’re loving the savings.”
“FreeWheel exemplifies how a company can use Rocketrip to not only reduce travel expenses but also transform company culture,” said Dan Ruch, founder and CEO of Rocketrip. “Their employees have become eager partners in managing travel costs. No one worries about breaking the ‘rules’ or thinks about maxing out their budget anymore. Everyone knows what a trip should cost, everyone feels motivated to save and everyone wins.”
Vicky is the co-founder of TravelDailyNews Media Network where she is the Editor-in Chief. She is also responsible for the daily operation and the financial policy. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Tourism Business Administration from the Technical University of Athens and a Master in Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Wales.
She has many years of both academic and industrial experience within the travel industry. She has written/edited numerous articles in various tourism magazines.
