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Mr. Robert Kost co-founder and CEO of Portaga, Inc. analyzes in TravelDailyNews the potential of his company’s new web tool TripSync which has been recently launched in US market.
TravelDailyNews: What are your expectations from launching this new web tool?
Robert Kost: Our expectations are nothing less than ‘changing the game’ in online travel distribution. TripSync is focused on the largest single block of travelers in the United States – the small to mid-sized business, for whom no appropriate travel management tools exist. Our approach, in contrast to that of Expedia, Orbitz or Travelocity, is not to be a “destination site” where people come to book travel. Instead, we want to make travel tools accessible to the user and his/her company from wherever they happen to be working – in the calendar, at a 3rd party website, from their expense management and accounting systems, their sales systems and, of course, from our own TripSync website. As the number of our distribution outlets increases, we expect that both travelers and the businesses that they work for will register and use the product in increasingly large numbers.
TDN: How are the small and medium-sized companies being treated regarding business travel in US?
R. K.: They are largely neglected and ignored. When they are not, they are underserved.
On the one hand, there are large corporate travel tools – like GetThere, ResX and Cliqbook –which are overkill for the needs of the small business traveler. They are highly complex and expensive systems that require a good deal of configuration and training. On the other hand, there are “corporate” versions of the existing online tools – Expedia, Orbitz and Travelocity – which are essentially more expensive, but largely unchanged versions of their existing leisure booking tools.
TripSync started from the ground up, trying to understand and meet the needs of the small to mid-sized business and their employees. Everything we do – from active calendaring, to “Book and Hold,” to cross-organization management – was built with Simplicity, Organization and Synchronization in mind.
TDN: How is this new tool going to facilitate their travel?
R. K.: The answer to this question is best understood by looking at business travel as a process or lifecycle: as pre-trip, in-trip and post-trip.
First, there is the pre-trip stage, in which planning, budgeting, coordinating, shopping and booking occurs. TripSync’s active itinerary approach, which allows the user to experiment with a variety of alternative scenarios before committing to one, is perhaps the best way of planning and budgeting for a trip. Because TripSync allows a single person (such as an Admin) to book highly complex itineraries for many travelers, travel can be coordinated for several employees at once. Our unique “Book and Hold” feature allows the traveler to reserve the trip without paying for it for up to 24 hours, while business plans are solidified and expenses approved. And finally, our deep calendar integration means that scheduling can occur at the same time as booking – hence entirely avoiding conflicts and errors.
The in-trip stage occurs during travel, and the traveler’s need at this point is to be able to modify their trip on-the-fly. We can accomplish this through a simple drag-and-drop in the calendar, or in conversation with a 24/7 reservation support system. This month, the traveler will be able to modify their trip directly from their mobile phone. Wherever the trip is modified, it is automatically synchronized with the calendar, so that the company is always up to date on the traveler’s latest plans.
Finally, in post-trip, the traveler and their company will need to record, approve and account for the travel. TripSync makes trip expense information readily available to the traveler, and currently can export those expenses to Excel for fast reporting.
TDN: Flight delays and cancellations are the biggest pet peeve for business travelers according to studies in US. Can TripSync be a handy tool in this case?
R. K.: Yes, beginning today, the traveler and their business will receive instant alerts through email and on their mobile phone in the event that flights are delayed, or if other significant travel-related events occur.
TDN: What is the market share of small and medium-sized businesses in the business travel sector in relation to the large corporations in US? Do you feel that is a great potential ahead for products such as TripSync?
R. K.: Of the roughly $30 billion USD spent on online travel by businesses in the US, small and mid-sized “unmanaged” travel accounts for roughly 40 percent. Most of this spending occurs at one of the major online sites – Expedia, Orbitz or Travelocity or at the airline or hotel sites. Because we are aligning ourselves with the travel suppliers – the airlines, hotel and car rental companies – we believe we have a great opportunity to recapture this travel spend on behalf of suppliers.
TDN: What are the drawbacks of the today’s online travel tools offered in companies?
R. K.: They are good for the leisure traveler, but are littered with advertising and “deals” of little relevance to the business traveler who just needs to get to a meeting in Chicago on Thursday for example. Because they were built prior to the “Web 2.0” era, they are linear and page-oriented in their approach; flight must always be booked first, hotel is chosen next, and only during the period for which the flight is made, etc. Modifying the itinerary on-the-fly is not possible; the web tools that exist are too rigid for this. The booking process is also cumbersome – containing few, if any, of the business-related features we described above; no calendar synchronization, no trip-reporting, no booking or managing travel for an organization, no complex itineraries, etc.
TDN: What are the future plans of the company? Are you going to launch any other tools for the small business traveler and in other markets outside US?
R. K.: TripSync will undergo constant improvement and expansion. Its feature set will expand roughly every two weeks, its software connectors will get more and more robust, and the number of integrations with third party tools, such as CRM and expense management, will also increase. There will also be a variety of third party branded versions of the application.
The European market is too large to ignore, and we will begin expansion into it in 2008. We are already in discussions with a number of non-US carriers concerning ways in which they might use the product, and we look forward to serving the unique needs (such as train travel) of the European traveler.
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
