U.S. Bancorp’s acquisition of expense management software builder and travel agency TravelBank culminates a series of investments to build integrated business software and services, accelerate midmarket demand for banking and payments, and fend off financial technology firms. Banks traditionally picked up small business clients through lending and banking, but a digital revolution has changed that,…
Danny Hood has seen it all during a career spanning four decades. In 1993 he joined WorldTravel Partners, which became WorldTravel BTI in 2001 and BCD Travel in 2006. He served the company as president of the Americas until 2010. Over the years, corporate travel boomed and busted a few times, and Hood was involved…
[UPDATE, Oct. 8, 2021: Capital One acquired Lola’s software and hired its team, according to media reports.] Some high-profile business travel startups are not cutting it. According to its website, Lola.com is suspending existing operations. The doomed service joins Upside Business Travel as a former corporate travel provider founded by an online travel titan. Lola…
The largest player is after the market’s smallest accounts, which by many accounts are leading the business travel recovery. Continuing a customer segmentation strategy, American Express Global Business Travel last week brought to the United States an employee spend management solution for small and medium-sized enterprises first introduced last year in the United Kingdom. With…
With unruly passengers, fears of virus transmission and understaffed airport concessions, a quiet place to sit, work and eat can go a long way. American, Delta and United airlines within the next few months will reopen nearly all domestic airport lounges. Card companies Chase and Capital One are preparing brand new airport clubs, competing with…
The planned acquisition by American Express Global Business Travel of Egencia has multiple implications depending on the party in question. For GBT, it’s about scale, particularly in the online midmarket. GBT has long coveted this segment, which has a fresh batch of well-funded competition. The deal will avail GBT’s big corporate accounts of more attractive…
The pandemic stopped most business travel, but it did not end the relentless and historically futile quest for an online-first intermediary that attracts and keeps loads of small-to-midsized business clients. While many such companies use local corporate travel agencies and some use global ones, a lot of them book with suppliers or consumer-oriented online travel…
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