The deal facilitates the expansion of Tripgrid’s market offering as the tool will now be available for the first time, via TripStax to travel management companies (TMCs) globally of any size. Until now, Tripgrid has only been accessible directly by corporates that did not work with a TMC.

Tripgrid – a design-first product organisation – has invested significantly in research and development to deliver a state-of-the-art, consumer-grade booking experience with simple, streamlined user journeys and workflows. It is the first design-led online booking tool specifically for the project, crew and team travel (PCTT) sector.

PCTT is one of the fastest growing business travel categories. Indeed, the spend on crew and workforce travel in 2024 is expected to be around 22% of global travel spend according to the GBTA’s latest Business Travel Index – a sum exceeding $325 billion annually.

PCTT travellers often include architects, engineers and construction workers; entertainment professionals; oil and gas employees; and sports teams. PCTT involves logistics, risk management, mobility issues and tech solutions that often fall outside traditional meetings, events and group travel management. However around 40% of PCTT transactions are still being booked individually by corporates and managed in spreadsheets.

Tripgrid’s investment in UX, UI and automation has transformed the flight booking user experience for business travel and replaces the manual, time consuming and error prone process of booking large amounts of flights with spreadsheets. Users of Tripgrid can book flights for an entire team in one booking flow, with visibility into real-time flight content, 24/7 support, stored traveller profiles, group checkout, and live flight tracking. The time-saving benefits are considerable as Tripgrid allows customers to book 20+ flights in less than 30 minutes when the traditional/manual process would take 1-3 days. Users also make significant savings on transaction fees, including the ability to cancel flights without paying an offline service fee.

Implementation of Tripgrid via TripStax will enable TMCs to meet demand for this state-of-the-art booking solution from their customers who have specific PCTT needs. It will enable TMCs to automate the entire booking process instead of manually booking flights in the GDS and hand-building itineraries, thus leading to significant efficiency gains and better reporting.

Demand from TMCs wanting to offer the tool to their own corporate customers is strong and TripStax is already in late stage contracting with several TMC clients.

The agreement further strengthens the relationship between TripStax and Tripgrid as it follows the announcement in October 2023 that TripStax’s technology is powering Tripgrid with essential back-end connectivity via the TripStax Content API and TripStax Profile applications – two of the ten interconnected stack of modules connected to the TripStax Core – an innovative data processing engine. The TripStax Content API enables Tripgrid to deliver GDS content to its customers, meaning Tripgrid can offer an unparalleled, best-in-class flight inventory for booking project crew and team travel, including multi-passenger bookings on the same flight. TripStax also created a traveller profile solution for Tripgrid, using its TripStax Portal module, which pushes traveller profiles to the GDS at point of booking.

Jake Hoskins, Co-founder and CEO Tripgrid explained: “GBTA’s recent research indicates that PCTT is a rapidly growing business travel category, currently representing 22% of global travel spend. However, the bulk of transactions are still being booked individually by corporates and managed in spreadsheets. We invested heavily in developing Tripgrid to bring much needed automation to the PCTT booking process. But this is no ordinary OBT. We also worked with one of the best design firms in the world to build the best UI and UX. We carried out extensive research interviewing more than 200 travel arrangers to understand their current process and pain points. Our ‘design thinking’, dedication and iterative process led us to a solution which specifically addressed their needs and everyone at Tripgrid is proud to bring such a product to the corporate travel market.

Until now however we have focussed on working directly with corporates who have significant PCTT requirements, but didn’t have a TMC in place to manage this for them. We are therefore excited to strengthen our partnership with TripStax, whose technology has already enabled us to leapfrog our development over the last year. Now TripStax will be able to fast-track access to Tripgrid for any TMC who wants to offer the solution to their customers.”

Jack Ramsey, CEO, TripStax said: “We are delighted to be enhancing our relationship with Tripgrid with this agreement and provide TMCs with access via TripStax to this innovative corporate booking tool. Most booking tools have been built around the capabilities of the supplier and that has meant that the tool has limitations. However, Tripgrid has been an experience-first led development, backed by extensive research which is why TripStax was so interested in working with them. It’s fully powered by TripStax from a Profile and Content perspective. Implementation of Tripgrid via TripStax is seamless because we are already providing back-end connectivity. It is truly ground-breaking for TMCs because until now they were not able to offer Tripgrid to their clients, even if a client wanted to use the tool. This partnership demonstrates the strength and versatility of our technology and how it can implement and support strategic partners in the industry.”

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