Upside Travel

Upside Travel is an American travel company for business booking.

Upside Travel
FoundedJanuary 2017 (2017-01) in Washington, D.C.
FounderJay S. Walker
Websiteupside.com

History

The company was founded by Jay S. Walker, who had previously founded Priceline.com.[1] Based in Washington, D.C.,[2] Upside was launched in January 2017, and was used by ten thousand companies over its first year.[3] The company received $50 million in its first round of funding,[4] reaching a valuation of $200 million.[5][6] In the Summer of 2017, the company pivoted from package and gift card rewards to en route servicing.[7]

Platform

The platform is used by those engaging in business travel, in order to compile accommodations and transportation arrangements.[8] Packages are rated by the site, and search results can be refined by user-generated search parameters.[9] The company has named its platform a “flexibility engine”, which scores and analyzes the entire travel industry’s available options every twenty-four hours.[10] It is designed for use by employees of small and medium sized businesses.[11]

The platform is used by employees themselves instead of travel managers to create individual travel plans. In addition to their travel, users are given a retail gift card.[3][12][13] The gift cards are intended to try to convince employees booking their own travel to reduce the cost of their travel plans to their employers, by providing a portion of the savings to the employee themselves (via the card).[14][15]

In 2017 Upside further launched The Wall Street Journal Business Travel Service, which is a travel planning service available to subscribers to The Wall Street Journal as well as the public.[16]

References
  1. Brady, Ryan Craggs,Paul. "5 Clever Ways to Score a Hotel Deal". CN Traveler.
  2. "Priceline founder's DC-based travel site makes public debut". WTOP. 16 January 2017.
  3. Gorce, Tammy La (28 August 2017). "Business Trip or Vacation? Travel Start-Ups Try to Blur the Line". The New York Times.
  4. "Skift's Most Interesting Corporate Travel Startups 2017". Skift. 22 March 2017.
  5. "Priceline Founder Raises $50 Million for New Venture". Bloomberg. 16 January 2017.
  6. "Upside's Big Valuation Shows Hunger for Biz Travel Tech". Skift. 19 January 2017.
  7. https://www.thecompanydime.com/upside-travel-bcd/
  8. "Paging Frugal Business Travelers: A New Perk". Wall Street Journal.
  9. http://webreprints.djreprints.com/4153770514461.html
  10. Reiss, Robert. "The Five CEOs Who Are Reinventing Industry Through Digital". Forbes.
  11. Gardner, Terry. "Here's the upside for business — and leisure travelers: A new site saves you money and rewards you with gift cards for doing so". latimes.com. Los Angeles Times.
  12. Koenig, David. "Get ready for busy travel season; airlines could set record". Chicago Tribune.
  13. Hobica, George (3 March 2017). "Here's a new travel booking site you REALLY haven't heard of yet". HuffPost.
  14. "The Man Who Told Leisure Travelers to 'Name Your Price' Would Like a Word With Business Travelers". Fortune.
  15. "Tech Tools for Entrepreneurs". KTLA. 29 November 2017.
  16. Gill, Rob (December 5, 2017). "Upside looks beyond US business travellers following WSJ deal". Phocuswire.
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