TravelBank, headquartered in San Francisco, offers their travel management for businesses, featuring booking management, travel policy management, spend tracking and management, and other features.
$12
per user/per month
Upside Business Travel
Score 9.3 out of 10
N/A
Upside Business Travel is a technology based travel management application from the company of the same name headquartered in Washington, D.C.
The company-wide implementation of TravelBank greatly increased the efficiency of our expense reimbursement process. It mitigated many pain points such as errors, inconsistencies, and missing information in our manual Excels that were very hard to version control and track through the approval/reimbursement process. Overall, TravelBank has made all of our lives easier!
I've used other big name solutions before, but Upside's customer service is really what puts them head and shoulders above the rest. I don't worry about getting someone who has no idea what they're doing when I call Upside - whoever I get is going to be able to answer my questions and get my issues sorted out. That's a huge help
TravelBank encourages employees to book lower cost flights and hotels. Employees receive half the difference between the average cost for the service and the cost the company is paying in the form of vouchers for Amazon/Airbnb etc. For example, if the average cost of a flight from SFO to JFK is $500, and the employee books a $400 flight, the employee gets $50 and the company saves $50.
Customer Support. Our business travel changes in real-time. Sometimes we have to make multiple changes to our travel in one day. The Upside Support team is always there to change the travel, especially when my travelers do not have the time to step away from work to get on the phone with airlines, hotels, and rental car agencies.
Travel Tools. From the web site to the phone app, the Upside tools are very easy to use and are very extensive with functionality.
Prepay for travel. Prepaying for travel simplifies the booking process and eliminates the need for corporate cards.
I have trouble using the user interface and wish I could store my common searches easier bcecauseI usually only travel to one place.
They need to have a better search tool. Like, if a hotel is unavailable it still needs to come up in the search bar -- not necessarily on the map or home screen, but it would help to see all options if I search because for some reason a ton of hotels that I know have open rooms do not show up.
The TravelBank team came in for a Lunch and Learn, which was great! Our account team spent a lot of time walking through all of the features and capabilities of TravelBank, as well as tips and tricks for using the online platform and the app. This was tremendously helpful! Also, whenever we need to contact customer support if we are experiencing and difficulties, they are beyond responsive and very helpful!
The support from Upside Business Travel is absolutely amazing. Immediately after you book a flight, you get an email from your representative. You can contact them at any time and get them to help you with anything you need or answer any questions. I have used the support before to get an earlier check-in, change flights, and add a night to my stay.
It is much easier to use than Concur, but typically Concur is mandated to use. We also quickly tried other apps but found that TravelBank was the best. Other apps had issues in trying to recognize the amount if a tip was added and often failed. This is why I like entering in the actual value.
I was not a part of the change process, but I am quite happy using Upside over Concur. We were charged just to speak with an agent, and there wasn't an option to communicate online. I love having the chat option with Upside. I do miss the ability to put travel plans on hold to allow colleagues the opportunity to review it before I book, but the pros of Upside far outweigh the cons.
I'm not in the finance department, but I'd guess our travel spend per employee has reduced since we started using TravelBank.
We now have one travel supplier, with flights and hotels paid from a central account, rather than everyone booking through a variety of channels with their own card. In case of emergency, the company knows which flight you're on, which hotel you're staying at.
