New online travel company offers a host of options for the independent business traveler
BANGKOK, Thailand: The launch of the membership-based online travel company, BudgetBusinessTravel.com on April 27, 2017, gives business travelers from around the world a chance to significantly change the way they plan and manage their itineraries for the better. This is made possible by the website’s customer oriented approach, their advantageous prices and their sophisticated rewards program.
The number of people booking trips online through online travel agencies (OTA) is growing steadily and shows no sign of stopping. Especially independent business travelers rely heavily on OTAs as they must book and manage their company trips by themselves rather than relying on expensive travel management firms. However, since the standard OTAs focus on leisure travelers, independent business travelers are often ignored as a target market.
Having experienced this himself, the founder and owner of BudgetBusinessTravel.com, Mr. Steve Harrop, decided to create a booking engine that would address the needs of independent business travelers. Over the past year, he developed his business idea and built the BudgetBusinessTravel.com website. It features a clean, easy-to-navigate interface that focuses on user-friendliness and enables all members to quickly find and book the best rates on hotels and flights.
What sets BudgetBusinessTravel apart from other OTA however, is that, apart from being able to book their own trips, members have the option to request assistance from their personal account manager at any time, 24/7. This service will make it a lot easier for business travelers to update their itineraries and change bookings quickly and without having to pay unnecessary processing fees.
Another strong benefit of BudgetBusinessTravel is their unique seven-level rewards program. Members can progress from one level to the next by booking more trips on the website or by referrals. That way they can unlock additional, concierge-like services and benefit from discounts on their trips. What makes this program so unique though, is that everybody maintains their level and its perks for life. Unlike other loyalty programs where participants lose their status after a certain time of inactivity, BudgetBusinessTravel guarantees its members lifetime access to their benefits.
“Today close to 55% of travelers book their trips online and this number has been growing around 12% p.a. in recent years. Independent business travelers are a large part of this 55 % but are often overlooked by the travel industry. This is why BudgetBusinessTravel really fills a gap in the world of OTAs. It addresses the needs of independent business travelers in a way that will make traveling for work a lot less stressful through high-quality customer service and an attractive rewards program,” explains Mr. Steve Harrop, founder of BudgetBusinessTravel.com.
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About BudgetBusinessTravel:
BudgetBusinessTravel is a free to join membership-based online booking engine designed for the independent business traveler. These travelers work for small or medium sized companies and frequently book business trips on their own. BudgetBusinessTravel offers them a platform where they can easily manage their trips and request the assistance of their personal account manager at any time. The website’s powerful rewards program offers members valuable discounts and additional services they can benefit from regardless of how much time goes by between bookings.
BudgetBusinessTravel Fact Sheet
Company name: BudgetBusinessTravel
Legal name: Exmant Limited
Nature of company: membership-based online booking engine
Target audience: independent business travelers (working independently or for small and medium enterprises, needing assistance with bookings but not wanting to engage a full-time travel management company)
Geographical location of target market:
- English speaking countries e.g. UK, USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand
- Locations with high concentrations of expat business people e.g. UAE, Singapore, Hong Kong
- Thai business travelers (as the customer care center is based in Bangkok, Account Managers speak Thai)
Services provided: online booking of hotels and flights, personal account management 24/7
Founder: Mr. Steve Harrop
Official launch date of website: 27.04.2017
Number of staff at launch: 4
Website languages: English
Currencies supported by website: USD, EUR, AED, THB, CAD, AUD, GBP
Rewards program:
- based on how much members spend on BudgetBusinessTravel and how many new members they can refer
- higher levels get better discounts for flights and hotels and more additional services
- no qualifying period or deadlines to achieve a level
- members maintain their level even when they do not use BudgetBusinessTravel for an extended time
Six levels:
- Topaz
- Emerald
- Sapphire
- Ruby
- Diamond
- Red Diamond
- Blue Diamond
Steve Harrop
Owner and Founder of BudgetBusinessTravel
For the British entrepreneur, Steve Harrop founding and running an online booking engine is the answer to several personal experiences he made during his corporate career in finance and accounting. After being confronted with a surprising lack of service and customer recognition at major airlines he had been loyally traveling with for many years, the idea of creating his own company started forming.
His idea was to build an online booking engine that would give members the chance to book their own trips but ask for assistance from their personal account manager at any time. What was particularly important to Mr. Harrop as well, was that faithful customers would benefit from a strong rewards program that was not time sensitive and would not expire, even if no new bookings were made for a while. Having been affected by this himself when his company cut back on corporate travel after the financial crisis of 2008/2009, he wanted to create a platform where his customers would not face such issues but instead receive outstanding service and excellent rewards.
With ten years of experience working for leading destination management companies in senior roles such as Chief Finance Officer, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Executive Officer, and more than 20 years in the finance and accounting field, Mr. Harrop gained the expertise necessary to start building his company. After two years of careful research and planning, he launched the development of his BudgetBusinessTravel.com, a year-long process that comes to a successful close with the launch of his online booking website on 27 April 2017.
Born and educated in the United Kingdom, Steve Harrop has always had a passion for numbers and a strong understanding of topics related to finance and accounting. He decided to further pursue this direction in his studies and became a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA), the world's largest professional body of management accountants offering. He also obtained a post graduate diploma in Business Administration at the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom before beginning his international career and ultimately starting his own business.
