Travel incentive and behavioral change tool Rocketrip has integrated
with International SOS to support traveler duty of care. The integration ultimately
pushes data from Rocketrip to ISOS where it is aggregated for traveler tracking
and emergency services offered through the risk management provider.
The integration is a response to Rocketrip's changing client
base. Once focused on the midsize market, the company has found additional
pickup from large enterprises, according to Rocketrip CEO Dan Ruch, where he
said "duty of care [is at the] top of the travel management priority list."
He estimated that 75 percent of Rocketrip clients who spend more than $50
million on travel annually have a formal partnership with a duty of care
provider.
Rocketrip entered the market as a stand-alone platform that business
travelers could access to get a "budget to beat" and then proceed to
other websites or booking tools to complete the booking process. If a traveler
can keep trip costs under the "budget to beat," they earn half the difference
in points that are traded for awards. While the stand-alone platform still
exists, Ruch said the majority of Rocketrip clients use the tool as an
integration with their corporate online booking tool. Travelers initiate the
booking in the OBT and Rocketrip kicks in to give them a budget
to beat before they complete the booking. Rocketrip integrates with Concur,
GetThere and Egencia.
The new ISOS integration works in tandem, and includes
prompts that capture trip elements, even overnight stays that are not booked.
These are particularly important, according to Ruch, for travelers who are
willing to "beat the budget" by staying overnight with friends rather
than at a hotel.
"Our system is smart enough to know if there's not a
hotel attached to the booking and to suggest 'Would you like to stay with a
friend?'" said Ruch. If the traveler takes that option, they will be further
prompted to provide the friend's address and will not be eligible to earn award
points until they provide it. Rocketrip feeds trip data to ISOS to support
duty of care.
The ISOS integration provides Rocketrip a
framework for partnerships with other risk management providers. Ruch said the
company will prioritize those partnerships based on mutual client demand.
—Additional reporting by Elizabeth West