Upside Travel


Upside Travel is an American travel company for business booking.

History

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

Platform

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