Upside Goes Down

Upside Business Travel will wind down operations before officially closing next month, the company announced. Launched in 2016 by Priceline founder Jay Walker, Upside initially focused on providing booking services to the unmanaged corporate travel segment. More recently, the company expanded its scope to include lightly managed clients via distribution partnerships with travel management companies including TravelBank, Omega World Travel and Short’s World Travel.

But those partnerships weren’t enough to stave off the deleterious effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on Upside’s business, according to a post on the company’s website announcing the impending closure.

“Due to the ongoing impact of the pandemic on the travel industry, Upside has decided to shut down its business after six years,” Upside said in the notice, which was posted on Sunday. “Unfortunately, lingering uncertainty about when and if business travel will return to pre-pandemic levels has made raising additional capital or finding an alternative path too unlikely at this point.”

Upside will no longer accept new bookings as of today but will continue to service bookings for travel ending on or before Sept. 24. Bookings for travel not completed by that date will be canceled and refunded and clients “will need to rebook directly with the supplier or through another travel service,” according to Upside. Airline tickets that are non-refundable will be changed to tickets on file, with any difference in value refunded, the post noted.

Upside also notified clients directly of the planned wind down on Monday, according to the company.

Omega Go+, the private-label booking platform Upside developed for Omega World, will no longer allow new bookings as of today, and existing bookings for trips ending on or before Sept. 24 will be serviced directly by Omega agents, Upside’s post said.

Upside also noted that TravelBank is offering Upside customers a 30 percent discount through Sept. 30. The companies in July 2020 announced a strategic partnership through which TravelBank offered its expense management services to corporate travelers booking through Upside. The alliance was slated to evolve over time to include new capabilities arising from the integration of the two platforms.

In April 2019, Flight Centre Travel Group acquired a 25 percent ownership stake in Upside, becoming its largest shareholder. The Australia-based TMC at the time said it planned to use Upside’s AI and machine-learning based technology to bolster its small and midsize enterprise-focused Corporate Traveler brand.

Adam Perrotta www.businesstravelnews.com