BTE: How has booking travel changed over the past few years, especially with the pandemic? What current problems in business travel will the Onriva platform address?
JAFRI: Onriva was created to transform today’s inefficient and complex search-shop-buy process that often led to traveler frustration and distrust. With expertise and experience from all sides of the industry, we were able to identify key pain points that caused this: The booking model was outdated, travelers were spending too much time searching across multiple platforms creating travel program leakage, managing travel was highly complex for companies, and suppliers were left in the dark without critical insights about their customers. The long and short of it is that everyone, despite being frustrated, just kept going along with the status quo.
We set out to change that and address each pain point head on with a completely new way to plan, book and optimize travel. Our “marketplace of abundance” aggregates supply from all the various booking channels (i.e., OTAs, direct airlines, agent tools, etc.) into one easy-to-use platform – similar to what a marketplace like Amazon does for consumer goods. While pulling from the largest possible selection, our technology then guides users with tailored suggestions that not only meet their unique travel preferences but also help adhere to company policy, saving time and creating much needed transparency between suppliers and travelers.
As far as the pandemic, it definitely brought these issues to the forefront and forced a complete re-evaluation of every aspect of business travel. The time is now for the travel industry to realize the promise that marketplaces serving other industries have already achieved.
BTE: Tell us about Onriva’s AI technology approach, and how its patented capabilities tie together the end-user experience?
JAFRI: Onriva brings together three essential elements in our formula for change: Selection, science and service.
Onriva’s algorithms use predictive modeling to learn and anticipate the travelers’ needs over time and deliver a more effective and productive travel experience. These capabilities, as powerful as they are, are only truly beneficial because we have built a “marketplace of abundance” behind it. Onriva brings together the most comprehensive selection of air, hotel and car inventory available in the industry. However, for the traveler, excellent 24/7 service is essential to deliver the entire optimal experience. An experienced Onriva customer service agent is every traveler’s first and only call regardless of which provider is selected and booked in our marketplace.
BTE: How does Onriva fit different travel program needs and different corporate cultures – for example, SMEs versus large corporates, or lightly managed versus highly managed programs?
JAFRI: For as long as there have been corporate travel policies – whether highly restrictive or not – the problem was not with the objectives of those policies, but primarily with the limitations of the technology that was available to implement those policies. So, the only option that companies had was to limit choice and unintentionally restrict optimal travel outcomes.
The Onriva marketplace changes all that. We empower travelers to view unlimited options, but use dynamic parameters customized for each company that guide the traveler to make the best travel decisions. This allows travelers to stay within a more flexible delivery of company policy objectives, regardless of size and travel management style within any organization, and ensures employees are optimizing the use of valuable travel dollars.
BTE: You’ve assembled a leadership team with a wide range of experience. Why is that important in creating a planning and booking platform designed for the future?
JAFRI: Innovation and change does not come from people who think alike and have the same experiences. However, it is essential to have a team rooted in deep travel industry knowledge and technology expertise to deliver on a mission as ambitious as ours.
Created and backed by longtime travel industry and technology professionals, our personal and professional connection to the business travel industry made us uniquely positioned to eliminate industry pain points and innovate the business travel experience. Coming from leading companies such as Mondee, Marriott, American Express Global Business Travel, Microsoft, Expedia, BCD Travel, and the Global Business Travel Association, our executive leadership team has diverse expertise that has equipped us to disrupt the business travel model and solve the shortcomings of the industry.
BTE: Looking into the future, what is your vision for Onriva? What impact can a technology like this have on the business travel industry?
JAFRI: The world has changed, and as a company we believe that our expectations of travel should too – which is why we’re committed to building and becoming the ‘one’ true platform for business travel that enables all of our customers to experience travel that’s truly worth the trip. The series of updates we’ve made over the last few months continue to bring our clients a completely reimagined travel planning and booking experience.
To date, we’ve partnered with more than 3,500 small and medium-sized companies that represent more than $3 billion in travel purchasing volume across a wide range of industries. As business travel comes back into the fold, our innovative tech-driven platform can adapt and perform seamlessly to make travel in this new era more purposeful and efficient for the individual traveler and businesses alike.
BTE: Onriva seems to be a ‘change in kind’ for the planning and booking process, so there’s a lot more to the story than we can cover here. What one takeaway would you like our readers to understand about Onriva and its role in the future of business travel?
JAFRI: Onriva is truly a change-agent for the industry in a time when our industry is starving for innovation. Created to excite and empower travelers, businesses and suppliers alike as they navigate this new world of business travel, Onriva brings together the largest inventory with sophisticated and intuitive technology to deliver a one-of-a-kind experience unlike any the industry has seen before. As we continue to gain traction and bring our fellow industry players into the fold, we are excited for the future and to become the platform of choice.
