Planned + Spotnana | What this new partnership means for Travel & Event leaders

It’s been headlining corporate travel news for some time now: amid acquisitions and mergers between TMCs and tech players, the two industries of Travel and Events are due for a merger of their own.

As it would be, it was in person that our CEO and co-founder, Marc Bonin, was convinced that this combined offering was the way to go. He’d been traveling to San Francisco and meeting with a lot of fast growing startups, and came to realize that more and more of them were struggling with different tools and processes.

“It made a lot of sense. Managing policies, MSAs with hotel chains, duty of care: there's a big overlap in travel and event programs. Getting rid of these duplicate efforts with one solution for both travel and events would mean significant time and cost savings.”

This is how the idea of integrating an OBT within Planned came to fruition.

“We have the one-stop shop for event management. The reason people travel is to meet in person, so why not bring that into the fold as well?” said Bonin.

Meet the first one-stop shop for Travel and Event booking

As a startup that prides itself on innovation, we’re proud to be partnering with Spotnana, the NYC-based travel technology company that has had impressive growth in the past two years.

They are leading the way when it comes to working directly with airlines and offering the most comprehensive NDC content on the market for flight inventory. Beyond that, they mirror Planned’s modern UI/UX, have competitive pricing for travel content, and offer industry-leading support.

The industry standard until recently has been the GDS (global distribution system), an old, antiquated system that lacks competitive pricing, often has biases toward certain content, shows limited options, and has flaws in search result relevancy. The GDS is controlled by heavy-hitters like Amadeus, who have been in the game the longest but have been unable to modernize the system.

As a result, people book travel out of company policy to find better prices or more convenient routes through easier travel search interfaces. With Spotnana, Planned has access to the widest range of content sources on the market, and the ability to ensure that bookings always happen within policy.

Through our partnership with Spotnana, we’re expanding from an event sourcing solution to a one-stop shop Travel & Events platform with an integrated Online Booking Tool.

"Our partnership with Spotnana is a strategic step toward unifying Travel and Event functions and budgets, reflecting a growing trend in the industry,” said Emeric Noël, co-founder and Chief Product Officer at Planned.

This combined offering enables sourcing, booking and payments for travel and events of all sizes in one platform for the first time to date. With this tech-accelerated service and next-level centralization, you ultimately gain better visibility, more control, and bigger savings opportunities across your entire travel and event program.

Here’s how:

Enjoy one tool for every policy, payment, and report

What’s better than one tool to book travel and events? One place to implement policies, process payments, and generate reports. Adoption, visibility and control have never been this easy (enjoyable, even).

With custom policy configuration for embedded guardrails and approval flows, Planned lets you set it and forget it. This enables automated compliance across your entire travel and events program for maximum impact.

Stop doing the same thing twice

With an integrated OBT, Planned combines travel and event booking into a single, efficient process, eliminating duplicate efforts.

No more sending out invites for RSVPs, flights, and hotel bookings separately. And no need to generate reports and export data more than once.

Give your team the gift of time with everything in one place, cutting time spent on bookings in half. Reduce the possibility of things slipping through the cracks, and check off to dos x 2.

How it works

Booking a trip within Planned

This can happen one of three ways.

1. Use Planned to book individual transient travel.
2. Create a group trip and invite travelers to book within the trip. Link the trip to an existing event if needed.
3. Create an event and add a trip to the event. Invite guests to select travel for the event.

Give sourcing feedback and view travel info on the go

T&E leaders are typically the nomadic type. With that in mind, we’re making it easier than ever to manage travel and events from wherever you are.

This looks like getting quick access to important travel documents and details, and giving your sourcing specialist feedback on venue & vendors options with a simple like/dislike functionality — all from the same app.

You get to enjoy the fun part of travel and events, while we take care of the work.

Receive dedicated service and 24/7 support

This integration gives you not only double the efficiency, but double the support. Planned’s event specialists take care of our clients’ sourcing, and can help with your travel bookings, too.

With Spotnana’s technology, we provide live maps and outreach capabilities to ensure the safety of your travelers at all times. In the case of last minute changes or cancellations, agents are just a call or text away to help get your travelers where they need to be.

What this partnership means for our clients

We’ve already seen what this connection of travel and events booking can do for our existing clients, and we’re thrilled to see what’s to come with this streamlined booking flow as the new industry standard.

With greater efficiency, increased cost savings, improved visibility, and a superior user experience, companies leveraging this consolidated booking solution will have a strategic advantages as their programs continue to grow and drive returns with Planned x Spotnana.

“As companies increasingly invest in Travel and Events, the need for budget optimization has never been greater. Traditionally, these budgets have been managed separately, but the overlap in policies, supplier negotiations, duty of care, and guest management is significant,” said Noël, Planned co-founder on the shift seen in conversation with enterprise clients.

“By integrating these functions, we unlock savings opportunities that would otherwise be missed. For instance, discounts negotiated by the Travel team for hotel rooms can be leveraged by the Events team, maximizing cost efficiency across the board."

In choosing Spotnana’s as a travel tech partner, we’re choosing the player that aligns with our values of transparency and cost savings in the name of getting people together in person. From here on out, we're working hard to further streamline and consolidate the event and travel booking experience.

Let's plan!