Yapta Trying to Take Hotel-Price Tracking to Corporate Travel Agencies

Yapta has developed a prototype hotel rate-tracking tool geared for corporations and travel agencies, and it is enlisting corporate customers to provide feedback. Known for its airfare-tracking solutions, and having pivoted from an emphasis on consumers toward a focus on the corporate travel market a few years ago, Yapta is now trying to make its mark in hotel-rate tracking for corporations. The Seattle-based company, with more than $22 million in funding, including a Series D round led by Amadeus in October with participation by existing investor Concur, Yapta has assembled a customer advisory board to help provide feedback about development of the hotel tool — and not incidentally to generate some publicity and buy-in. Customer advisory board members include Stephen C. Gheerow (Ford Foundation), Patricia Begley (Eisai), and Nicholas Lananna (UNICEF). Yapta’s airfare-tracking tool for the corporate market, FareIQ, has delivered an average of 14.5% savings for customers on ticket airfares, the company says. Travel managers receive a series of messages, including emails and alerts within their workflow, when a lower fare is detected and there is an opportunity to rebook at a savings. Yapta doesn’t prod business travelers to switch airlines and schedules, but tracks pricing on the same airline, flight and cabin class. Whether Yapta can translate what it has learned on the airline side of the business into the hotel world is evidently its big challenge.