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Travel and Business Solutions LLC

• 2201 LONG PRAIRIE RD STE 107-104
• FLOWER MOUND
• Travel and Business Solutions LLC (trading name, 2013-06-10 - )

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• About Egencia

Corporate Travel Management, Business Travel Services & Solutions

Modern corporate travel management for the fast-changing travel landscape

Manage risk. Support traveler wellbeing. Plan for the future. How can Egencia™ help you modernize your corporate travel program?

The only proven global B2B travel tech platform

Egencia is always working to deliver travelers, travel managers, and travel arrangers unrivaled choice, value, and experience, with the powerful backing of Amex GBT.

We’re in a league of our own

Our platform can be optimized for all types of users, in companies big or small.

Tech is in our DNA   We originated in the labs of global tech giants and now we are a part of the most valuable B2B travel solution in the world.

AI-driven insights   Our AI delivers custom user experiences that add value to your company’s travel program.

Suite of APIs   Amex GBT Egencia’s open API platform gives you the ability to build robust integrations that help you automate, connect and simplify your travel and expense management.

Unbeatable travel content We lead the industry with over 290 global airlines and 650,000 lodging partners.

Industry-first NDC capabilities Amex GBT Egencia is the first to offer new distribution capabilities to our clients. 

Amex GBT Egencia Preferred Rates  We offer the best value for business travel with access to special discounted air fares.

The unique content from Amex GBT Egencia provides unrivaled choice and value for air, hotel, car and rail.

Our technology-driven customer service and commitment to excellence puts Amex GBT Egencia on another level.

Industry leader in service Our platform and services are consistently rated above 95% satisfaction by customers.

Best-in-class traveler support We provide services to over 2 million travelers in over 60 countries.

Globally proven Amex GBT Egencia proudly supports over 9,000 companies of all sizes around the world.

Constant innovation We consistently deliver enhancements and innovation across our online and offline services.

Smartest shopping experience Our technology provides the smartest, quickest shopping experience to give the best routes and rates based on user preferences.

Proven optimization Our AI and machine learning delivers the best experience and enhancements for savings, traveler wellbeing and sustainability.

We lead the industry in innovation, with data insights from 100s of millions of transactions every year.

The world's business travel platform

• Companies of all sizes in more than 60 countries trust Amex GBT Egencia to modernize their corporate travel programs
• We deliver simple, consumer-like business travel that users love and fast, knowledgeable support for unexpected moments
• With a globally consistent platform and skilled travel program management, rest assured your travel program is optimized to manage risk while maximizing ROI

Ready to update your travel program?

If now is the time to redesign your corporate travel program to manage risk, support traveler wellbeing and monitor your travel spend, this toolkit can help.

Amex GBT Egencia helps you stay connected

14 million business trips were made with Amex GBT Egencia last year. As your travel management company, we’ll be with you every step of the way.

Managing travel risk

Travel risk management has never been more important. Find out how you can manage risk, deliver duty of care and make your business travelers feel secure.

• A comprehensive and quickly adaptable business travel policy is crucial. Use this free guide to help you create a travel policy that adapts to your needs.
• Make traveler wellbeing a priority. Inform, alert and assist them in real-time via the mobile app and online booking tool
• Reduce risk by improving travel policy compliance

Putting traveler wellbeing first

You want employees to feel fully supported from the time they book until they return home. Amex GBT Egencia travel experts are ready to assist.

• Learn how you can enhance your duty of care policies for travelers
• Travel booking is only one part of the equation. Traveler safety is the other. Use this pre-travel safety checklist as a guide
• Learn how Amex GBT Egencia simplifies hotel bookings for travelers .
• Put your travelers in the driver’s seat and take advantage of our fleet of 5 million car rental options worldwide

Savings and ROI

Even as the travel industry changes, businesses still need to make strategic decisions based on cost and ROI. Amex GBT Egencia can help you boost your bottom line.

• Gain insights, identify savings and optimize travel spend in real-time with Amex GBT Egencia Analytics Studio
• Find out how Umpqua Bank maximized their business travel ROI with Amex GBT Egencia
• Amex GBT Egencia travel services can help simplify expense management . Easily track travel expenses that reflect spending with personal or corporate credit cards
• 19 ways our travel management solutions can help you save time and money

Amex GBT Egencia empowers over 2 million business travelers to get the most out of their business travel. Shouldn’t you be one of them?

Amex GBT Egencia’s G2 Winter 2024 Awards

Are you considering a return to business travel.

Amex GBT Egencia partners with Festive Road to offer a permissible travel framework to evaluate an organization’s overall readiness to travel based on corporate, individual and government regulations.

Are you an Amex GBT Egencia travel customer?

I'm a business traveler, i manage travel, recommended for you.

Request a demo to see what Amex GBT Egencia travel management solutions can do for you.

Already a customer? Contact Amex GBT Egencia customer service .

Corporate Travel

KesselRun Corporate Travel Solutions is a management consulting firm that specializes in developing, managing, and optimizing corporate travel programs.

Our Services

KesselRun brings deep experience to every aspect of your corporate travel program. After close to 20 years in business, we still believe that every consulting engagement is as unique as our client’s business. Contact us and let’s discuss how KesselRun may be able to help you.

Comprehensive or specific program audits which can range from risk management strategy to corporate travel agency best practices and management to program benchmarking. Our professionals are adept at every aspect of corporate travel and provide measurable and actionable advice. Click here for more details.

Supplier Sourcing

Across the entire corporate travel supply chain, including travel agency RFP and selection, technology vendors, supplier negotiations and preferred vendors, preferred hotel programs, risk management, and expense management solutions. We are experts at strategic sourcing.

A truly optimized corporate travel program utilizes the right mix of technology, agency provider, and suppliers. Today, too many companies rely on its biased vendors for important program decisions. KesselRun represents our clients, not vendors. Our Strategic Sourcing practice helps to optimize your corporate travel program , helping in any area of your business that touches travel. Click here for more details.

Program Management

Successful corporate travel programs are constantly managed to ensure vendor, technology, and agency relationships are optimized. Today, many corporate travel programs are not receiving enough attention because internal resources are both time and information starved. The result is that many clients rely on its biased vendors for program direction.

Our Program Management solution offers a better, faster, and less expensive way to manage our clients’ travel programs. Most importantly, our Program Management services are customized to fit our clients’ needs – from total Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) where our professionals take over the day to day management of your program to more specific involvement reporting directly to your Travel Manager or travel owner. Click here for more details.

Risk Management

Corporate risk programs are directly tied to a company’s corporate travel program. The vast majority of traveler related information such as the whereabouts of corporate travelers, the ability to communicate with travelers in the event of an emergency and help travelers with anything from medical care to evacuations is both an ethical and legal consideration for organizations.

KesselRun provides comprehensive risk audits, sources risk management solutions, and ensures corporate best practices. Click here for more details.

KesselRun’s first and only strategic partnership. CapTrav is a cloud-based software solution for Travel Managers, Procurement, and Risk professionals who want to leverage and report on 100% of their corporate travel spend no matter where their travelers book.

Complete program data visibility requires insight into not only those bookings through the TMC but also those booked through other channels. Click here for more details.

Some of our Work

KesselRun works with companies from virtually all industries and of all sizes. We work with some of the most complex travel programs in the world and some who just want to make sure their program is “buttoned-up.” We are happy to provide references upon request.

Blue Cross & Blue Shield

Georgia Pacific

Liberty Mutual

“KesselRun has been a life line for NOV! They have helped us to save money in assisting with Hotel, Car, & Air contracts and our TMC RFP! I would describe them in 3 words, TRUSTWORTHY, HARDWORKING, and PROFESSIONAL!”

Monica Young

- National Oilwell Varco

KesselRun’s industry knowledge, reliability and analytics make them and indispensable partner. Our corporate travel program would not be where it is today without them.

Brittany King

- ManTech International Corporation

Executive Team

Our Executive Team has decades of experience across the entire corporate travel supply chain. We come from both Big 5 management consulting firms and from corporate travel supplier and client sides of the business. We provide flexible, thoughtful, and independent solutions. Our goal is always to increase traveler satisfaction while optimizing corporate spend and supplier leverage. Most importantly, we all love what we do.

Brandon Strauss

Partner/co-founder.

Michael Brennan

Managing partner/co-founder.

Krissy Herman

Vice president of program management.

Erik Woodfolk

Director of federal programs and services, latest news.

Please check here frequently for informative and timely information covering all aspects of the corporate travel industry.

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Connecting travelers through technology for a changing world

Connect travelers to services they want, and businesses need

Global ticketing, account management, 24x7 support, event management, real-time data, supplier sourcing, duty of care, direct content, vip services, manage your travel program with easy-to-use products, guest booking, trip approvals, price audits, carbon neutrality, global reporting, traveler security, unused tickets, ready to automate your travel program, personalize solutions to increase program efficiency, customize your online booking solution, make your next event easy with group booking, invite candidates to self-book travel, auto-rebook travelers during flight disruptions, consolidate travel and expense reporting, integrate crew scheduling, capture all of your direct bookings, earn and redeem supplier loyalty points, connect services and savings around the world, wholly - owned, its partner, what’s news in our world.

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Ready to automate your program and keep travelers happy?

Get started now, request a demo.

• Try Tess For Free

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• For The Agent
• For The Agency
• For The Host Agency
• The Tess Team

The software travel agents have been waiting for.

Simpler Smarter Everywhere

Whether you are a travel agent, a travel agency, or an agent host, Tess provides the tools and services that will help you build your business.

Tess by Travel eSolutions, LLC

Tess, by Travel eSolutions, LLC, is an online application completely dedicated to helping travel agents and agencies become more efficient and accurate. Whether you are a large host agency or a single agent Tess will save you time and money.

It all starts with your clients, managed in a custom CRM. You record the trips and bookings that you sell and Tess will help you track the payments you receive from the wholesaler or venue. Tess will calculate the commission through any number of agents and sub-agents to ensure that money is always reconciled and that you know if you have unpaid bookings.

Tess for the Travel Agent

Tess provides a travel agent with all of the tools they need to manage their business. The responsive web application works on any device, anytime, anywhere.

• CRM to manage all clients and leads
• Trips, Bookings, Documents, Invoices, Notes and Task
• Reports and Metrics
• Automated Bon Voyage and welcome home emails to your clients
• Recieve commission payments from Agency, Host, or Wholesaler
• View details on over 250,000 properties and ships
• Track your bookings across suppliers and destinations
• Manage group trips, from simple getaways to complex destination contracts
• Know when you have commissions due or overdue
• Build email templates in an easy to use designer
• Get help quickly through an integrated help desk

Tess for the Travel Agency

• Manage any number of agents and sub-agents at different comission levels
• Pay all agents with the click of a button
• Access your data anytime and import it into other systems for analysis
• Manage vendor/supplier details including metrics on usage
• Get help with custom reports and data extracts
• Completely replace ClientBase and Trams
• Individual support to help import your existing data

Tess for the Host Agency

Host agencies have unique needs and Tess scales to fill them seemlessly.

• Agents and agencies get all of the benefits of Tess listed above
• Manage commissions due, adjustments, unclaimed bookings, COOP, bonus
• Simple payment for all agents
• Integration with ACH systems
• Custom analytics based on your companies needs
• Free accounts for back office employees
• Custom pricing for large host agencies
• Custom integration with existing systems
• Custom import of historical data
• Completely replace ClientBase and Trams or keep them in place and seamlessly integrate

• Alicia Noble

We make setting up your leisure travel easy , offering you our ABOVE AND BEYOND service.  

Tell us your destination, who’s going and where they’re coming from, and we’ll handle the details so you can focus on the memories you want to make.

We do the research and make the reservations of your transportation needs (plane, car rentals, trains or boats). We use our extensive knowledge and experience to find and book the best accommodations for your budget. We can even help you pick the perfect destination if you’d like!

And if something goes wrong, we’re here to help, 24/7 .

Give us a call today to talk about what you have in mind and we’ll go above and beyond to help you achieve it!

"I have been working with Mandi Mendez for 10+ years. Even as a junior employee at her previous company, Mandi quickly became the the go-to person there. Even has she rose through the ranks and took on more responsibility, the level of attention and service she provided her clients never slipped. Mandi has always been good in a crisis when you are stuck somewhere far afield, and need that extra bit of help. In cases like those, if she is awake, she's available. Above and beyond is no marketing slogan for her, that is what Mandi has always been about."

"Mandi of Business & Leisure Travel Solutions has been organizing and booking our travel for years and we love her service. She knows exactly what we prefer in accommodations, flight plans and always has great suggestions for entertainment at our destination. Over the years when airlines have canceled flights or there has been some other mishap, Mandi has been there for us. One call to Mandi and everything is fixed. We still make it to where we are going, hassle-free. This past December when Southwest Air canceled a large percentage of their flights, throwing a family trip into chaos, Mandi found a way (in the early hours of the morning, I might add) to get my whole family from different parts of the country to our destination on other flights. That was amazing. She even knows when to tell us whether to pack our hiking boots or not."

"My husband and I have been utilizing Mandi’s excellent skills for years and years. She makes all of our travel arrangements big and small. Mandi is easy to access and very prompt in her responses. Although, she is delightful to talk to, she is also easy to email. Mandi helped me create a once-in-a-lifetime trip around Australia with my son. Everything went so smoothly! It was so stress-free to plan the trip with her help. Another favorite trip was the ski trip to Whistler, B.C. I planned that unbeknownst to my husband was for a BIG birthday. Again, everything went off without a hitch. Whether Mandi has personally been somewhere or not, she really knows how to research places to stay and things to do. My favorite thing about working with Mandi has nothing to do with big travels but has to do with the little glitches in everyday travel. Many times we have called on her as we sat in an airport looking at a cancelled flight. It is so reassuring to be able to pick up the cell and call Mandi and figure out a new flight plan. I now have my entire family calling on Mandi for travel plans. This has been a blessing for my elderly parents. I cannot recommend Mandi enough!"

"Mandi goes above and beyond for all her clients! She treats everyone like a VIP. Her knowledge on all aspects of the travel industry is superior to anyone I have worked with in the past. She will find the best routes, price and amenities on all requests. Finding solutions to your corporate travel needs is what she does best! I highly recommend working with Mandi!"

"In the last ten years Mandi has flawlessly guided us through more than forty countries, sing planes, trains, ships and private tours. We would be lost without her professional expertise and caring manner."

"We have used Mandi for our travel agent exclusively since at least 2015. We have had two high dollar trips (Southern Africa and Peru), and they went flawlessly. Mandi’s technical skills are beyond reproach. Flights are well thought out, all connections are perfect and any assistance needed while abroad are immediately available. More importantly, her recommendations regarding tour companies, government and local rules and customs, and airline choice are always spot on. We can and do count on her expertise. She is engaged in our Hawaii trip next month! I wholeheartedly endorse her as your best choice for travel plans."

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Planning to Combine Business and Leisure Travel? You’re Not Alone.

As employees increasingly add leisure time to their business trips, companies are trying to figure out where their duty of care obligations begin and end.

Credit... Aart-Jan Venema

Supported by

By Amy Zipkin

• April 7, 2024

On a Sunday in late January, Melinda Buchmann, who lives in Florida and supervises client relations for RevShoppe, a 30-person remote company advising organizations on sales techniques and strategies, arrived in Banff, Alberta, to help set up a four-day company meeting.

The last day of the event, her husband, Josh, a director of strategic partnerships for the delivery company DoorDash , who also works remotely, joined her. They spent two leisurely days hiking in Banff National Park and visiting Lake Louise.

“I take advantage, because I don’t know when I’m going to return,” Ms. Buchmann said of the decision to combine downtime with a business trip.

As postpandemic work life has changed, and arrangements now include full-time office attendance as well as hybrid and remote work, so, too, has business travel. The phenomenon known as bleisure, or blended business and leisure travel, was initially embraced largely by digital nomads . But such combined travel is now also popular with people outside that group . Allied Market Research, a subsidiary of Allied Analytics, based in Portland, Ore., estimated that the bleisure travel market was $315.3 billion in 2022 and would reach $731.4 billion by 2032.

As employees increasingly add leisure time to their business trips, companies are struggling to determine where their legal obligation to protect employees from harm — their so-called duty of care — begins and ends. And workers may think that because their trip started with business, they will get all the help they need if something goes wrong on the leisure end. Instead, they should generally consider the leisure part of a trip as a regular vacation where they cover all expenses and contingencies.

Companies are responsible for knowing where their employees are during a business trip, covering expenses if an accident or emergency occurs, securing new lodging if a hotel is damaged, even swapping out a broken down rental car. Still, it’s not entirely clear if that coverage ends completely after the conference or the last client meeting.

Companies recognize that threats are increasing, said Robert Cole, senior research analyst focusing on lodging and leisure travel at Phocuswright, a market research company. They are trying to figure out how to take care of a valuable company resource, the employee, without leaving themselves open to financial risk or potential litigation.

“Crafting a comprehensive policy that balances business objectives, employee well-being and legal considerations can be challenging,” Nikolaos Gkolfinopoulos, head of tourism at ICF, a consulting and technology services company in Reston, Va., wrote in an email.

Employees may be on their own without realizing it and may be surprised by out-of-pocket expenses if they require hospital care abroad or evacuation, said Suzanne Morrow, chief executive of InsureMyTrip , an online insurance travel comparison site in Warwick, R.I.

Ms. Morrow said medical coverage provided by a company “is generally only for the dates of the actual business trip abroad.” If travelers are extending the trip for personal travel, she added, “they would want to secure emergency medical coverage for that additional time abroad.”

Employers and employees are left to figure out when the business portion of the trip ends and the leisure segment begins, a significant detail if an employee has a medical emergency. “Where does the corporation liability end?” said Kathy Bedell, senior vice president at BCD Travel, a travel management company.

Companies have varying policies to deal with the new travel amalgam. The chief executive of RevShoppe, Patricia McLaren, based in Austin, Texas, said the company provided flexible travel options and allowed employees to work anywhere they choose.

Even so, there are constraints. The company requires all employees, including executives, to sign liability and insurance waivers when they are on a voluntary company-sponsored trip, such as an off-site meeting. Such waivers typically place responsibility on employees for their own well-being. And if they bring someone, they are responsible for that person’s expenses.

Employees are responsible for requesting the paid time off and notifying their managers of their whereabouts, although that part is not a requirement. Managers have to ensure adequate staffing, Ms. McLaren said.

Elsewhere, employees may not bother to mention the leisure portion of their trip. Eliot Lees, a vice president and managing director at ICF, said he had been on trips as a child with his parents when they combined business and leisure. His parents were academics, who would piggyback vacations onto conferences.

Now he does the same. “I don’t think I ever asked for approval,” he said. (ICF has no formal business-leisure travel policy. It’s allowed as part of personal time off.) After a conference in the Netherlands last year, he spent four days hiking in the northern part of the country.

“I go anywhere, and take more risks than I should,” he said. He said he didn’t carry personal travel or accident insurance.

Any nonchalance may quickly evaporate if a threat emerges. Security experts say even low-risk locations can become high-risk for a few days or weeks of the year.

“Companies are concerned about losing visibility into a traveler’s whereabouts if they booked flights and hotels outside their corporate travel management company,” Benjamin Thorne, senior intelligence manager in London for Crisis24, a subsidiary of GardaWorld, wrote in an email. “The company may think the traveler is in one city when, in reality, they could have booked a holiday package to another nearby city. This lack of visibility by the company makes it difficult to support travelers when a disaster occurs.”

He also raised the possibility that “a traveler with bleisure travel reservations and expectations may find their work trip canceled due to changes in the risk environment or company policy, disrupting their leisure plans.”

Will a company step in off hours if there’s a problem? “That depends on how you are booked,” Mr. Cole, the senior research analyst at Phocuswright, said. A rule of thumb is the further you get from corporate control, the greater the gray area gets.

Half of GoldSpring Consulting’s clients take the responsibility for the entire trip, said Will Tate, a partner at the consultancy based in Cross Roads, Texas, and a certified public accountant. They don’t want the reputational risk. The other half say: “The business trip ended Friday. That’s when we end our duty of care.”

Some companies are trying to define and narrow the gray area. “If you are clearly on personal time, there is no legal requirement for your employer to provide for you,” said Nicole Page, a lawyer whose practice includes employment law at Reavis Page Jump in New York.

Uber provides employees with advisories before a trip, travel assessments, safety tips while traveling and emergency travel assistance, including medical aid, airport travel support, urgent and emergency assistance, and lost or stolen personal property insurance whether they are on business or pleasure travel or a combination.

And at DoorDash, Chris Cherry, head of global safety and security, wrote in an email that “while personal travel is not something we track, we have received requests to extend our travel support capabilities to personal travel.” Mr. Cherry said in those cases, the company has manually added employee leisure itineraries to its travel risk management system and “provided the same level of overwatch that we do for regular business travel.”

The Buchmanns plan to travel this month to Barcelona, Spain, for the McDonald’s Worldwide Convention. DoorDash will have a booth, and Mr. Buchmann will work on the exhibit floor and also entertain clients.

Ms. Buchmann will accompany him. She plans to go sightseeing in the morning, and work in the afternoons and evenings Barcelona time. She will also take three days of paid time off and has shared her plans with Ms. McLaren, the RevShoppe chief executive.

They will stay a day after the conference and plan to visit the Dalí Theater and Museum in Figueres. “I’m sure there will be no shortage of tapas and window shopping along way,” Mr. Buchmann said. He expects to be back at work the next Monday.

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