Upside Travel

The company was founded by Jay S. Walker, who had previously founded Priceline.com.[1] Based in Washington, D.C.,[2] Upside was launched in January 2017, and was used by ten thousand companies over its first year.[3] The company received $50 million in its first round of funding,[4] reaching a valuation of $200 million.[5][6] In the Summer of 2017, the company pivoted from package and gift card rewards to en route servicing.[7]

The platform is used by those engaging in business travel, in order to compile accommodations and transportation arrangements.[8] Packages are rated by the site, and search results can be refined by user-generated search parameters.[9] The company has named its platform a “flexibility engine”, which scores and analyzes the entire travel industry’s available options every twenty-four hours.[10] It is designed for use by employees of small and medium sized businesses.[11]

The platform is used by employees themselves instead of travel managers to create individual travel plans. In addition to their travel, users are given a retail gift card.[3][12][13] The gift cards are intended to try to convince employees booking their own travel to reduce the cost of their travel plans to their employers, by providing a portion of the savings to the employee themselves (via the card).[14][15]

In 2017 Upside further launched The Wall Street Journal Business Travel Service, which is a travel planning service available to subscribers to The Wall Street Journal as well as the public.[16]