Michael Baker

New York

Executive Editor at Business Travel News

Travel industry writer, focused on airlines and with a long history covering the lodging industry. Any opinions expressed are my own. Pronouns are he/him/his.

Articles

Spotnana Launches TMC Product Suite

2 days ago | businesstravelnews.com | Michael Baker

Spotnana has launched a new product suite for travel management companies, which combines its Travel-as-a-Service platform with functionality specific to TMC needs, the company announced. Spotnana Cloud for TMCs is "an entire suite [for TMCs] to service their own customers," Spotnana founder and chief product officer Sarosh Waghmar said.
GeoSure Adds Safety Badge Designations

4 days ago | businesstravelnews.com | Michael Baker

Global Travel and safety risk assessment provider GeoSure has launched a new safety certification for accommodations and destinations to highlight those that "have demonstrated verified safety excellence," according to the company. The certification, GeoSure Safety Badges, includes two distinctions for destinations and accommodations.
Expensify: Strong Adoption of Travel Offering in Q1

6 days ago | businesstravelnews.com | Michael Baker

Expensify reported first-quarter revenue increased 8 percent year over year to $36.1 million in the as the payments and expense app is seeing rapid growth in adoption of its Expensify Travel offering. Travel bookings in Expensify increased 166 percent in the quarter compared with the fourth quarter of 2024, the company said.
HRS Launches AI Copilot for Lodging Guidance, Action

1 week ago | businesstravelnews.com | Michael Baker

Corporate lodging and meetings platform HRS has launched an AI tool called Copilot to help guide companies with their strategy and decisions around their hotel programs, the company announced. The Copilot was developed as a "digital-virtual-assistant-managed program" combining AI specialist Anthropic's large language model with HRS' own specialized language model and "extreme wealth of data," HRS chief product officer Martin Biermann said.
Amadeus Bookings Grow in Q1 Amid Air Traffic Slowdown

1 week ago | businesstravelnews.com | Michael Baker

Amadeus reported 2.5 percent growth year over year in air bookings for the first quarter despite a "slowdown in global air traffic" compared with the previous quarter.
Sabre: Q1 Air Bookings Decline But 2025 Growth Projected

1 week ago | businesstravelnews.com | Michael Baker

Distribution Sabre reported a 3 percent decline year over year in air bookings during the first quarter, below prior expectations, but the travel technology company is holding on to its projection for double-digit percentage bookings growth for the full year of 2025.
AmTrav Adds Virtual Tours to Booking Via Routehappy

1 week ago | businesstravelnews.com | Michael Baker

ATPCO has added a new virtual tour capability for the airline booking process, with AmTrav signed on as the first sales channel to integrate the content, the company announced. The virtual tours come via a partnership with airline 3D mapping technology provider Renacen, which is making the technology available in ATPCO's Routehappy Visuals offering.
United Invests in SAF Co. Twelve

1 week ago | businesstravelnews.com | Michael Baker

United Airlines Ventures Sustainable Flight Fund has invested in sustainable aviation fuel company Twelve, the carrier announced Tuesday. Financial and term details of the deal were not disclosed. Twelve is a "low carbon fuels company that uses a process similar to photosynthesis to transform CO2 and water into sustainable aviation fuel using renewable energy," according to United.
Amex GBT: No Widespread Travel Budget Cuts Amid Uncertainty

1 week ago | businesstravelnews.com | Michael Baker

American Express Global Business Travel lowered earnings expectations for this year facing what CEO Paul Abbott called a "weaker but stable environment," though he said the TMC to date has not seen major adjustments to travel budgets or policies among most customers. For the first quarter, Amex GBT reported total transaction value growth of 3 percent year over year to $8.3 billion, and revenue grew 2 percent year over year to $621 million.
Middle Eastern TMC House of Travel Adds Corp. Platform

1 week ago | businesstravelnews.com | Michael Baker

Management Bahrain-based travel management company House of Travel has partnered with travel technology provider QuadLabs to launch a corporate travel platform, HotBizz. The platform taps QuadLabs' Travog self-booking and expense system to offer functionalities including real-time bookings, policy enforcement, expense tracking and approval workflows, according to the companies.