In a letter to customers, AmTrav founder and CEO said it will be business as usual after the acquisition by TravelPerk, the Barcelona-based TMC. Despite having a new parent company, he said Amtrav, will keep its brand name, booking tool and team.

Part of what makes AmTrav unique, wrote Klee, is the expert travel advisors who are ready to help 24×7, the relationship managers who partner with clients and the developers building the AmTrav product. “You will continue working with the same group,” said Klee; “not a single one of them is going anywhere!”

“You’re probably thinking, uh-oh, I’ve heard this before,” wrote Klee . “Companies always say it’s going to be business-as-usual after a merger, that nothing’s going to change. But then wholesale changes come and usually it ends up sucking.” (If I’m honest, that’s what I’d probably be thinking if I was reading this.)

When Travelperk first approached us in October of 2021, wrote Klee, we didn’t feel any urgency to sell. But we have been mindful that the world is changing. I’ve said publicly many times that I think the number of companies who provide travel management services and travel management software (we do both, as you know) is going to dramatically shrink in the next 5 years. The only companies that will be able to compete are ones who (1) own their own tech stack; (2) have the wherewithal to build and optimize bespoke connections to dozens of airlines, hotels, and other suppliers; and (3) have the scale to secure the best inventory and rates from suppliers across the globe, and deliver a great experience to travelers regardless of their geography or preferred currency. Prior to our merger, we already had #1 covered, we were ahead of most of the industry with #2, but, importantly, we didn’t yet have a clear path to #3.

Travelperk is one of a very small number of business travel providers (I can count them on one hand) who, like AmTrav, owns its own tech stack and is committed to using modern technology to fundamentally improve the experience for travelers and companies, wrote Klee. They are based in Barcelona but have 8 employee hubs across Europe and North America. They’re growing rapidly. They share our belief that a great solution has to be a combination of both software and service – what their Founder & CEO Avi often refers to as a “seven star experience.” In TravelPerk we found a kindred spirit with a very similar mission, culture, and thirst for innovation. Ultimately, though, it was the TravelPerk people – their passion, energy, creativity, and decency – from Avi on down, that won us over.

Klee said he and his co-founder Craig Fichtelberg, are not going anywhere and are committed to AmTrav for years to come. From a personal point of view, this deal will give him, said Klee, the opportunity to focus exclusively on what he’s most passionate about – the product – without some of the HR, finance, and legal distractions that have sometimes consumed him as CEO.” I am not remotely ready to retire (I hate golf) and I would never have done this deal if I couldn’t see myself working for Travelperk for a very long time,” said Klee. “At some point, I suspect, they’re going to have to drag me out to pasture.”