Palm Beach-based HotelPlanner acquires leading travel platform Lucid Travel
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Downtown West Palm Beach-based, HotelPlanner, a leading travel technology platform and hotel booking engine, announced the the acquisition of Lucid Travel.
Lucid Travel is a leading sports travel technology company that serves universities, sports teams, and event directors. These market segments are core business segment and growth areas for HotelPlanner and areas in which the two companies share deep expertise plus operational synergies. Lucid believes that travel can be better for teams and that the real innovation needed in sports travel will come from automating the end-to-end booking & management process and focusing on great user experience, notification design, and software automation.
Lucid Travel was co-Founded in 2018 by CEO Ben Knosby and CTO Nick Karagiannis. The company’s software is currently used by more than 150 universities and 10,000+ teams. Under Ben and Nick’s leadership, Lucid Travel has experienced triple-digit growth year-over-year, which is a testament to their strategic vision and managerial talents.
The company currently serves 10,000+ teams, 1000+ events, and over 150 universities in the USA and Canada. Whether you’re a youth soccer club or a university with 40,000 students – booking, tracking and saving money should be easier. Lucid Travel offers a one-stop solution that allows teams to access the entire market of travel vendors in one place while making it easier to book & manage travel services.
Lucid Travel – Nick Karagiannis (CTO & Co-Founder), Ben Knosby (CEO & Co-Founder), and Danny B Vegas (VP of Growth).
“We’re proud to join the HotelPlanner team to supercharge growth across the sports, events, and university markets. With HotelPlanner’s vast network in sports and world-class technology, we’re perfectly positioned to expand our reach and continue making sports team travel better.” says Ben Knosby & Nick Karagiannis, Co-founders, Lucid Travel.
What makes this a smart acquisition for HotelPlanner?
- The strongest synergy is with Sports Tournaments & Team Travel, a very successful side of Lucid. HotelPlanner will work with Lucid Travel to drive more business from this segment.
- Lucid has a very robust suite of software products designed to increase conversion and automate manual tasks. HotelPlanner will implement this software at a broader scale.
- Lucid helps thousands of Event Directors source and book hotels using group room blocks and hotel contracts. HotelPlanner is integrating Lucid’s existing book of business to the HotelPlanner platform, to increase bookings and operational efficiencies.
- Lucid provides a one-stop shop for universities and colleges to manage their travel. Adding the Lucid Travel brand to our university partnerships will help us grow this vertical.
Founded in 2003, HotelPlanner has enduring partnerships with the world’s largest online travel agencies, well-known hotel chains, individual hotels, online wedding providers, ancillary lodging providers, corporations, professional and youth sports teams and franchises, universities and government agencies.
HotelPlanner CEO, Tim Hentschel
HotelPlanner combines proprietary artificial intelligence capabilities, and a 24/7 global gig-based reservations and customer service network. Travel agents can customize all traveler hotel and accommodation needs from a single platform while providing localized advice. HotelPlanner is one of the world’s leading providers of individual, group and corporate travel bookings, specializing in unique “Closed User Group” discount rates offered in unpublished private sale environments.
“Partnering with Lucid Travel is very smart for our business and well-timed with the return of group and sports travel. This partnership plays to our mutual strengths, and it provides a runway for future growth. A Win-Win!” says Tim Hentschel, Co-founder & CEO, HotelPlanner.
Learn more at www.HotelPlanner.com