4 Services for Reducing Traveler Friction

Reducing Travel Friction

Innovation and traveler friction are popular topics for you folks, so here are a few quick profiles of new ways to make life easier for travelers.

DUFL – Allows travelers to travel without luggage.  A mashup of FedEx and your favorite Downton Abbey butler.  DUFL stocks a private closet with your travel clothes, and sends them to your hotel in advance of your arrival.  You leave the DUFL suitcase at the hotel upon checkout, and DUFL retrieves it, cleans and repacks your clothes, ready for your next trip.  Yes, there is an app for that.  More about DUFL here.

Expensify – Automatically, and near- instantly, reimburses travelers for their on-the-road expenses. Snap a photo of the receipt, and the expense reporting tool automatically cues it for payment the next day.  It’s hard to imagine making expense reimbursement any easier.  More about this feature here. Hat tip to BTN for the coverage.

FlyAnotherDay – Helps travelers and planners avoid trips to major cities around the globe during city-wide events.  An easy way to check a destination’s potential for travel congestion.  A new service with affordable pricing that solves a pesky problem.

What3Words – not really a travel app, but keep reading…this app makes finding places really easy, especially those places without a street address.  Imagine your travelers wanting to meet on a campus for a recruiting trip, or at a ferry point, or an oil rig.  This service makes it easy to identify any location on the globe using three words.  Interesting implications for travel risk management, yes?

 I have no commercial ties to any of these firms; just a fan of their efforts.

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