LodgeLink’s digital B2B workplace travel platform links hotels, remote camps and lodges, ground transportation and airlines, duty of care, and other service providers with businesses seeking crew travel solutions. The platform facilitates workforce logistics management, provides better visibility and cost control, and creates digital efficiencies for accounts payable technologies and consolidating payments for an organization’s crew travel. The platform is undergoing continued development to include mobile apps, GPS mapping, automated reporting and predictive analytics, integration of key supplier software (such as duty of care), and direct links to air and ground transportation.
LodgeLink recognized an opportunity in the market for providing a platform to efficiently connect the supply and demand of room and accommodation bookings for companies employing field crews. There was strong early traction on the platform with remote workforce camps in Canada with a number of industrial customers. LodgeLink has since scaled rapidly and now lists more than 2,000 hotels and lodge properties on its platform, representing over 200,000 rooms, and serves more than 500 companies in Canada and the United States.
“LodgeLink is applying innovative technology to transform workforce travel,” said Trevor Haynes, CEO LodgeLink and Chairman & CEO Black Diamond Group. “In partnership with OCIF, we’re recruiting and relocating strong tech-based talent while also developing local expertise in Calgary to further build the capabilities of the LodgeLink platform, which is key to our rapid growth and continued success.”
“The support of LodgeLink by OCIF is an investment in expanding and broadening our tech ecosystem and working with an established industry player to apply technology in solving an industrywide challenge. We have been extremely impressed with Trevor and the entire team at LodgeLink and are excited to support our collective vision of helping to digitize and transform industries in Calgary,” said Mark Blackwell, Chair of the OCIF Board of Directors and Partner at Builders VC.
The OCIF funding will support the expected creation of approximately 300 tech jobs along with an anticipated equal amount of commercial and administrative positions over the next five years in Calgary – including software developers and systems and data analysts. LodgeLink will base its technical operations to support its expanded digital platform in Calgary to service companies with widely dispersed workforces in locations in Canada, the United States and Australia.
“It’s been obvious for a while now that the professional skills already abundant in Calgary could be put to use in innovating cross-sector. LodgeLink is the latest example of that, and the creation of these 600 jobs is just the beginning,” said Mayor Naheed Nenshi, a member of the OCIF Board of Directors.
Despite significantly weaker North American travel volumes due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, LodgeLink continues to gain traction with its growing base of over 500 corporate customers. Since July of 2020, LodgeLink has seen significant year-over-year increases in monthly booking volumes, with total bookings running approximately two times higher than the comparative period in 2019. Given the current pace of demand and booking growth, Black Diamond believes LodgeLink is on track to see continued momentum and accelerated expansion into 2021 and beyond.
