With business travel projected to begin re-emerging over the coming months, expense management and corporate payment provider Expensify is getting into the booking game, rolling out a virtual assistant through which travellers can book flights, hotels and rental cars via chat or email.

Dubbed Concierge Travel, the service is available for free to all holders of the Expensify Card, the payment tool the company launched last year. Rather than charging a per-booking or subscription fee for the booking service, Expensify earns a percentage of the interchange fee paid by the supplier accepting payment via the card. The card is offered as a complimentary service under both Expensify's US$5 per user and $9 per user service plans.

Concierge Travel includes complimentary Covid-19 alerts and risk assessment services from travel security and medical specialist Global Rescue for all bookings, according to Expensify. International travellers also receive a destination report containing virus-related details, such as entry and exit requirements for their country of travel. Travel managers can set parameters and policy controls based on risk assessments and other factors, such as fare classes and star ratings for hotels.?

Concierge Travel is starting off with live agents working behind the scenes to fulfil bookings, with fully automated fulfilment expanding as the system's artificial intelligence becomes more advanced, said Expensify CEO David Barrett. Agents will book travel through public online travel agencies, according to Expensify.

The launch of Concierge Travel is the latest major addition to Expensify's service line, following the October 2019 debut of the Expensify Card. Bringing expense management, payment cards and booking under one roof helps fulfil the company's mission of simplifying corporate travel and expense management, according to Barrett.

"Our priority has always been to make the entire expense management process as easy as possible for the end user, and housing all of these services within Expensify makes for the smoothest experience imaginable," Barrett noted.

"A user can simply chat Concierge with a booking request ¡­ and it takes care of the rest," he continued. "During your trip, you just swipe the card without worrying about receipts and get an instant notification on your phone if an expense needs more details. After the trip, all the heavy lifting of receipt tracking and expense management has been done, so you can focus on literally anything else."