Company Profiles: Spotlight on Travel and Tech

Resort advertising often features couples frolicking in the surf and gazing into each other eyes and enjoying romantic moments. But families make up an important segment of resort visitors too.

Group vacations to iconic destinations sound like a dream, but the work to make it happen can become a nightmare. Travefy aims to take the pain out of planning with apps that coordinate group travel.

Imagine enjoying a layover in a luxurious hotel room rather than a crowded airport terminal. You can book a “daycation” in many North American hotels right now using a service called HotelsByDay.

Founder and CEO Yannis Moati spoke with RewardExpert about how travelers can find relaxation despite having busy schedules.

Unlike the routine rush to work, vacation travelers often want to explore scenic routes as they travel the world. However, it’s difficult to evaluate online maps to choose the best routes based on comfort and cost.

Whether you travel by plane, train, car, ferry or even bicycle, Rome2rio is an app that maps your trip for you.

Smartphones have become essential to navigate unfamiliar places. Thanks to global positioning systems (GPS), getting to a destination without getting lost is easy.

But you don’t just need to see where you’re going, you need to see how to get there. In cities with multiple modes of travel, travelers complain that it’s hard to find a navigation app that includes all the options.

You scored a great deal on your flight when you redeemed your miles. Your boss agreed to your time off request—even though it’s the busy season—and you found a reputable pet sitter to check in on Snowball while you’re gone. It may seem as though the most challenging prior-to-vacation tasks are behind you, but they aren’t. You still have to pack, and that means dealing with your luggage—something many people dread rather than enjoy.

World travelers are burdened with organizing a lot of details. But logging into numerous websites, keeping track of reservation emails, and juggling a dizzying number of apps doesn’t have to be part of your itinerary.

Traxo is an online travel service that tracks and organizes personal travel information, such as itineraries, loyalty account balances and receipts, and then displays it all on a convenient dashboard, either in the app or on the web. More than 200 travel sites are supported.

The Student Conservation Association (SCA) strives to inspire youth to engage with nature and to become lifelong stewards of the environment through hands-on service opportunities. Student volunteers learn important life skills while doing crucial work to help preserve national parks and other public lands. You can donate Southwest Rapid Reward points to this valuable organization.

In the two years since its inception, DUFL has changed the way savvy professionals travel for business. Voted Best New Travel App of 2015 by USA Today, this unique company eliminates the need to pack for a trip, check or stow luggage, even do laundry and visit the dry cleaner. They do it all for you.

Thousands of executives, salespeople, athletes, celebrities and others who use DUFL’s services enjoy a stress-free journey while the company’s staff carefully packs and ships their clothing, toiletries and personal items to their destination.

Have you wished you had a special someone to explore the world with? You might want to check out MissTravel.com, an online dating site for travelers.

Headquartered in Las Vegas, MissTravel is among the new wave of dating sites that cater to specific lifestyles. Entrepreneur Brandon Wade founded the site in 2012 and serves as chief executive officer.

Did you know you can travel around the world and get lodging for free? That’s what HomeExchange offers with their house swapping service.

RewardExpert spoke with Alexandra Origet, HomeExchange’s global public relations director, to learn more.

How would you like to save money on long-distance flights? That’s what CleverLayover says they can do.

RewardExpert spoke with CEO and Co-founder Phil Hu to find out more. He explains the secrets of the system and offers a few travel tips.

Real Options for City Kids, or R.O.C.K. for short, is a San Francisco-based nonprofit that provides active and enriching programs to youth living in the working class neighborhood of Visitacion Valley. R.O.C.K. gives kids in this underserved community a chance to participate in activities they wouldn’t normally have access to, such as sports, outdoor adventures and a variety academic programs. Thanks to a partnership with United Airlines, you can donate MileagePlus miles to this worthy charity.

In 2010, U.S. Marines William McNulty and Jake Wood put together a small team of military veterans and first responders to head into Haiti after the earthquake. They were in Port-au-Prince three days after the quake, providing much needed medical services and supplies while many relief organizations were still waiting to enter the city.

Team Rubicon was born, and it has since grown its ranks to 40,000 volunteers who have participated in over 120 operations around the world. You can support their disaster relief efforts by donating your Southwest Airlines points.

A mobile phone is a traveler’s most trusted resource. Before settling into your seat and setting your phone to “airplane mode,” there are many logistic hurdles to overcome.

GateGuru has created a mobile app that guides you through major airports. While other apps focus on booking a fight, this app is all about the airport experience.

Hero Miles provides free flights to wounded, injured and ill service members and their families. You can give American, Delta, United, Alaska and Frontier miles to help support this worthy cause.

Paying rent electronically is a relatively new idea that may become the wave of the future. Over $550 billion in rent was paid in the U.S. last year. Of that $300 billion was paid by check.

RentMoola aspires to make paying rent as easy and convenient as it is to pay other bills. RewardExpert spoke with Philipp Postrehovsky, Co-founder and Chief Operating Officer to learn how the idea came about and how it all works.

In 2002 GlobalGiving introduced a new model of charitable giving that connects individual donors with grassroots nonprofits around the world.

Through this crowdfunding website, you can choose the projects you want to support, knowing that your donations will have a direct impact on those communities. And thanks to Hilton’s partnership with GlobalGiving, you can give HHonors points to help support these causes.

Renting cars by the hour—car sharing—is no longer just a city phenomenon where gas and parking cost make owning a vehicle burdensome. Now that Zipcar has vehicles available in 50 airports worldwide, air travelers can take a spin during a layover or delay.

Zach Ellard, head of Zipcar’s airports division, spoke with RewardExpert.com about the benefits of short-term car rentals and rewards for air travelers.