PhocusWire’s weekly travel tech news briefs: Accor, Skyscanner, Mews and more…

Here’s our roundup of the people, product and partner news from the global travel industry this week.

This roundup was created with the help of ChatGPT.

Expensify rolls out new Expensify Travel features

Expensify has rolled out new features for its Expensify Travel platform aimed at simplifying corporate travel management and reducing costs. 

The updates include central billing to streamline payments and reconciliation, event management tools for organizing offsites and conferences and enhanced employee itineraries that consolidate bookings in one view. 

Casago, Breezeway

Vacation rental management company Casago has partnered with Breezeway to enhance property care and operations. 

The deal gives Casago and its franchise partners access to Breezeway’s automation and hospitality tools, including housekeeping and maintenance coordination, safety workflows, messaging, digital welcome books and smart lock management. 

Fareportal names Amit Singh president

Fareportal has named Amit Singh president. Singh will oversee global operations and strategic direction. Singh most recently served as CFO at Despegar, where he helped drive growth and shareholder value. He previously held senior finance roles at Nasdaq, and NYSE-listed tech firms and worked in equity research, investment banking and engineering. 

Accelya adds AI capabilities

Accelya has added artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities to its sales audit solution through FLX AIViator, which should enable airlines to detect more than 60% of missed revenue earlier in the audit cycle and recover cash faster.

Already used by over 70 carriers, the tool now leverages anomaly detection, adaptive algorithms and hybrid human-AI oversight to strengthen compliance and improve accuracy. 

Nido Living, Eviivo

Student accommodation platform Nido Living has partnered with property management system Eviivo to support its expansion into short-stay hospitality at its mixed-use properties in Spain. 

The rollout that started last year at Nido Príncipe Pío in Madrid and Nido Malvarrosa in Valencia allows the student housing operator to offer flexible accommodation alongside its long-stay model. Since launch, the partnership has driven strong results, including more than 18,000 guests, record booking volumes and occupancy above local market averages, the companies said.

Accor appoints Ranju Alex CEO for South Asia

Accor has appointed Ranju Alex as CEO for South Asia, overseeing operations in India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Alex joins from Marriott International, where she was regional vice president for South Asia, managing more than 170 hotels. 

Alex began her career with The Oberoi Group and has held senior leadership roles over a three-decade career. Accor currently operates more than 70 hotels in South Asia, with over 30 in the pipeline.

Firsttrip’s loyalty program

Bangladesh-based online travel agency (OTA) Firsttrip has launched FT Club, a loyalty program that lets travelers earn points on flight bookings made through its website or app. Points can be redeemed for discounts at checkout, with a minimum redemption of 50 points.

Membership is automatic and free, and annual spending determines tier level: silver, gold, platinum and legendary. Higher tiers unlock additional perks, with the top level offering premium support and exclusive benefits. The rollout reflects a wider trend of regional OTAs building loyalty schemes to compete with global players.

CTM upgrades booking platform

Corporate Travel Management (CTM) has upgraded its Lightning booking platform with seat maps and new reservation features for U.K. rail. The move follows CTM’s migration to the Rail Delivery Group’s Rail Availability and Reservation Service through a partnership with Evolvi.

Business travelers can now view and select seats during booking, including options to sit near colleagues. CTM said the changes bring rail closer in line with the booking experience for flights and hotels.

Iberojet, Zamna

Spanish and Portuguese carrier Iberojet is working with London-based Zamna to pre-validate passenger documents before check-in. The airline says the system, now live on long-haul routes from Spain and Portugal to Latin America (LATAM) and the Caribbean, reduces queues and manual checks while ensuring compliance with destination entry rules.

Within the first month, more than 60% of online check-in users entered the Zamna process and 70% were fully verified to fly in advance, the airline said. Iberojet plans to extend the technology to return flights into Europe and additional routes.

Topsort, Despegar

Topsort, an AI-driven retail media infrastructure company, is entering the travel sector through a partnership with LATAM OTA Despegar. The collaboration introduces sponsored products ads on Despegar’s platform, letting advertisers promote hotels, flights and packages directly in search results. The system uses auction-based AI optimization and a self-service interface for real-time campaign management and reporting.

BizTrip.AI, Cerebri AI integration

BizTrip.AI’s agentic AI for business travel now incorporates Cerebri AI’s corporate datasets, including travel management company (TMC), online booking tool, expense card, HR and expense report data. The platform uses this historical context to streamline booking, manage itinerary changes and ensure policy compliance, adapting to individual traveler preferences. Trials are underway with enterprises including Moderna and TMC Cain Travel.

The integration aims to reduce inefficiencies caused by misaligned travel and expense data, offering a more predictive, assistant-style booking experience as business travel spending rebounds toward $2 trillion globally by 2028.

Turo, Skyscanner

Car sharing marketplace Turo has partnered with Skyscanner to offer vehicle inventory directly to users in the U.K., U.S., Canada and Australia. The integration allows travelers to compare cars alongside flights and hotels, with access to over 1,600 makes and models in 16,000 cities.

Popular bookings so far include SUVs and family vehicles near major airports, and in Australia, winter road-trip vehicles, the companies said. The partnership aims to streamline trip planning by combining flights and car options on one platform while tapping Skyscanner’s 160 million monthly users.

Mews’ digital keys

Mews has launched a native digital key integration that allows guests to store and access hotel room keys directly in their smartphone wallets. The system works without third-party apps and is compatible with Vingcard door locks.

Guests can check in online, receive their key in the wallet and unlock doors with a single tap, reducing front desk queues and key handling. Hey Lou Hotels in Germany is the first property to deploy the feature. Mews said the integration streamlines operations for hoteliers while delivering a frictionless, mobile-first experience for travelers.