JTB Business Travel is a global travel management company (TMC) with more than 114 years of history, operating across North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific. The company has built its reputation on high-touch service, combining experienced travel advisors with deep regional expertise. It is extending that service model into the future at global scale with Teal, built on Spotnana Cloud for TMCs.
Before Teal, JTB Business Travel faced challenges familiar to TMCs operating across multiple regions.
Fragmented content was difficult to integrate and service, particularly in Europe where low-cost carriers and direct airline content sit largely outside traditional GDS channels. There was also a growing demand from clients for intuitive, consumer-grade booking experiences. Lastly, the company recognized an operational reality: travel advisor staffing and labor costs were unsustainable at the pace of growth JTB Business Travel was targeting.
In May 2025, JTB Business Travel launched Teal, a modern travel platform built on Spotnana that serves the company’s global clients. JTB Business Travel became the first TMC to offer Spotnana’s platform across owned points of sale in more than 25 countries.
Two versions of Teal are now available: Teal Premier, a fully customizable solution for global travel programs, and Teal Essential for organizations with self-managed travel programs.
Teal clients have achieved a 94% average self-service online booking rate, reflecting both the platform’s ease of use and the shift in traveler behavior JTB Business Travel had anticipated when it began evaluating modern alternatives to legacy technology.
“We evaluated multiple technologies, but Spotnana fit the mold best,” said Geert de Boo, Vice President of Global Business Travel at JTB Business Travel. “The way it’s set up gives us flexibility for the future, knowing that what we need today may be different tomorrow.”
Through Teal, JTB Business Travel customers have access to:
- Unified global content — GDS inventory alongside inventory from direct NDC connections, low-cost carriers, OTAs, rail carriers, and aggregators.
- Consumer-grade booking experience — an intuitive online booking tool with self-service capabilities designed for travelers who expect the same ease of use they get from consumer apps.
- One platform for travelers, travel advisors, and travel managers — a unified experience where everyone booking, managing, or servicing a trip has access to the same content, profiles, policies, and workflow automation.
- Rapid global deployment — a single instance supporting multiple markets and countries, enabling JTB to onboard new clients significantly faster than legacy technology allowed.
“We needed to future-proof ourselves, and Spotnana is a next-generation platform,” said de Boo. “The platform is built in a modular way that gives us flexibility to move with all the changes the industry is going through, and the ability to keep evolving with rapidly changing technology opportunities.”
Serving the global mid-market
Teal Premier is well suited for a segment de Boo saw as underserved: mid-market companies consolidating travel programs regionally or globally that want enterprise-level technology without sacrificing the service quality they associate with a high-touch TMC. Spotnana’s global architecture made that combination possible.
One of the most immediate results has been faster implementation speed. Rolling out multi-country travel programs has historically been a lengthy process, with complex dependencies on legacy technology and many stakeholders. Spotnana’s cloud-native platform compressed those timelines significantly. “We were surprised by how much faster we can do it,” said de Boo. “The first couple of months with a new account are critical. When we can make that a much easier process, that’s a huge win.”
In the months following Teal Premier’s launch, JTB Business Travel migrated several hundred accounts to the platform and saw a significant jump in online adoption.
Travel advisors have responded positively as well, particularly to the shared view between advisor and traveler. “Working in the same platform that travelers are seeing is a huge benefit,” de Boo noted. “And having NDC, LCC, and rail content in one place means travel advisors don’t have to leave the platform to book or service.”
Spotnana has also helped JTB Business Travel build a strong partnership with Goodwings, a sustainability-focused technology company that has built advanced capabilities on top of Spotnana’s open travel platform. Servicing Goodwings customers gave JTB’s operations team hands-on experience with Spotnana and laid the groundwork for Teal’s growth.
JTB Business Travel created a dedicated Spotnana operations team handling both Goodwings and Teal customers. Travel advisors work in one environment rather than splitting time between legacy and modern systems.
Spotnana has changed how JTB Business Travel travel advisors spend their time. By automating high-frequency, routine requests, Spotnana frees the team to focus on complex itineraries, international programs, and the moments when human support matters most.
“It’s much more than just an online booking tool,” said de Boo. “It’s a different operating system for travel that delivers better efficiency and automates more processes. When travel advisors are really needed, the expectation of service is higher than ever, and we want to make sure they’re freed up for that.
“Spotnana allows us to grow our customer count aggressively without having to grow our operations equally fast.”
A partnership built to evolve
What has defined the JTB Business Travel and Spotnana relationship is a mutual commitment to building together. De Boo deliberately sought a technology partner that would involve JTB in shaping its roadmap rather than simply delivering a finished product.
“Spotnana has been a great partner,” said de Boo. “We feel listened to, and I think it makes both of us better.” This dynamic reflects a broader philosophy de Boo has brought to JTB Business Travel’s partnership strategy: pairing the experience and operational depth of an established TMC with the speed and creative energy of a technology-first organization.
“We’re trying to pioneer together,” said de Boo. “When we encounter difficulties, we fix them together.”
Looking ahead, JTB Business Travel is focused on expanding Teal into new markets, with several key markets in Asia, the JTB Group’s home region, among the highest priorities. De Boo sees Spotnana as central to that expansion
“The collaboration with Spotnana is a big part of our strategy to grow in both breadth and depth. There’s a huge potential opportunity we can unlock in the global market as an alternative to the large TMCs.”
