In a significant move to disrupt the underserved small-group travel sector, InteleTravel, via its parent company INTRAVEL, has officially acquired 40Hammocks, a pioneering AI-driven startup specializing in group travel automation. The acquisition marks the birth of “Groupr,” a new platform designed to digitize and streamline the notoriously manual processes of event and destination wedding planning.
Historically, group travel management for 10 or more rooms has been bifurcated: large corporate entities enjoy access to expensive, high-end enterprise software, while independent meeting planners, wedding coordinators, and travel advisors are forced to rely on labor-intensive phone and email workflows. This manual burden has long capped the volume of bookings these planners can manage, creating a bottleneck that Groupr aims to eliminate.
“Enterprise platforms have ignored the smaller-group market for years,” said James Ferrara, Chairman of the Board of Groupr and Managing Partner of INTRAVEL. “We saw technology that could solve that, a team that understood the problem, and an opportunity to serve an entire segment of the market that’s been underserved.”
The 40Hammocks platform, which already facilitates pre-negotiated hotel rates, custom booking links, and guest perk management, will serve as the technological foundation for the new brand. Under the INTRAVEL umbrella, the software is undergoing a rigorous transformation. By early 2027, the platform is expected to launch as a comprehensive, end-to-end automation engine capable of handling sourcing, contracting, and complex guest logistics. New features, including automated sourcing for private restaurant event spaces, are already in the pipeline for release by the end of this year.
The rollout of Groupr will follow a dual-track strategy. It will function as an open B2B marketplace for independent MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, and Exhibitions) planners and travel advisors, while simultaneously being integrated into the existing ecosystem of InteleTravel’s 145,000 advisors. This integration promises to significantly enhance the capabilities of the InteleTravel network, giving their advisors a competitive edge in the group space.
“Groupr automates what planners have been doing by hand for decades,” explained Kim Andreello, Managing Director of Groupr and Senior Vice President of Strategy and Corporate Development at InteleTravel. “This means planners can manage more groups, serve their clients better, and build a stronger business off the same effort.”
The transition includes the full 40Hammocks team, with co-founders Mina Singson-Brightman and Sebastian Borys remaining as partners and board members. As INTRAVEL continues its aggressive acquisition strategy—which has recently included the launch of businesstravel.com—the company positions itself as a dominant force in leveraging AI to empower travel professionals. For planners currently buried in spreadsheets and email chains, the arrival of Groupr offers a long-awaited technological bridge to higher efficiency and scale.
Disclaimer: This content is auto-generated for informational purposes only.
Source: Read Original News
