TravelNow.com plans spring 2002 move

TravelNow.com, will in June 2002 move to 15,000 square feet of leased space in World View, a new commercial development under construction at 4124 S. McCann Ct.

The property is owned by Springfield developer Bill Jes-ter, according to Ken Schwab, leasing agent for the facility.

Amy Tindle, general manager of Travel-Now.com, said the move will make things easier for the company from a logistical standpoint. The company now occupies leased space in the McDaniel Build-ing, 318 Park Central East.

Efficiency

"Right now, we're on five different floors in this building, so we've got it pretty well structured that our accounting de-partment is on a level, our collections area is one level, our customer care department is on one level," Tindle said.

But, she added, the separation of departments by floor makes interaction between the employees in those departments difficult, and it isn't the most efficient layout for the business.

"When you have every de-partment that's so intricately in-volved with ev-ery other de-partment, it's hard to be efficient when you're running up and down the stairs or to the elevator or whatever," Tindle said. "One level or one floor makes more sense."

TravelNow Chief Operating Officer Michael Bauer said the new location will provide room for future growth, but from a technological standpoint, it won't change the quality or the speed of the services the company provides.

Growth

As the company outgrew its original location on the third floor of the McDan-iel Building, it was a challenge to make sure each floor was wired appropriately.

"Getting up into the old rafters and getting all that done each floor adds a new element of surprises and challenges," Bauer said. "Being able to start from scratch is a great opportunity for us. When you're expanding as fast as we did over the last six years, you try to get as much space and move as quickly as you possibly can."

Planning a move into a building that's not yet finished provides the company time to think things out a little more, he added.

World View

Schwab said originally, World View, which has an estimated construction value of $2.2 million, was going to be two separate 9,000-square-foot buildings, but "when we learned that (Trav-elNow) was looking, the only way we could accommodate their needs was to put the two buildings together."

The structure will be L-shaped, and Schwab said 3,000 square feet of leaseable space still is available.

Schwab said the architect for the exterior shell is Bill Derington, and interior improvements will be designed by Doug Jackson of Butler, Rosenbury & Part-ners.

The general contractor for World View is Great Wall Construction.

Potential

TravelNow employs 84 people, and Tindle said the new location will allow potential for growth in all departments of the company.

Tindle said the move is being made so that the company will be more efficient, and Bauer added that having the employees in position to interact more with one another will enhance TravelNow's overall workplace culture.

Bauer said the company considered the pros and cons of relocating the business, and he and Tindle said they looked at about 20 different properties before deciding on the World View location.

"Our employees are scattered throughout the community all around so (the move) will benefit some. For others, it will add a few more minutes to their commute," Bauer said.

For customers, the company's physical location is irrelevant, he said, because business is conducted primarily via the Internet.

"Visitors that we have aren't consumers or customers. They're suppliers and things of that nature," Bauer said.

Recent national events, namely the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, did affect Tra-velNow's business, Bauer said, but the company is optimistic about future growth.

"Our booking levels did decrease right after Sept. 11, but we did see, relatively quickly, a rebound in those numbers. We're entering a time of the season that is not typically our strongest months anyway," Bauer said.

TravelNow.com was founded six years ago by Chris Noble and Jeff Wasson, both of whom have since left the company. TravelNow was acquired by Dallas-based Hotel Reservation Network earlier this year.

TravelNow.com provides online hotel reservations, air travel bookings and car rentals, as well as technology and services that allows other companies to have booking engines for those services on their Web sites.