While most of us associate leisure travel affairs with the behemoth Airbnb, there are other segments to serve. One of these segments is workforce travel, and LodgeLink knows that business well.
The startup was founded in 2016 in Calgary and launched commercially toward the end of 2017. LodgeLink recognized an opportunity in the market for providing a platform to connect the supply and demand of room and accommodation bookings for companies employing field crews.
By 2019, the company had more than 2,000 properties on its platform representing 200,000 rooms. Today LodgeLink boasts nearly 3,000 properties with well over 300,000 rooms combined. Originally servicing select areas of Canada, the company now reaches virtually all of North America.
LodgeLink was incubated inside Black Diamond Group, which helped it secure $3 million from the Opportunity Calgary Investment Fund late last year. This funding was in order to support “rapid scaling” of the business and the creation of 600 tech jobs in Calgary—half of which will be tech positions.
The company forecasts requiring up to 50,000 more square feet of office space downtown to accommodate additional staff. The OCIF was created by the City of Calgary in 2018 to support catalytic investments to help diversify and transform the economy.
“LodgeLink is applying innovative technology to transform workforce travel,” says Trevor Haynes, CEO of LodgeLink and Black Diamond Group. “In partnership with OCIF, we’re recruiting and relocating strong tech-based talent while also developing local expertise in Calgary to further develop and build the capabilities of the LodgeLink platform, which is a key aspect for our rapid growth and continued success.”
“We have been extremely impressed with Trevor and the entire team at LodgeLink and are excited to support our collective vision of helping to digitize and transform industries in Calgary,” noted Mark Blackwell, Chair of the OCIF Board of Directors.
According to Black Diamond’s latest quarterly earnings report, LodgeLink room bookings set a third consecutive quarterly record, growing 109% to 48,756 room nights. That’s the kind of growth that requires workforce expansion.
“It’s been obvious for a while now that the professional skills already abundant in Calgary could be put to use in innovating cross-sector,” pointed out Mayor Naheed Nenshi, a member of the OCIF Board of Directors. “LodgeLink is the latest example of that, and the creation of these 600 jobs is just the beginning.”
Just the beginning indeed, Mr. Mayor. Which is why LodgeLink is hiring at the upcoming Tech Talent Canada Job Fair. The job fair, happening June 23, is a unique recruiting event that connects fast growing companies in Canada with top tech talent.
