Biztravel.com Shuts Up Shop

The events of last week claimed another victim as corporate-travel company Rosenbluth International’s biztravel.com issued a brief statement saying that it will “terminate travel services” today.

All of the online travel services have been hit hard by reduced bookings (down as much as 60 percent at some companies on some days) and plunging stock prices following the tragedy.

“Biztravel has been unable to overcome the challenges of the economic downturn, the further-reduced demand for travel resulting from the tragedy of Sept. 11, 2001, and the ever-increasing economic pressures of the travel industry,” Marc Kaelin, vice president, said in a statement. There was no immediate word on job losses.

Biztravel was focused on meeting the needs of frequent business travelers, with a special emphasis on small and mid-sized businesses through its biztravel@myCompany offering, which featured online travel management reports, posting of travel management policies, central billing options and customer service around the clock.

It also offered mobile services and the Biztravel Guarantee, a promise to provide customers with refunds for inconveniences experienced while traveling, on itineraries booked through biztravel.com on participating guarantee providers.

That program proved overly ambitious and it was cut back last January as too many airline passengers ran into problems with flights booked through the Web site.