SAP Concur is shuttering metasearch engine Hipmunk, which the company acquired in 2016.
SAP Concur says it is “retiring” both the consumer-facing Hipmunk product as well as travel and expense product Concur Hipmunk and will stop supporting the brand on January 23.
The company says it notified employees of the decision this morning (January 14) before communicating the news to its customers and partners; SAP Concur says there will not be layoffs, and “employees who are currently working on Hipmunk will be moving to similar roles based on their skill set, level and job profile.”
With the folding of Hipmunk, in particular Concur Hipmunk, which was designed for the small- and midsize-business segment, SAP Concur will focus its efforts on its other products including itinerary manager TripIt Pro and Concur TripLink, which offers direct, managed business travel bookings.
“As our approach to providing integrated travel and expense management evolves, we have made the decision to retire Hipmunk and Concur Hipmunk. Concur TripLink with TripIt Pro is the preferred solution for customers who aren’t a fit for Concur Travel, an online booking tool,” the company says in a statement.
When asked if there were efforts to salvage Hipmunk in any iteration, the company says: “We carefully considered all potential avenues for Hipmunk and Concur Hipmunk and determined that it was in the best interests of our travelers, customers, our people and SAP Concur to terminate the service and retain all of the Intellectual Property.”
In 2018, Hipmunk co-founder and then-CEO Adam Goldstein explained on PhocusWire how the brand turned “suckage” into success, culminating with the acquisition by SAP Concur.
At the time, Goldstein said more than 900 companies had signed up for Concur Hipmunk to plan and book business travel; Goldstein left Hipmunk at the end of 2018.