The purchaser of a major Reno call center expects to double employment in the next 12 months as the facility becomes a keystone of its business serving the travel industry.
Onelink4travel Inc.
of San Francisco paid about $8 million in stock and notes to purchase The Call Center LLC.
The outbound call center employs approximately 200 in a facility at 300 E.
Second St.
That number is likely to grow dramatically, said Bill Guerin, chairman and chief executive officer of Onelink4travel Inc.
His company later this year will roll out an integrated distribution and financial settlement service to the travel industry every aspect of the industry except airlines and The Call Center will market those services to travel industry suppliers and retailers.
In addition, Guerin said Onelink4Travel Inc.
expects that the Reno call center may handle marketing, customer service and some reservation services for outside companies.
Among those companies might be Sabre Travel Network and PayPal Inc., which have signed alliances with Onelink4travel Inc.
As it shopped to acquire a call center, Guerin said Onelink4travel was drawn to the Reno company because it provides multilingual services and can draw from a multilingual labor pool.
Additionally, he said that the company founded by Paul Flannery has a track record of profits that's rare among American call centers facing competition around the world.
Flannery will continue to work as chief executive officer of The Call Center.
Much of The Call Center's business in the past four years has been with T-Mobile, but Guerin said that contract has been winding down.
The center has handled as many as 2 million connections a month.
As employment at The Call Center grows, Guerin said the physical facilities are designed for fast expansion.
The Call Center moved to Reno from Visalia, Calif., in 2004, leasing 15,000 square feet in the building at 300 E.
Second St.
It took an option on another 15,000 square feet when it signed the original lease.
The Call Center is one of two keystones in the strategy to be rolled out by Onelink4travel Inc.
The other keystone is its reservations operation, and it purchased Reservation Center Inc.
of Los Angeles in April.
That center handled the sale of about 30 million room-nights last year.
Here's how Onelink4Travel Inc.
works: For many years, Guerin says, airlines have had direct access to the bank accounts of travel agents.When a travel agent wrote a ticket, an airline would instantly debit the agency's account less a commission, back in the days when airlines paid commissions.
The system worked for travel agencies that had dramatically less paperwork and for airlines that got their money fast without messing around with individual commission payments to travel agencies.
Onelink4travel takes that same model to hotels, car rental companies, cruise lines and tour operators.
The company's pitch: It allows tourism retailers to book pre-paid travel reservations and keep their commissions upfront.With improved distribution and cash flow, travel suppliers can boost their profitability and reduce their prices to consumers.
Travel wholesalers, meanwhile, get paid immediately in their own currency.
Guerin said the company has invested about $15 million in technology in
preparation for its launch.
