"We will open a new headquarters in Barcelona with the mission of connecting the members of our community in a pleasant and sustainable way." This is how last June the co-founder and CEO of TravelPerk, Avi Meir, announced the company's intention to move to a new building that would allow it to face its growth and improve the workspaces of its employees. Nine months later, the move is already a reality: TravelPerk has just opened a new 9,400 square meter corporate headquarters in the heart of the 22@ district, at number 160 Almogàvers street.
The new European headquarters of the online business travel agency is located in a building that has been promoted by Conren Tramway and that is distributed over five above-ground floors. The ground floor and a basement floor aim to "foster innovation, promote hybrid work through technology, integrate sustainability and well-being values, and cultivate real-life connections among workers," explains the international consultancy JLL, which was responsible for the design of the new facilities.
The main curiosity is that access to the building is through a cafeteria, The Platform, which welcomes employees and visitors to the office. The tour, explains JLL, continues through a large bistro, a flexible space that can be transformed to adapt to different purposes and activities. On the ground floor there is also the lounge, a connection area visible from the outside that acts as a meeting point for the building's employees. "This lounge evokes airport lobbies; a place that motivates informal and collaborative work. We wanted to create a space for socialization, where everyone would want to be", highlighted Miguel Fernández, director of Tétris in Spain, the JLL subsidiary specialized in the design and construction of workspaces. Finally, in the basement there is a coworking space that offers an alternative to the everyday workspaces on the other floors.
Founded in 2015 in a flat in Raval by three former Booking employees, TravelPerk's corporate headquarters has had various locations, always in Barcelona, the city where the company was created, specializing in corporate travel management. After experiencing strong growth in recent years, in early 2022, the company became the third unicorn in Barcelona ---a status already achieved by Glovo and Wallbox--- by closing a new funding round that raised its valuation to over 1.1 billion euros.
"Although the world has left behind pre-pandemic ways of working, the human need to interact in person will never disappear. That's why we invested in creating a great physical space for our employees: we wanted to offer them a place that could adapt to all work styles and, at the same time, foster in-person interaction," explains Avi Meir.
Along the same lines, JLL considers the new headquarters to be "a milestone that marks a new stage for TravelPerk given the need to develop a solid corporate culture through its workspaces, after the rapid growth experienced by the company in recent years."
In the middle of last year, the company had a workforce of more than 600 employees —400 of whom work in Barcelona— and offices in the United Kingdom, Germany, and the United States.