Founded in 2013, Sandboxx is a military media and technology company that manages mobile and web apps, transactional products and content assets for military service members and their families.

“Our mission is to remove friction for our warfighters and their families’ lives by connecting them to relevant content, technology and their social community in a secure way, with a modern, digital user experience,” said Sam Meek, chief executive officer and co-founder of Sandboxx.

One of Sandboxx’s core offerings is travel services for the U.S. military and their families. Currently, they are focused on helping family and friends attend their loved ones’ graduations, including securing flights and hotels.

“We saw a big opportunity to make the travel experience better for our military families, but we needed to make sure the best travel content was available
 for them on our web and mobile platform, and that it’s presented in a useful, relevant way,” Meek said.

Sandboxx recently made a visit to ARC’s headquarters to become more familiar with the variety of products and services offered to agencies. Andrew Appleton, Travel Director at Sandboxx, explained, “I felt it was very important for our leadership to visit ARC and learn firsthand the passion ARC has for travel agencies’ success.” During the visit, Sandboxx was able to meet key ARC staff members from several departments, including marketing, account management, customer support and administration. Sandboxx’s chief technology officer was especially impressed with ARC’s fraud prevention department and best practices for identifying fraud for both online and offline bookings.

In addition to sharing an overview of the organization, ARC was also able to hear several ideas Sandboxx has in mind for the coming year, and how a collaborative partnership with ARC could lead to better results.

Appleton encourages agencies, especially new ones, to take advantage of the available resources from ARC. “I don’t think travel agencies completely understand the resources ARC provides and the vast knowledge their staff has in the travel industry… Since we are so new to the industry, having a trusted partner to guide us is very powerful."

After attending ARC’s TravelConnect conference in 2017, Sandboxx was convinced that joining ARC as an accredited agency was the best thing he could to ensure long-term success for Sandboxx, and to have a strong network of resources available.

The visit to ARC provided an opportunity for top leaders and board members at Sandboxx to put a face to the accreditation process. General Ray Smith, retired USMC two-star general, Sandboxx founder and board chairman, was surprised at the level of detail ARC puts into their training and accreditation process. “Until talking to a real person at ARC I was a bit skeptical of the entire process. Now, I have full confidence in our travel business.”

Rounding out the visit, ARC’s CFO provided Sandboxx with valuable insight to the numbers behind ARC’s model, as well as its ongoing investment in travel agencies.

“We look forward to building a long-term relationship with ARC and taking advantage of their resources — and knowing they are only a few minutes down the road provides great comfort,” said Meek.