Concur Compleat Links Up with CSI GlobalVCard for Virtual Cards

The Concur Compleat mid-office system now can generate CSI GlobalVCard virtual cards for hotel bookings automatically, after Concur enabled Conferma virtual cards earlier this year. CSI GlobalVCard SVP of travel Juliann Pless told BTN the partnership is implementing with three travel management companies: Short's Travel, Tower and Vision Travel. Concur's Compleat TravPay module facilitates both Conferma and CSI GlobalVCard and will be a platform for future virtual card integrations. That includes a CSI GlobalVCard/Concur Compleat integration for air bookings, planned for the first quarter of 2018.

A separate, more recent integration between Conferma and Concur Travel that bypasses the Compleat system is unrelated.

Similar to Concur's Compleat integration with Conferma, CSI GlobalVCard's virtual hotel payment is available through both live agent bookings and Concur's online booking tool. Client companies maintain their existing payment process, so travelers initiate payment with a corporate or lodge card. Then, once Compleat receives the virtual card from CSI GlobalVCard, Compleat switches out the card in the passenger name record. Clients manage access to the virtual card through traveler profiles and can set rules for what the payment will cover, whether it's room and tax only or includes a buffer for incidentals, Pless added.

CSI GlobalVCard then also sends the virtual card to the traveler via the CSI GlobalVCard app and faxes or emails authorization to the hotel. The hotel must support secure email to receive email authorization, and CSI GlobalVCard is working to automate a hotel's preferred transmission method. Currently, the system is set up to fax by default. If a hotel prefers email, the TMC, corporate client or CSI GlobalVCard team manually emails authorizations.

Virtual Card Integrations Keep Expanding

While Conferma virtual cards for hotel bookings have been automated in Sabre since the GDS introduced virtual payments for hotel settlement in 2011, it's mostly been a manual process for other providers. That means an agent has had to toggle between the booking platform and the virtual card provider's platform to generate a virtual card number and then insert it into the booking tool to pay for it.

Last year, a number of virtual card providers automated at-time-of-booking virtual card payment. In July 2016, GraspPay enabled the capability for hotel and air bookings in Concur Travel. Conferma and Sabre extended the capability for air bookings last November.

In June, CSI GlobalVCard provided clients with the ability to pay for hotels using virtual cards on TMC AmTrav Corporate Travel's desktop booking tool. Paying for flights and car rentals with virtual cards on AmTrav's desktop booking tool is expected to be available before the end of the year. And the progress continues as CSI GlobalVCard is working on its own booking tool that will use its virtual card technology (see Update: CSI GlobalVCard Booking Tool at right).

Car Rental Plans

Following through on the partnership it signed with Avis Budget last year, CSI GlobalVCard also is working on virtual card payments for rental car bookings to, Pless said. Travelers will be able to go to the car rental company's website and book a car using their corporate rate codes. "The code will trigger a virtual card through our API. They can use it through a TMC or a booking tool, as well," Pless explained.

Using virtual cards for car rental bookings is tricky because of tolls and various insurance considerations. To solve for that, CSI GlobalVCard built tolerances into the card that are different from those for airline or hotel reservations. The tweaks accommodate the potential fees and extend the expiration date, Pless said. For example, tolls usually are applied two to four weeks after the traveler returns the car, she said.

Any extra funds will go back to the corporate client's account. "We put a flat dollar amount instead of a buffer based on what Avis Budget told us would be an ideal amount," she said.