U.K. Agents Attempting To Solve Hotel Billback Problems

British travel management companies are appealing to hotels to help find a solution to the frequent failure of "billback" arrangements when corporate clients' travelers check out of a property.

A billback occurs when a company's appointed travel management company pays a hotel bill, instead of travelers settling the bill directly with the hotel through a corporate card. Historically, the hotel would invoice the TMC, but TMCs increasingly are settling billbacks by providing the hotel with a lodge card number. Difficulties are occurring because there is no electronic means by which TMCs can communicate the lodge card details and authorization to hotels. The problem appears to be common across Europe.

The United Kingdom's Guild of Travel Management Companies has been looking for a solution by bringing together global distribution systems, payment card companies and property management system providers. Now it is inviting hotels to join in a meeting in London on May 27 to discuss what it calls an "accelerating problem."

"When booking through a GDS, there is no field for TMCs to arrange a billback," said GTMC general manager John Williams. "TMCs often have to send a fax to confirm a billback is payable, and those often get lost. In addition, extra expenses cannot be authorized and require contact, usually by fax, to confirm. Two examples of problems reported recently by our members include a group of Filipino engineers with no money and no credit cards who were not allowed to check out of their hotel, and a superstar diva that had bottles of Champagne sent to her room. All the charges had been set up for the TMC to pay, but the confirmation went missing."

GTMC is pressing for GDSs to create a common format conveying a guarantee of payment for extra charges if authorized in advance. However, Chris Reynolds, head of the industry affairs committee for the U.K. & Ireland's Institute of Travel & Meetings, believes a better solution is for corporate clients to move away from billbacks. "The ideal is to get more travelers to settle their bills with a charge card, so they can get a value added tax-compliant invoice which also provides data for supplier negotiations," he said.

As Williams' examples show, travelers without their own corporate cards tend to be either low-paid or contract workers or VIPs. There is also poor uptake of corporate cards in the public sector. Card companies are starting to promote prepaid and one-time payment solutions as alternatives for these traveler types.