Meetings management technology company StarCite and card company American Express in July will pilot the second phase of their co-branded solution, which includes the ability for buyers to investigate suspicious charges and pay through the tool, executives at the two companies said.
Visa and meetings management technology company Arcaneo announced a similar partnership in May
(BTNonline, May 15).Such strategic partnerships between card companies and meeting management technology companies are "just what their customers, especially the large corporate accounts, have been asking for," said Jeff Rasco, meetings technology consultant and president of Attendee Management Inc.
Amex and StarCite's tool will upload card transactions daily, allowing customers to see the exact amounts before they appear on a statement and launch an investigation into suspicious charges that come up through an e-mail channel between Amex and the hotel.
"They'll be able to investigate that and really resolve that through the tool with the hotel versus waiting until that charge gets billed to the statement and having to set up a formal dispute process," according to Lisa Steury, vice president of global product management and marketing for American Express Commercial Card.
The second phase will allow customers to pay for deposits and meeting spending data to be uploaded with transient data through American Express' reporting tool.
"We're going to have one report that has total hotel expendenditures for both meetings and transient spend," said Steury. "You'll be able to categorize that at the property, chain and brand level. That will really help our corporate customers that negotiate with the hotels because they'll have more information, which translates into purchasing power."
Amex and StarCite rolled out the first phase in February, after a pilot that began in December
(Meetings Today, Sept. 10, 2007).