Hilton Provides Online Folio Access

Hilton Hotels Corp. last month began offering individual guests at all of its 2,216 properties online retrieval of hotel folios to ensure expense accounts are accurate and complete. Accessing a password-protected Internet site, travelers who have a profile on file with Hilton may retrieve and print the final folio between 48 hours and three months after checkout.

The Hilton version of electronic folio is distinct from buyers' efforts during the past few years to persuade hotels to submit line-by-line, level-three folio data electronically directly from the property into their companies' expense reporting tools. Hilton and some of the other major chains offer that functionality, but only to select clients.

"Online folio retrieval is helpful, but having the data sent to the card company would be even more beneficial," said Colleen Guhin, global travel manager, external manufacturing supply management for On Semiconductor. Guhin noted the Hilton feature would be of most value as a back-up system for catching potential discrepancies between the original folio and credit card data before travelers file expense reports.

"Travelers often use express checkout, but then incur last-minute charges for breakfast, gift shop charges, parking or use of the telephone that are not added to the folio before they leave the property," said Rebecca Wyatt, Hilton senior vice president of electronic distribution and customer relationship marketing. "There's then a discrepancy between the folio they agreed to and the credit card statement. Online retrieval allows travelers to file the amended folio for expense reporting purposes. Avoiding potential discrepancies this way saves time and is a convenience frequent business travelers tell us they value."

"Of course, we prefer that travelers not check out before all charges are completely accounted for, but there are bound to be times when that is not the case," Guhin said.

"The purpose of online folio retrieval is to offer guests the greater flexibility they tell us they're looking for," said Tom Keltner, president of Hilton's brand performance and franchise development group. "In a sense, we're just giving customers who choose to use it the ability to serve themselves with all the extra convenience and time-saving that implies."

Online folio retrieval is the latest in a series of technology advances hotel companies have announced in recent months, including advance online checkin and wireless kiosk checkin and checkout from hotel lobbies. The new features often are unexpected benefits that result from infrastructure improvements hotel companies have made in the property management systems that link all of their hotels.

The technology advances also are a way for hotel companies in a competitive marketplace to separate themselves from the pack. "The more productive a certain hotel company allows the traveler to be, the more likely that traveler will be to select that company's brands," said Andrew Menkes, president and CEO of Partnership Travel Consulting. "At the same time, a feature such as online folio retrieval may not in itself be enough to sway the booking decision. Rather, the effect is cumulative. Hotel companies want to create the perception with both travelers and travel managers that they're the technology leader." Neither Marriott International nor Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide have plans to roll out online folio retrieval, according to spokespeople.

Previously, travelers requiring an amended folio would have to call the hotel and ask the accounting office to fax a copy to them. The folio accessible online is identical to the paper version, listing all line-by-line, level-three information. Unlike some technology upgrades that are available only to members of a hotel's frequency program, folio retrieval is available to any customer who maintains an electronic profile with Hilton. "The folio may be available sooner than 48 hours, but we guarantee it by 48 hours," Wyatt said. Prior folios are stored chronologically by hotel. She noted that the online system's storage capacity will be expanded by early 2005 to retain folios for stays for a full year.

Wyatt said frequent business travelers who might stay at two or three hotels in the course of a week—each stay generating a separate folio—likely would benefit the most from the electronic retrieval. Folios can get lost or misplaced, complicating expense reporting, so travelers now will know a back-up is available. "It's easier and faster than requesting a duplicate," she said.

Additionally, online folio access saves time for travel managers. "Some travelers have the misfortune of losing the paper itself, so I've had to go through the process of getting a hotel to retrieve that information for me," said Frank Melesky, Lockheed Martin travel commodity manager for hotels, meetings and groups.

Given traveler and travel managers' concerns about data privacy, Hilton said it has taken steps to ensure adequate security is in place. The system is password protected and only allows access to a folio if it is certain the right traveler is the one making the request. "We're only going to match you if we know it's you," Wyatt said. "So if you used a different credit card or address other than the information in your profile, the match won't work."

Such assurances aside, Guhin questions the need to store folios for as long as one year. "I'd rather travelers have the ability to delete a folio once they had obtained the updated information they needed because that would eliminate the privacy issue," she said. "There'd be less possibility of unauthorized people seeing it."

Chris Hartmann, managing director of HVS International Technology Strategies, echoed those concerns. "Travelers could be nervous about having that data out there, even though the system is password protected," he said. "Most people won't have the need to go back and look at their previous hotel bills." Online retrieval may be more useful on an on-demand basis, Hartmann said.