American Express, MasterCard International and Visa U.S.A., through separate initiatives forged in the past month, continue to broaden the number of properties from which they send transactional hotel data to corporate clients. Though corporate clients' use of such data remains low—despite years of clamoring for electronic folio data—hoteliers, card vendors and corporate buyers expect use to grow if not become the norm as availability of hotel folio data expands and integration issues are overcome.
Amex last month announced the addition of 2,300 Hilton Hotels Corp. properties to its roster of folio-enabled hotels, while MasterCard said it is expanding established folio partnerships with Marriott International to add the Fairfield Inn, SpringHill Suites and TownePlace Suites brands, and with Carlson Hotels Worldwide to include its Country Inns & Suites brand.
American Express and MasterCard both said the number of properties that have enabled the enhanced credit card data stands at around 8,000.
Meanwhile, Visa U.S.A., which several years ago was at the forefront of folio initiatives, said it is in the midst of solidifying a new deal with a major hotel company it would not name to transmit folio data, adding to Visa's roster of more than 6,000 properties from which it transmits e-folio.
MasterCard senior vice president of corporate payment solutions Steve Abrams said the number of hotels transmitting data surpassed "critical mass," and likely will continue to grow at a healthy pace, as will corporate use.
Thus far, Diners Club is the only major corporate card supplier yet to announce a hotel folio initiative, but chairman and CEO M.V. Rajamannar, during last month's National Business Travel Association conference in San Diego, said that through its acceptance alliance with MasterCard, the payment supplier can and will leverage MasterCard's hotel folio data initiatives to transmit to corporate clients.
While card feeds from most hotel transactions break out only the sum of the parts, e-folio transmission enables such line-item details as restaurant, room service, telephone and business center charges, in addition to the room rate and taxes, to be itemized and sent electronically to clients. Corporate travel managers long have considered electronic folio the last frontier to a seamless expense-reporting process
(BTN, Aug. 25, 2003).Despite years of demand among travel management professionals for more efficient data capture, the actual percentage of companies accessing automated folio feeds remains low. American Express said only about 20 corporate clients are piloting hotel folio transmission, but the company is preparing for a full launch in October, said Lisa Steury, American Express director of corporate card product management. Meanwhile, though MasterCard's Abrams did not break out the actual number or percentage of clients using the data, he said it remains shallow but is certain to spike.
"I feel we're in the infant stages and there are only a few corporations that can do something with the data," said Christine Chippindale, senior director of travel industry sales at Choice Hotels, which transmits folio data through Amex, MasterCard and Visa. "There's definitely a high interest level but there is quite a lot of work to do on the corporate end in terms of what to do when they get it. This time next year, I think there will be more corporations who have their systems in place and can actually do something with it." Choice Hotels more than three years ago was at the vanguard of transmitting hotel folio data to corporate customers when it agreed to pass along such data directly to IBM. Since the dawn of electronic folio, however, charge cards have become to the preferred conduit for transmitting data to corporate clients.
Considering the parties involved, hotel folio transmission is no small feat. Hotels transmit through card companies, which then send to corporate clients, who use their expense reporting systems to load the data. Part of the problem of accepting data has been systemic, sources said. Hotels have different ways of passing file feeds, and standardizing that process to ensure consistency has been difficult. However, as more companies elect to accept data, expense reporting companies, payment providers and hotels can better standardize processes, vendors said.
American Express's Steury said Amex's ongoing pilot includes working on ways to ensure data is standardized for corporate clients.
In the meantime, companies like Federated Department Stores Inc. are among the few compnies accessing electronic folio data. The Cincinnati-based company piloted with a preferred hotel provider to accept data through the company's American Express corporate card. Manager of corporate travel services Bobbi Huber, during a panel at the NBTA conference, said the company elected to work with a single preferred supplier, as gaining consistency among hotels transmitting data has been difficult. "It would be great if it was consistent and everyone used the same folio standards," she said. "Maybe that will happen."
MasterCard's Abrams said that "corporate pressure" would foster further cooperation and integration among hotels, card companies and expense reporting vendors. "We have three expense reporting systems that are up and running: Necho, Outtask and Oracle. It does take some time. As for the others, they're all working on the integration of folio," said MasterCard's Abrams. "It's almost like the cart and the horse. First, you have to make sure that you have enough data from enough hotel properties. You have to get that critical mass, which I think we've surpassed. Now, the expense reporting companies see the need and desire to update their software to accommodate the data."
In addition to integration, American Express said customers' data-privacy concerns perhaps are another barrier to more pervasive use. However, Federated's Huber said the issue is a matter of perception but worth exploring. "If you are about to receive e-folio, explore data privacy," Huber said. "Talk to your HR department. Talk to your legal department. We required paper folio before, so it's not new information, it's just a new version of the paper copy."
Dave Hillman, a consultant with Consulting Strategies, said the number of hotels that participate in such e-folio agreements will plateau and most likely will not surpass 75 percent. In the meantime, however, the major payment suppliers said they would continue to foster relationships with hotel companies to transmit data to corporate customers.
"We're very far from having all suppliers pass the data along," Huber said.
However, corporate pressure should help with that as well.
"Encourage hotels to get moving on that," said Lisa Bliss, Boeing Travel Management Co. hotel program manager at an NBTA conference session.