London—The Association of Corporate Travel Executives and MasterCard International last night presented results from a co-sponsored study on electronic hotel folio data here at ACTE's global conference. In a survey of more than 100 U.S. corporate travel buyers, 13 percent said they currently are receiving line-item detail from their card provider and 77 percent said they plan to acquire such information in the near future. More than half of all respondents said receiving e-folio data is "very critical" for their travel programs.
"Respondents are very interested in the value of negotiating with hotels based on all their spend, not just rates," said Bill Mathis, senior vice president of member relations for MasterCard International.
In conjunction with the survey, ACTE interviewed buyers from several companies that already have adopted the technology. Based on that information and survey results, buyers said the main benefits of e-folio transmission are the ability to better validate the application of corporate rates, more efficient and accurate auditing, improved ability to monitor policy compliance and the prepopulating of expense reports, which helps to make them more accurate and can eliminate paper receipts.
Mathis also said that the five most important costs itemized by e-folio data, according to survey results, are restaurant, telephone, room service, Internet access and parking fees.
However, the study noted that demand for e-folio has been lower than supplier expectations, attributed to buyer reluctance while hotel supplier participation remains limited
(BTN, Sept. 5). Specifically, Mathis reported that roughly half of survey respondents said e-folio data only would be valuable if it covered at least 75 percent of their hotel spend.
Slowing industry adoption, some hotel companies are not investing in the new processes until they receive more demand from their corporate clients.