Amadeus has joined forces with Conferma to introduce a hotel payment solution designed to make the hotel billback process simpler for UK business travel bookers.
Amadeus teams up with Conferma
Amadeus has joined forces with Conferma to introduce a hotel payment solution designed to make the hotel billback process simpler for UK business travel bookers.
The travel and expense booking, reconciliation and settlement technology company Conferma is powering the Amadeus automated billback support system.
It has been designed to remove the need for consultants at travel management companies to manually process billback-related payments for hotels when making those bookings through Amadeus.
Billback is a payment method whereby hotels bill the company or its travel agency directly for employees’ stays instead of the staff member paying at checkout.
While employees incur no company hotel expenses on personal cards and it gives companies visibility and control over their hotel spend, the concept involves heavy manual processing by hotel booking agents.
Instead of having to contact the hotel property directly via phone/fax/email to make payment arrangements, the Amadeus booking agent will now see a new payment method they can apply for hotel bookings.
Conferma creates a virtual credit card at the time of booking, which is automatically sent to the hotel to guarantee the reservation.
The virtual credit card number is included in the Amadeus hotel booking at the same time, to ensure that the customer, booking agent, hotel chain and individual property have consistent and correct payment information.
At checkout, the virtual credit card is charged by the hotel and automatically reconciled with the TMC’s back office for tracking and reporting.
Amadeus head of hotel distribution Hugo Ehrnreich said: “Our automated billback support helps travel agencies and TMCs to eliminate intensive manual processing, and achieve higher levels of efficiency and improved service to corporations and travellers.
“This partnership with Conferma is another step forward in our commitment to provide business travel bookers with the most advanced technology to gain efficiency and reduce costs.”
Conferma CEO Simon Barker said: “We are delighted to offer the travel agent community access to Conferma’s reconciliation and settlement technology through Amadeus. As a result they will benefit from an automated booking, payment and reconciliation process that reduces admin time and room for error, which ultimately saves money.”
