Hotel Tracker
- Streamlined booking and payment process that benefits businesses, travel buyers, agents and hotels
- Resolves bill back issues to save time and money
- Any hotel that accepts Visa payments can take part
- Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) compliant
for extra peace of mind
Overview
How Hotel Tracker helps businesses, agents and hotels
Hotel Tracker is a card based solution that integrates accommodation booking and payment systems. We developed it in partnership with Conferma, to help companies, travel buyers, agents and hotels streamline the management of hotel bookings and payments.
More options for greater convenience
Since any hotel that accepts Visa credit card payments can take part, businesses can choose from a wider selection of hotels than the traditional bill back process.
Reduces security risks
The Hotel Tracker system is Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) compliant, with access to card numbers restricted to minimise fraud. This offers additional protection for businesses, agents and hotels.
Gives access to valuable management information
Benefit from useful and accurate data such as VAT information and invoice breakdowns, making it easier to forecast and enforce booking policies.
The efficient way to travel on business
Hotel Tracker can be used however often staff travel, whether they're permanent or contract staff. Employees will find travelling away on business a smoother experience, as they will no longer have to:
- pay for their hotel stay themselves
- make expense claims and wait for money to be paid back to them
- spend valuable time filling in forms
- carry corporate cards to pay for their accommodation.
How Hotel Tracker works
Once a company's account is set up, using Hotel Tracker is relatively straightforward and requires no changes to current booking processes.
- Conferma installs the Hotel Tracker booking tool with a company's Travel Management Company (TMC), Hotel Booking Agent (HBA) or in-house agent.
- When a booking's made, Hotel Tracker assigns a unique number to it. The booking agent confirms it, using the Hotel Tracker account to guarantee the booking.
- Employees travelling on business enjoy their hotel stay and when ready to leave, they check and sign the invoice, with no need to make any payments themselves.
- When they check out, the company's Hotel Tracker account is charged directly by the hotel. The hotel then posts the invoice to the TMC, HBA or in-house booking agent.
- Once a month, the company receives a statement via an encrypted email sent by the TMC or HBA, with booking details and breakdown costs to help with Management Information.
Terms and conditions apply
View Hotel Tracker terms and conditions PDF
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Business benefits
Streamline hotel bookings and payments for your business
Hotel Tracker is quick and easy to integrate into current booking systems, providing immeasurable benefits for companies, employees and travel buyers. Businesses with many disparate hotel bookings to manage and reconcile every month, will find it invaluable.
Since no credit facilities need to be arranged and any hotel that accepts Visa can take part, businesses are able to choose from a wider selection of hotels than the traditional bill-back system.
Simplifies bookings and payments
Integrating Hotel Tracker into your accounting systems streamlines your hotel payment processes. Once implemented, the following features make it invaluable for expense management:
- An audit trail allows you to clearly identify costs, saving time on administration and disputes with your Travel Management Company (TMC), or Hotel Booking Agent (HBA)
- Expense data (and VAT information, if selected) flows direct to the general ledger, reducing administration costs
- The option to add bespoke references to booking, financial and invoice information
- Detailed transaction statements
Gives you the tools to closely monitor spend
Monitoring your expenses is simple with our hotel payment solution, which gives you the facts and figures needed to:
- Check hotel charges against agreed rates, even separating accommodation costs from meals and other charges
- Negotiate with hotel chains and other suppliers, using accurate details of your spend
- Keep an eye on how much each employee is spending and determine if they're following your travel and expense policy
How businesses use Hotel Tracker
- When an employee needs to travel on business, your TMC, HBA or in-house agent books the hotel on your behalf. They use the Conferma Booking Tool to do this, and payment is authorised against your Hotel Tracker Account.
- At the end of their stay, the traveller checks out and the bill is charged to your Hotel Tracker account.
- Once a month, you settle your account with Barclaycard.
- Your TMC, HBA or in-house agent sends you an electronic transaction statement with consolidated payment, booking and invoice data. More details from the hotel invoice can be included, such as VAT amounts and a breakdown of room rates and beverages consumed, although there may be an extra charge for this information.
Agent benefits
Streamline processes, while reducing your costs as an agent
By using Hotel Tracker, you'll hold greater appeal for clients who would like to benefit from hotel bill-back, without the restrictions and manual processes that go with it.
Our Hotel Tracker product features a Conferma booking tool that's linked to an automated settlement and booking engine, making it both efficient and cost-effective. It works by identifying Visa card payments, and then automatically matches them to bookings and hotel invoices.
The advantages of using Hotel Tracker include:
- Eliminating your financial exposure for hotel bookings
- Spending less time and money dealing with transaction disputes
- Fewer cash flow issues caused by late payments
- Lower transaction costs, due to less manual processing being required
- The option to offer comprehensive spend data to your client
- Providing clients with a greater range of hotels their employees can stay in, as Hotel Tracker can be used with any hotel that accepts Visa, with no change to their systems
Benefits of Conferma booking software
Online access to a single screen provides you with information such as:
- consolidated rate types in real time
- allocation management
- multiple sources of inventory, including multi Global Distribution Systems (GDS)
- internet rates
- budget hotel rates
You receive comprehensive reservation information that can be integrated onto your management information system, including:
- Writing back into your agency's GDS
- Secure server-to-server access to an XML data feed
- Web-based online reporting
- Access to a database of over 100,000 properties
- A flexible ’look and feel‘ booking interface.
Benefits of Hotel Tracker's payment and reconciliation tool
- It automatically matches booking and billing data
- It allows you to add bespoke client references to statements
- It generates reports that provide your client with detailed Management Information (MI)
How agents use Hotel Tracker
- As the Travel Management Company, Hotel Booking Agent or in-house agent, you book a hotel for your client, using the Hotel Tracker booking tool.
- When the employee checks out, your client's Hotel Tracker account is charged by the hotel.
- Your client settles their monthly bill with Barclaycard.
- You send your client a statement with consolidated booking and payment details, and comprehensive management information.
Hotel benefits
The benefits of hotel bill-back, without the credit exposure
To use Hotel Tracker and experience the benefits of hotel bill-back and faster payments, without the credit exposure, you won't need to make any changes to your systems.
Since business clients benefit from simplified booking and payment processes, you can review and recommend any large customer accounts that could take advantage of Hotel Tracker.
How hotels use Hotel Tracker
- Your booking is received as usual from a Travel Management Company (TMC), Hotel Booking Agent (HBA) or a company's in-house booking agent, by phone, fax or Global Distribution System (GDS).
- This booking includes the company's Barclaycard Hotel Tracker Visa card number and expiry date.
- When the traveller's ready to check out, they sign your invoice.
- Your hotel processes the transaction through your usual terminal or electronic point of sale system, and sends the invoice back to the booking agent*.
- Finally, booking data is matched with payment data in the company's monthly statement, and to help with the simple reconciliation of their spend.
* Since no physical plastic cards are issued with the Hotel Tracker Visa account, the booking agent won't be able to supply you with photocopies of the front and back of the card. This is a standard feature of the Hotel Tracker account, so the account should be charged as a card-not-present transaction. In accordance with Visa data security rules which prohibit merchants from storing the card security code (CVV2) in anticipation of a future transaction it is recommended that this practice is not followed by hoteliers as they could be deemed to be breaking these rules by storing a photocopy of the back of the card.
