Virtual payment international expansion for travel buyers in Latin America to build on implementation for corporations and TMCs in US and UK
Mexico City, Dec. 11, 2013 – Sabre announced today that they are working with global expense booking firm Conferma, to expand its Travel Settlement Services into Latin America. The joint development will bring corporate travel buyers an automated online form of payment for hotel services merchandised in the Sabre travel marketplace. The settlement solution had previously been rolled out in the United Kingdom and the U.S. with immediate adoption. Sabre’s payment feature aims to enhance process improvements and savings by using virtual credit card technology. Manually settling hotel invoices and payments has previously been a time-intensive, costly process for corporations, travel management companies and hoteliers. Sabre’s Travel Settlement Services is a fully-automated solution that provides travel management companies seamless integration of virtual payment technology into their existing workflows to better serve the needs of their corporate and hotel partners. Sabre delivers Travel Settlement Services in conjunction with Conferma, a leader in travel and expense booking and settlement technologies, which has connected seven international banks to its rapidly expanding payment network. Earlier this year, travel management companies in the UK and U.S. implemented Sabre’s Travel Settlement Services for hotel billing, invoicing and reconciliation. Following this first international rollout, Sabre is working to extend Travel Settlement Services throughout the Americas, focusing initially on applying virtual credit cards to hotel transactions. In the future, Sabre will be extending virtual credit card technology into all travel sectors including air, car and rail. “Corporate travel managers and travel management companies cite virtual payments as a key priority for an effective corporate travel program,” said Chris Kroeger, senior vice president of Product Marketing at Sabre Travel Network. “Sabre meets this important business need by offering Travel Settlement Services, which securely automates supplier payment and reconciliation by providing single use credit card numbers at the point of sale.” Currently, travel management companies whose customers require central settlement incur costs associated with a manual, multi-step, time-consuming process. With Sabre’s Travel Settlement Services, a virtual credit card is created at the time of booking and is automatically transmitted to the hotel, guaranteeing the reservation. At check-out, the virtual credit card is charged by the hotelier and Travel Settlement Services automatically reconciles the booking to the payment. Travel Settlement Services delivers significant value to corporations, travel management companies, and hoteliers by: • Increasing productivity and reducing costs through replacing the manual, time-consuming processes with a consistent and automated process • Accelerating billing and collections by simplifying the client invoice process • Increasing security and protection from potential fraud by generating a unique virtual credit card for each reservation • Enhancing data management through online reporting capabilities that link payments directly to specific bookings “We are thrilled to extend our collaboration with industry leaders such as Sabre,” said Simon Barker, CEO of Conferma. “At Conferma, we pride ourselves on being innovators. Sabre provides the perfect platform to harness that innovation. Conferma’s proven success in the payment and settlement space combined with Sabre’s strong reputation and travel market presence around the globe will deliver benefits not only for the travel management community but also for the hotel, air, rail and car hire sectors who receive immediate payment, eliminating their credit exposure.”Press Release
