Travel managers have lauded single-use virtual cards for
reducing fraud, easing reconciliation and eliminating the need to issue
corporate cards to temporary employees or non-employee travelers. When hotels misplace confirmation faxes or
when suppliers don't know how to process the new solution and travelers are
left without lodging, travel buyers curse the virtual card. "You're at the
front of payment technology, but then you throw in the word fax and you go back
to the 1970s," Barker said.
In April Conferma enabled hotels to connect directly to
Conferma's Hotel Booker distribution platform through an API. Conferma's system
now can send virtual cards to hotels, eliminating the need for companies or
travel management companies to fax hotels authorizations for each traveler.
Conferma has connected directly to 1,300 Premier Inn, Travelodge and City
Express Properties and about 70 other platforms like global distribution
systems, expense tools and booking tools.
Then, in September, Conferma launched Conferma Connect,
which transmits virtual card information to suppliers via email. Conferma now
can guarantee a message's encryption from sender to recipient, satisfying
Payment Card Industry Data Security standards for emailing card data. In
November, 15 percent of Conferma's virtual cards went through email.
Now, some corporate clients and TMCs also are requiring the
non-fax solutions in their hotel requests for proposals for 2017, according to
Barker. "We've been surprised by the uptake because normally in our
industry, especially in the hotel industry, things don't change quickly. That
latent demand demonstrates that the bubble was there to be burst."