How HRS Invisible Pay Is Different

It is more than a decade since virtual cards began to disrupt the world of hotel booking and payment. Their usage, which came with huge associated bonuses like reduced fraud, increased compliance and the availability of plentiful, multi-field rich data, is now taken for granted. However, as the availability of data has increased, so too has the hunger for cleaner and more appropriate data.

HRS is seeking to fulfil this demand with the launch of Invisible Pay.

Invisible Pay's Level 3 data slakes the thirst for data analytics among corporates. It also addresses the needs of business travellers.

According to the hotel solutions company, "Guaranteed acceptance at the front desk speeds check-in, while automated payment eliminates check-out lines. Hotel expense reporting is largely automated through the fully itemized digital receipt data that is uploaded into the corporate expense system, saving employees an average of 12 minutes per expense report…all while expediting appropriate reimbursement."

Guaranteed acceptance is a differentiator. Invisible Pay claimed in a presentation at Business Travel News' Innovate Conference last week that the company has 1,500 boots on the ground to ensure its hotels deliver on that promise.

Many of the other benefits come standard with any virtual card. Most importantly, payment for accommodation is restricted to the amount preset on card. Additional provision may be made to cover amenities such as meals and parking to a preset ceiling. However, there can be issues of process time for reimbursable expenses not included in the virtual card or payment for non-reimbursable expenses.

Invisible Pay is also different in this respect. It encourages both policy compliance and streamlining data collection as part of the process. At the time of check-out, an email is sent to the traveller offering the option of putting ancillary purchases on a personal card. According to reporting from Business Travel News "HRS then collects the invoice on behalf of the traveller, ensures it is correct for VAT reclaim, then funnels that information into the expense tool."

Virtual cards have always been a popular solution for business trips made by people who would not normally have a corporate card. The reasons could range from their inability to qualify for creidt to their infrequent travel to their external status as consultants. The requirement to predefine ancillary allowances at time of booking, however, means that there is often hotel spend—say, at the bar—that is not eligible for reimbursement.

The HRS solution should retain the streamlining of payment to the hotel, smooth reconciliation and data while now also giving business travellers the added convenience of being able to have full access to amenities without issues of non-eligible items on the company’s hotel bill.