With the traditional billback model taking a back seat for agencies, The Hotel Booking Agents Association (HBAA) has launched a White Paper on the ramifications of credit cards in the meetings sector.
Entitled Meetings plastic: Drastic or fantastic?, the paper looks at the growing presence and consequences of credit card payments in strategic meetings management.
Researched and written by business travel journalists Mark Frary and Betty Low, the paper explores the relationship and ramifications of company credit card usage among hotels and venues, agents and corporate clients.
Quantitative and qualitative research was conducted across the HBAA’s membership whose collective buying power accounts for £2.3bn in the meetings and events sector. Conducted between June and July 2011 the research looked into credit card transactions, merchant fees and the financial implications on agents, corporates and venues.
Agents involved in the research included Zibrant, Grassroots HBI and Inntel; venues represented in the White Paper include IHG and DeVere. Corporate research was carried out with AstraZeneca and Deloitte, both recognised for their major global meetings and events programmes.
Previous HBAA White Papers have included TOMS and Agency Commission Models.
HBAA Executive Director, Peter Ducker said: “As the White Paper underlines, credit cards are coming to the fore as traditional billback takes a back seat. The purpose of the paper is to understand what the business implications of cards are in the outsourcing process. We respect that our member agents operate different financial models and have created the paper in response to demand for them to understand newmeetings cards from American Express, Mastercard and Visa”.
To download a copy of the HBAA White Paper, Meetings plastic: Drastic or fantastic? Follow the link: https://www.box.net/shared/nn1do0gz6bz8l27dv9xc
Do you have news for CN? Email: pcolston@mashmedia.net
