Visa is reaching new corporate travelers with the help of its latest partner, hotel booking platform Kaligo, in an effort that will first target SMEs across the Asia-Pacific region, according to Thursday (Dec. 3) reports.
The credit card giant will be working with Kaligo to form Kaligo Business Plus, a service linking small and medium-sized businesses with a rewards program for their corporate travel, as well as ways to manage travel expenses, the companies said.
[bctt tweet=”Visa launches a program linking SMEs with a corporate travel rewards tool.”]
SMEs with a Visa card that book hotels through the service can earn miles and points, while also establishing rate limits by employee or by city to control travel spend and enforce their company’s corporate travel policies.
Users can also access reports that provide an overview of a company’s booking activity and automate the migration of data from that report into existing accounting or T&E tools.
The companies will first roll out the solution for Visa card issuer Citibank Singapore, they said, and eventually extend to more than 60 card issuers across the APAC region.
According to reports, Kaligo is targeting the rising group of employers that move away from traditional corporate travel booking tools and towards mechanisms that allow employees to book their own business travel.
In a statement, Visa Head of Small Business Products for Asia-Pacific Vikram Kshettry said the solution aims to provide financial benefits to SME users.
“The tailored Kaligo Business Plus proposition drives key benefits for issuers, Visa and SMEs,” Kshettry said. The companies cited recent research conducted by Visa and RFi Group that found that corporate travel accounts for 3–5 percent of all business expenses.
Reports said Kaligo currently works with 365,000 hotels across more than 200 markets.
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