NTT DATA Teams With Conferma Pay On Virtual Payments For Lodging

NTT DATA Hong Kong Limited (NTT DATA) has teamed with Conferma Pay to bring digital payment communications to hotels, according to an announcement emailed to PYMNTS.

“Partnering with Conferma Pay is a step forward in our commitment to provide travelers with a frictionless payment experience during check-in. This new integration will streamline the process considerably by reducing manual rekeying of payment data,” Akihiro Ishizuka, gead of global payments and services at NTT DATA, said in the announcement.

NTT DATA and Conferma Pay are working together to make sure that virtual payments arrive at hotels digitally, eliminating the dependence on hardcopy methods like faxing. Reception desks will be instructed to use a billing portal when confirming rooms reserved with virtual payments. The process digitizes virtual card delivery, eliminating the need for manual offline chargebacks or long payment instructions for hotels and travel management companies. Those who work in hotels won’t have to manually handle payments or enter card numbers into terminals.

“The solution we developed with the help of NTT Data provides another layer of security and enhances the payment experience for our partner travel management companies and their clients. This also reduces any need to wait in hotel receptions for payments to be delivered and accepted, which is of significant importance today,” Kelly Cleeton, senior director, global business development at Conferma Pay, said in the announcement.

The news comes as Amadeus was joining forces with Conferma Pay and Booking.com on a new travel reservation and payment workflow. With the collaboration, the share of Booking.com properties that can be paid for with Amadeus Hotel Billback is 80 percent, up from 20 percent.

Cleeton said in a release at the time that the connection provides travel management companies and their business clients with a new chance to utilize virtual payments for each of their hotel bookings. “Both the traveler and the agent can benefit from automated reconciliation, minimize the risk of fraud and experience a simple, secure, frictionless process from purchase to payment,” he stated.