Voxel Group has consolidated its leadership as supplier of B2B payments in the travel sector after been shortlisted in the “Best Corporate Payment Provider” category at the 25th edition of the Business Travel Awards, which took place yesterday in London. Voxel was shortlisted with Amercian Express Go, Barclaycard Commercial Payments and AirPlus International, who won the award.
The BTA
The Business Travel Awards (BTA) are organised by the Buying Business Travel Magazine and recognise and celebrate the achievements of travel industry companies, teams and individuals over the past 12 months. This year’s edition has seen more than one hundred companies and leading figures from the sector vying for the 22 award categories.
The BTA have recognised the new B2B payments solution from Voxel Group and its core element: the Payment Manager. Designed specifically for the travel industry, the Payment Manager is the solution for one of the main sources of inefficiencies in the field, by enabling the creation of a payment channel that functions alongside the reservation channels, using the same operation and communication rationale. This new dedicated channel for payment and billing data has the potential for the use of any available means of payment and leads the way for emerging added value services.
Payment Manager benefits
Thanks to these functions, hotels will be able to automate payments, remove manual card payment, and link certain rates to low cost payment solutions. Furthermore, OTAs, bedbanks and travel agencies will be able to access an ecosystem of multiple payment solutions all integrated into the Payment Manager and dispose of costly international payment settlements and VAT retrieval. Corporations like Hotelbeds, eDreams Odigeo and Booking.com are already using the Payment Manager functions to deal with their hotel reservations.
This initiative addresses the solutions that the industry, through HEDNA (Hotel Electronic Distribution Network Association), has been demanding to the ever-increasing costs associated to B2B payment and collection management, as well as creating a communication standard among the various players and systems of the industry. It is to address these issues that HEDNA and Voxel have spearheaded the Open Payment Alliance (OPA), born from within the industry, working together with all its players: tour operators and hotels, but also financial and technological partners.
The Hospitality Technology Next Generation (HTNG) has recently joined the OPA who is currently developing the communications standards, which will enable the Payment Manager to connect with financial and technological partners such PSPs, PMSs, CRSs, Channel Managers, GDSs and booking engines.
Àngel Garrido, CEO of Voxel Group, received the award on behalf of the company at the BTA presentation ceremony. For Garrido, “this nomination is an enormous recognition that encourage us to continue working towards achieving our primary objective: consolidating the new B2B payments standard for the travel industry”.
BTA’s ceremony
The awards were hold last night, January 20 at a ceremony attended by over 1,100 travel industry professionals in London. Among the night’s winners also featured companies such as Premier Inn, EasyJet, Sixt, Enterprise, Delta Airlines, Pullman Hotels… all of whom are references at international level.
Following this prestigious event, Voxel team is going to Madrid where, for the next week, they will be exhibiting their eBilling, B2B payment and automatic VAT refund solutions at Fitur, the international tourism trade fair, which starts tomorrow.
