eNett International – a Travelport joint venture and a global provider of specialist payment solutions for the travel industry – confirmed the success of its recent integration of virtual account number (VAN) payment functionality into key Travelport points of sale.
“We know through recent industry research that GDS integration was one of the top reasons travel companies said they would move to virtual payments,” says Anthony Hynes, Managing Director and CEO at eNett International. “We also know that supplier default and fraud is a major concern for the industry. eNett VANs, now fully integrated with the Travelport Smartpoint desktop and other key Travelport desktops, reduce handling times and protect agents from supplier default and minimises fraud. In addition, agents that sign up through Travelport will receive a rebate for every transaction made using a VAN to pay.”
Since the release of the latest version of Travelport Smartpoint on November 26th, eNett has hosted events in the Netherlands, Ireland, Hong Kong and United Arab Emirates. At Travelport’s Middle East e-volve Summit this week, 69% of agents advised that they don’t currently support VANs but they have plans to do so in the next 12 months. “We have had a phenomenal level of interest in these initial markets,” said Hynes. “Unlike other virtual card programs, eNett VANs are available to agencies of all sizes and the Travelport integration creates even more efficiencies for them all. We’re now looking forward to rolling this out across many more markets next year.”
In addition to acceptance and efficiency, agents will earn a rebate on transactions that use an eNett VAN to pay and they’ll benefit from lower cost foreign exchange. Most corporate and virtual cards charge 2%-3% on cross-border fees and mark-ups, whereas eNett provides more currency capability at a fraction of the cost. Given the nature of the travel industry, this produces significant savings, not just for large agencies but also for the small and medium sized businesses struggling with inefficient manual payment systems and risk.
Accepted through the MasterCard network and available on all Travelport GDSs, an eNett VAN is generated for every booking to ensure smarter and safer payments to suppliers. For agents, this means increased revenue on every booking, reduced risk from fraud and supplier default, and access to a wider pool of dynamic content. For travel suppliers, eNett VANs guarantee payment and enable new content models, delivering broader and deeper distribution.
