AMERICAN EXPRESS POWERS UP TO HELP FIRMS SAVE ON TRAVEL COSTS VIA HOTEL FOLIO DEAL WITH STARWOOD HOTELS
American Express to Offer Corporate Clients Breakdown of Lodging Spend at Hundreds of Starwood Hotels in the U.S. and Canada; In Total, American Express Now Provides Folio Data from 9,000 Hotel Properties Globally
Also, New American Express 'Room Rate Analysis' Reports Offer Greater Control, Savings
NEW YORK, September 12, 2007 -- American Express has signed a hotel folio agreement with Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc., enhancing American Express' ability to assist corporate clients in improving management of business-related lodging through detailed analysis of hotel spending.
American Express will provide Corporate Card customers with reports that breakdown total hotel spend at participating Starwood Hotels & Resorts properties in the U.S. and Canada. The program will roll out across more than 400 Starwood properties.
The agreement with Starwood complements folio arrangements that American Express has in place with other top industry hotel chains to receive customers' fully itemized lodging expenditures. American Express also receives folio data from Carlson Hotels Worldwide, Choice Hotels International, Marriott International and Omni Hotels, among other lodging companies. The agreements cover more than 40% of American Express clients' global Commercial Card spend for more than 9,000 hotel properties in the U.S. and overseas.
"We're very pleased to be able to offer our Corporate Card clients the detail they need on their spending at Starwood Hotels & Resorts," said Eduardo Vergara, SVP, Global Marketing & Strategy, American Express Global Commercial Card. "Starwood's data will be a welcome addition to our clients who are looking to improve expense monitoring and management."
"We have taken time to listen to our customers and understand their need to be able to effectively analyze their hotel spend data with additional flexibility. Our partnership with American Express will help our mutual clients do just that," said Mary Casey, VP, Strategic Account Management, Starwood Hotels & Resorts.
"We continue to seek folio agreements from more hotels so that our clients can gain even greater insight into hotel expenditures and further automate expense processing," added Vergara.
Among other benefits, breakdowns of total lodging expenditures help corporations track the use of negotiated room rates, evaluate ancillary spend, as well as improve expense processing.
American Express' Hotel Folio Reports provide critical data on hotel expenditures, broken out from overall lodging charges, including:
- Room charges and applicable taxes
- Multiple food and beverage categories, including hotel restaurant and room service charges
- Business services, e.g. faxing, computer services, photocopying
- Parking and ground transportation
New Room Rate Report
In other news, to help companies increase control over employee spending, American Express has added flexible new tools to Hotel Folio Reports housed online at its e-servicing site, American Express @ Work.
American Express' new Room Rate Analysis Report provides data on actual room rates, as well as average, minimum, maximum, and "most popular" information for properties and cities. Companies can use the information for supplier and Cardmember compliance management.
Phoenix-based ON Semiconductor, a global supplier of efficient power management solutions, analyzes American Express Hotel Folio Reports that reflect employees' lodging expenditures on the American Express Corporate Card -- primarily to confirm that the firm's negotiated room discounts are being utilized. "My folio reports help me make sure that our hotels are charging rates that they agreed to, and it shows me whether my employees are booking them," said Colleen Guhin, the company's Strategic Sourcing Manager.
Guhin, who accesses Hotel Folio Reports online via American Express @ Work, added that, by studying the data on incidental lodging spend, she has successfully negotiated deals to help pare her firm's $1.5 million annual lodging outlay. "I have negotiated high-speed Internet service into our room rate at one chain, and I've done the same thing for breakfast."
About American Express Global Commercial Card
Through its Global Commercial Card group, American Express provides the Corporate Card, Corporate Purchasing Solutions, and other expense management services to mid-sized companies and large corporations worldwide. In the US, it is the leading issuer of commercial cards, serving more than 60% of the Fortune 1,000, as well as tens of thousands of mid-sized companies. American Express issues local-currency commercial cards in 40 countries, and International Dollar Corporate Cards in an additional 100 countries.
The American Express Company is a diversified worldwide travel, financial and network services company founded in 1850. It is a leader in charge and credit cards, Travelers Cheques, travel and international banking.
About Starwood Hotels
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. is one of the leading hotel and leisure companies in the world with approximately 850 properties in more than 95 countries and 145,000 employees at its owned and managed properties. Starwood(R) Hotels is a fully integrated owner, operator and franchisor of hotels and resorts with the following internationally renowned brands: St. Regis(R), The Luxury Collection(R), Sheraton(R), Westin(R), Four Points(R) by Sheraton, W(R), Le Meridien(R) and the recently announced Aloft(SM) and Element(SM) Hotels. Starwood Hotels also owns Starwood Vacation Ownership, Inc., one of the premier developers and operators of high quality vacation interval ownership resorts.
For more information, please visit www.starwoodhotels.com.
(Note: This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of federal securities regulations. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance or events and involve risks and uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results or events to differ materially from those anticipated at the time the forward-looking statements are made. These risks and uncertainties are presented in detail in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Although we believe the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are based upon reasonable assumptions, we can give no assurance that our expectations will be attained or that results and events will not materially differ. We undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.)
