ASTA is making a push to solve a problem related to booking
hotels with a virtual credit card.
"If the virtual card transaction doesn't go through or
the traveler doesn't have a personal card to use to pay the bill, he or she
faces a real dilemma," said Mark Meader, ASTA's senior vice president of
industry affairs and education. "Couple all this with being in a city far
from home, perhaps even a foreign land, and you have the makings of a dicey
situation for the traveler."
ASTA and its Hotel Distribution Advisor Committee have
reached out to industry leaders, including hotels, GDSs and credit card
companies, to find a solution to the issue.
According to the ASTA, the fix is usually a faxed copy of
the credit card and reservation details.
"But fax technology, first commercialized in the early
1960s, isn't the solution in today's world given Payment Card Industry data
security compliance expectations and, to some extent, the European Union's
General Data Protection Regulation requirements," ASTA said.
ASTA's consortia partners are supportive of the attempt to
rectify the issue. In a statement, Signature Travel Network's Richard Lebowitz,
senior vice president of Signature's hotel and resort program, called the
problem "long overdue for a solution."