The best hotel negotiations let both parties leave the table feeling they’ve reached a fair deal. But this often can be a challenge since buyers tends to focus on direct cost reductions, while hoteliers emphasize overall value for money, service quality and guest experience.
Now, there’s one area that benefits both parties: reducing hidden costs. In Europe, value-added tax is probably the biggest hidden cost. And automating VAT reclaim gives travel programs and hotels the opportunity to work together to reduce that cost.
Real-world challenge
Take the case of U.S.-based FEI, a high-performance microscopic workflow solutions provider that had used traditional manual processes for both expense reimbursement and European VAT reclaim. FEI supported their VAT claims with paper invoices collected during the expense-reimbursement process, as required by tax authorities. Then FEI switched to an automated expense process, where invoices were scanned, and the paper copies discarded. This resulted in fewer supporting paper invoices and, consequently, a drop in VAT reclaim values.
Is Automated VAT Reclaim right for you?
These questions can help you decide.
- Do you have significant cross-border European or U.S.-to-Europe travel?
- Do you have a high concentration of expenditures across a small number of hotels?
- Has your VAT “take” shrunk after you began using an automated expense system?
If you answered “yes” to at least two of these questions, you have a great opportunity to negotiate a deal with your hotel partners that boosts your bottom line. Contact your account manager for more information on Automated VAT Reclaim powered by Taxeo.
Automated VAT Reclaim solution
BCD Travel’s account manager suggested Automated VAT Reclaim, powered by Taxeo, as a solution. Taxeo creates tax-authority compliant electronic invoices to support VAT reclaims, so paper invoices are no longer needed.
FEI has a significant concentration of travel to Eindhoven, so the company asked Taxeo to focus all initial reclaim efforts on this city in the Netherlands. FEI Travel Manager Peter Harper said, “Taxeo offered us a way to automate our VAT-reclaim process—with no impact on our automated expense-reimbursement process—that overcomes the drop in paper invoices.”
How it works
FEI’s preferred hotels range from local boutiques with limited IT capabilities to international chains with sophisticated back-office systems. Taxeo contacted each hotel and determined the most effective method for the hotel to transmit invoice information to Taxeo, based on the hotel’s capabilities.
Boutique Hotel Lumiere is one of the hotels. Lumiere’s Suze Geenen described the process. “Providing Taxeo the required information is simple and creates significant benefits for FEI,” she said. “We are happy to do this, as it adds value to the service we provide FEI and enhances our business relationship.”
Want to know more? Check out this video about VAT reclaim opportunities and download BCD Travel’s paper and infographic: VAT Reclaim: Don’t Leave Money on the Table. Then ask your account manager how BCD Travel and Taxeo can help your company recoup VAT.
