What's included in direct billing vs. paying with a credit card for hotel stays?

Direct billing means your company gets invoiced directly by hotels: no employee out-of-pocket expenses, no reimbursements, no receipt chasing. Credit card payments require employees to pay upfront with corporate or personal cards, then seek reimbursement later. For crew-based businesses managing multiple job sites, this difference determines whether your finance team spends hours reconciling receipts or minutes approving consolidated invoices.

What are hotel incidentals, and how does each payment method handle them?

Hotel incidentals are charges beyond your base room rate and taxes, according to Hilton's payment documentation. These include room service, minibar items, parking fees, premium Wi-Fi, spa services, laundry, telephone calls, damage fees, resort fees, and facility fees.

With credit card payments, hotels place authorization holds at check-in to cover room charges and potential incidentals. According to Visa's authorization guidelines, these holds typically include the full estimated room cost plus an additional buffer for incidental charges. Your available credit gets tied up immediately, with holds typically releasing within 24 hours to 1 week after checkout, though they can extend up to 30 days under Visa network rules.

With direct billing alone, hotels still require a personal card at check-in to cover potential incidentals. Companies that add separate incidental coverage can choose to cover room and tax only, requiring crew members to provide personal cards for incidentals, or opt for full incidental coverage where the company pays all charges upfront, eliminating authorization holds entirely.

How does direct billing work, and can my company qualify?

Hotels assess your creditworthiness upfront, requiring submission of legal company information, billing contacts, credit references, and authorized signatories. Established businesses with solid financials typically qualify easily, with approval typically taking 2-3 business days. Payment terms commonly run net 30 days, giving your company extended payment float compared to immediate credit card charges.

Your finance team receives one invoice instead of dozens of expense reports. Every booking gets tagged with project codes at the point of transaction, enabling real-time budget tracking at project level and automated cost allocation. No receipt chasing, no manual categorization, no reimbursement processing.

Which payment method saves more time and money?

Credit cards typically cost 2-3% or higher in transaction fees that hotels often pass through to corporate accounts. Direct billing arrangements typically absorb fees into negotiated net rates. Credit cards create working capital strain: your 100-person workforce averaging $2,000 monthly expenses represents approximately $200,000 in outstanding reimbursement obligations.

The administrative overhead matters more than transaction fees. Without automation, manually reconciling one corporate credit card statement takes 5-6 hours according to Fyle research, though automation can reduce this to under 2 minutes per statement. Consolidated direct billing with automation reduces combined booking and reconciliation tasks significantly.

RMS Energy's finance team was chasing hotel receipts from crews working at job sites across the country, with reconciliation becoming a bottleneck at month-end. With Engine's Direct Bill and FlexPro, they consolidated everything into one invoice with automatic folio access, saving $87,000 on stay modifications while spending 4X less time chasing receipts.

How does Engine eliminate payment hassles for crew-based businesses?

Engine's Direct Bill feature consolidates travel bookings, including hotels, flights, and rental cars, into a single company-paid invoice. Companies that add incidental coverage eliminate the need for crew members to provide personal credit cards at check-in: Engine pays incidental charges upfront. Project codes attach to bookings at transaction time, providing real-time budget tracking with automated cost allocation.

Engine enforces travel policies at booking time, preventing non-compliant spending by only displaying options within predefined spending limits. When weather delays require rapid rebooking across multiple crews, changes happen in clicks rather than phone calls to individual properties.

Sims Crane had employees booking rooms on their own, paying out of pocket, and submitting receipts weeks later, leaving their finance team piecing it all together. With Engine's centralized booking and consolidated invoicing, they now have real-time visibility into travel costs and avoided over $40,000 in hotel modification fees while booking 5X faster. 360 Rail faced similar challenges coordinating hotel stays for crews working on railroad projects coast to coast. With Engine's custom fields and Direct Bill, every receipt has the information needed to quickly reconcile charges to the correct project, saving $12,000 in the first three months.

For companies ready to eliminate payment chaos and gain visibility into crew travel costs, Engine offers a free account with no contracts or minimum spend.