Starwood Signs Agreement for New Commission Payment System

Starwood Hotels & Resorts has formed a partnership with Worldwide Payment Systems (WPS), an industry leader in travel agency commission processing and payments, to support StarCom, Starwood’s upcoming new commission-payment system.

In tandem with StarwoodPro, a dedicated one-stop-shop for the travel professional, StarCom offers a worldwide consolidated payment program for all participating Starwood hotels.

Features include online tracking for agents to search for the payment status of a commission by hotel name, guest name, Starwood confirmation number or dates of stay; online commission claim, which creates a new commission claim or tracks an existing claim online; reconciliation, customized payment reports designed to be imported into back-office systems for reconciliation; and global commission recovery, where WPS will help travel professionals recover commissions.

Starwood is in the process of transitioning its Hotels & Resorts to StarCom, which will continue though the fourth quarter of 2008. An announcement will be made to the industry once the conversion is complete.