American Express · Global Client Group, Lodging · 2015–2017

Closing a $600M Deal

Senior Manager, Global Client Group · Spencer Allen

Deal Dimensions

Anticipated Charge Volume

$600M+

Largest single revenue opportunity at American Express firmwide in 2016–2017

Client

Wyndham

Global franchise hotel portfolio - thousands of independently operated properties

Payment Flow

Expedia → Hotel

OTA-to-hotel virtual card settlement - Wyndham directed franchisees toward AmEx's option

Pricing Structure

Tiered rate

Volume-contingent concession - effective rate improvement triggered at threshold charge volume

The Opportunity

What American Express identified

A significant volume of Expedia-to-Wyndham hotel payments was settling on competitor rails - Visa and Mastercard virtual cards. A targeted rate concession, paired with Wyndham's existing AmEx volume, could push them into the next lodging acceptance tier: a meaningful rate reduction across the portfolio.

The Problem I Inherited

A value proposition that wasn't landing

The deal was pitched to Wyndham corporate as one gross dollar figure - impressive on paper, but corporate wasn't the beneficiary. The value was spread across thousands of individual franchises, each seeing a marginal per-transaction gain that meant nothing in a boardroom.

How I reframed it

I reframed it around a franchise-facing metric: the acceptance-rate drop each hotel would see once Wyndham hit the volume threshold. That put the value where decision-makers could feel it, while giving corporate a scalable story for steering franchisees to AmEx's virtual card over Visa and Mastercard.

How the Payment Actually Moves

Guest

Books a Wyndham property on Expedia, pays with the card of their choice

Guest pays Expedia in full

Expedia

Collects the guest payment, retains its distribution margin

Remits net of margin, via single-use virtual card

Virtual Card

Settles over Visa, Mastercard, or AmEx - Wyndham directed franchisees to AmEx

Settles automatically at check-out

Wyndham Property

Receives funds with folio-matched remittance data - no manual reconciliation

Expedia's virtual card settlement isn't AmEx-exclusive - it can route the remittance over Visa, Mastercard, or AmEx rails. Wyndham corporate directed franchise hotels to prefer AmEx's virtual card to access the negotiated rate; many properties did, while others continued settling over competitor rails. Every dollar that moved to an AmEx-issued VCC counted toward the charge-volume threshold that unlocked Wyndham's next acceptance-rate tier.

Illustrative Rate-Tier Movement

Figures below are illustrative only - constructed to show the mechanism, not Wyndham's or American Express's actual contracted rates.

Tier 1

3.50% Ref

Tier 2

3.15% Ref

Tier 3

2.85% Before

Tier 4

2.65% After

Tier 5

2.40% Next tier

Wyndham's blended effective acceptance rate moved from the third-lowest tier (Before) to the second-lowest (After) - a –20 bps reduction across its full AmEx charge volume once the redirected Expedia settlement pushed total volume past the tier threshold. Tiers 1–2 are shown for reference above the deal's starting point; Tier 5 is the next threshold down, not yet reached.

The Virtual-Card-Specific Concession

Also illustrative - a plausible construction of the market-rate argument used to justify the ask, not disclosed pricing.

Market VCC
benchmark

2.10%

AmEx VCC
- standard

2.35%

AmEx VCC
- conceded

2.05%

The premium AmEx charged over the competitive Visa/Mastercard virtual-card benchmark narrowed from +25 bps to –5 bps - the specific concession used to make the case that switching the Expedia settlement leg to AmEx would land at or below market rate, not just close to it, while still delivering the franchise-level reconciliation and remittance benefits.

How It Got Done

Reframing the value proposition

Repositioned the deal from a gross dollar narrative to a franchise-level acceptance rate reduction - giving Wyndham corporate a story their hotels would actually respond to, and giving us a metric tied to behavior change rather than projected volume.

Expedia collaboration

Worked in conjunction with the Expedia account manager to access the research needed on OTA payment flows and competitor fee structures. Understanding what Mastercard and Visa were charging on the same rails - and what acquirer and gateway fees were layered on top - was essential to presenting with credibility. This wasn't data AmEx had internally; it required building the right relationships to surface it.

Wyndham counterpart relationship

Identified pushback from Wyndham stakeholders around the total cost of acceptance when acquirer and gateway fees were factored in alongside card brand rates. Worked directly with my Wyndham counterpart to build the research, model the full-stack fee picture, and produce a presentation we could take to leadership with confidence - not estimates, but grounded numbers.

Wyndham Global Conference, Las Vegas 2016

AmEx moved to discontinue Merchant Financing - a lending product for individual franchise hotels used to fund property renovations, repaid through charge volume - pulling its table from the conference floor. I stepped in and manned the table myself, keeping the service active and visible while the larger deal was still in motion. The move kept AmEx in front of franchise hotel owners and opened additional conversations about virtual payment adoption with Wyndham leaders during the conference.

Closing the deal

The combination of a reframed value proposition, credible full-stack fee research, a strengthened franchise-level relationship, and sustained presence at the conference table brought the deal to close. The anticipated $600M+ in charge volume represented the largest revenue opportunity American Express closed firmwide that year.

Senior Manager, Global Client Group - Lodging, American Express, November 2015–April 2017. Deal closed 2016–2017. Charge volume figures represent anticipated annual settlement volume redirected to American Express virtual card rails from Expedia-to-Wyndham hotel payments. July 2026