Hotelogical maintains 46%+ chargeback dispute win rate while handling 5X the volume

The challenge

The nature of its travel business means that a significant percentage of Hotelogical’s chargebacks are nonfraud claims. These chargebacks aren’t perpetrated by professional fraudsters but by cardholders who for whatever reason want to skirt the rules to claim a refund — perhaps to get out of a cancellation policy or claim that a hotel experience didn’t deliver what was promised. Frequently, instead of reaching out to Hotelogical directly, they turn first to the credit card company to claim a refund. 

For example, in one instance a customer contacted Hotelogical to modify their reservation due to an error in the booked dates. The reservation was made on short notice for the same day and had a nonrefundable cancellation policy.

The customer chose to use the reservation but ultimately submitted a chargeback to the credit card company, claiming the hotel had no record of the reservation. Hotelogical was able to disprove the customer’s claim based on documented communications with the hotel and the customer, but the process took time and effort.

False chargebacks affect Hotelogical’s brand image and reputation as well as revenue, so disputing them is vital. Until 2023, a single expert analyst handled all of Hotelogical’s chargeback disputes manually. In fact, this analyst achieved an extraordinary win rate, averaging between 45% and 50% while handling about 1,300 disputes per year. Then, beginning in June 2023, Hotelogical’s bookings soared, growing by more than 200% year over year, and chargebacks grew proportionately, overloading its fraud analyst and making a fully manual approach unsustainable.