CheckINN vs CrewFax: What Every Hotel Needs to Know About CLC Card Types

One of the most common mistakes we see hotels make with CLC billing is treating all virtual cards the same. Corpay CLC actually uses two distinct card products — CheckINN and CrewFax — and they behave very differently at the point of sale.

CheckINN cards are the traditional CLC virtual cards used for standard corporate lodging reservations. They're generated per-reservation with a fixed authorization amount based on the negotiated rate. The card number, expiration, and CVV are unique to each stay. When everything aligns — rate, dates, merchant ID — these process smoothly. When it doesn't, you get a decline with no clear error message from most PMS systems.

CrewFax cards serve a different purpose entirely. These are used for crew and group block reservations, often for airlines, railroads, and energy companies. CrewFax authorizations work on a different approval model. They may cover multiple rooms, multiple nights, and can have complex split-billing arrangements that most hotel accounting teams aren't trained to handle.

The billing rules differ too. CheckINN cards typically require charges within a tight window around the stay dates. CrewFax cards may allow broader charge windows but have stricter rate-matching requirements. Mixing up the procedures between the two is a guaranteed path to declined transactions and lost revenue.

Here's what we recommend: train your front desk and night audit teams to identify which card type they're processing before attempting a charge. The card naming convention and reservation source code in your PMS will tell you which you're dealing with.

Better yet, let Reconcile CLC handle it. We audit every CLC transaction against both card type specifications, ensuring the correct billing procedure is followed every time. The result: fewer declines, faster payment, and recovered revenue from past errors that your team may have already written off.