During the last few years, the travel industry has undergone drastic transformation cycles. With the rise of online platform giants such as Expedia and Airbnb, the role of physical agencies has changed or diminished. With online and mobile offerings, consumers were enabled to book hotels or even plan their entire travels within minutes, without the need to go to a travel agency.
The darkest hours were still to come when travel came to an immediate stop during the COVID-19 lockdowns across the globe, with a direct effect on all travel-related businesses - both online and offline.
Even though travel has picked up again, experts predict that the recovery phase will take until 2024 to reach pre-pandemic levels. In the meantime, the transformation continues in different ways:
New services will be offered regarding travel planning as an integrated solution, including activities, attractions, and experiences. What started with innovative startups such as getyourguide.com is now becoming a major service that leading platforms also integrate into their offering, e.g. Booking.com with their ‘Attractions’ services.
Mobile travel sales will play the leading role in how consumers book their travel in the future. This trend follows the experience of online businesses, which are also shifting towards a mobile-first approach.
Integrated online solutions will allow consumers to arrange travel and all connected processes within one platform, meaning booking and payments will finally be connected. To date, many online platforms focus on individual services, i.e., either software provision, booking services, or payment handling. The result is that both platforms and consumers need to manage different tools and processes leading to an extensive overwork.
One of the travel behemoths looking to consolidate various services into its platform and, thereby, generate more value for its clients is Destination Solutions. Destination Solutions provides a comprehensive software solution for promoting holiday accommodations online - effectively minimising administrative efforts for hosts while optimising booking capacity. With over 20 years in the market, the company boasts the broadest distribution network in the DACH region, spanning more than 150 portals.
Previous business model – without payment
Different ways for processing payments, varying per agency and booking platform.
Need for increased user-friendliness and reduced complexity.
New business model – with payment
DS payment solution boosts customer retention.
DS payment ensures standardised procedures for payments, disbursements, and cancellations for both guests and hosts, irrespective of the booking platform used.
With guidance from the aye4fin fintech experts, Destination Solutions designed a novel business model and incrementally launched its payment services.
Handling of payment procedures between agency and host (decreases the need for accounting).
Complete automation of booking modifications, cancellations, and similar operations.
With the offering of integrated travel and payment solutions, the transformation is not completed yet, but new emerging trends are already offering new opportunities. While the trend to mobile-first will continue, additional trends are on the horizon.
In-trip activities: Consumers not only want to book travel and activities before their trip starts but want to book additional experiences and attractions during their travel. This requires further adjustments of communication, workflows, and payments.
Efficient micropayments: The growing number of mobility offerings for tourists requires efficient and secure processing of micropayments, which is currently only available for a few payment methods.
Biometric payments: The use of biometric information allows for frictionless payments as it eliminates the requirement for PINs and, hence, offer additional security for travellers. According to Visa, 86% of consumers are interested in using biometrics for identity verification and payments.
Thomas Tittelbach is an international payment and ecommerce expert with more than 20 years of industry experience supporting companies such as Linde Group, Equens Worldline, and Klarna AB in implementing and operating international payment gateways. As managing partner of aye4fin, Thomas Tittelbach primarily supports customers in designing innovative payment solutions for enterprise merchants and international marketplaces.
Every day we send out a free e-mail with the most important headlines of the last 24 hours.
Subscribe now