Emerging alternative payment methods menace the credit card paradigm in online travel payments - report

In terms of current trends in the online travel industry, prepayment or immediate payment takes place at the same time with the hotel booking, and this is being adopted by various industry-based merchants such as Hotels.com.

Still, prepayment and reservation done with card for later payment at desk are used by merchants like Booking.com and Express.com.

Speaking of airline companies, alternative payment methods have been adopted rapidly. For example, budget airline firm Ryanair accepts direct debits on its Germany-based online platform. Brazil-based online travel booking firm Hotelurbano accepts Boleto Bancario, the local banking payment method. Japanese air company All Nippon Airways accepts cash payment at convenience stores. United Airlines and Delta Air Lines, US-based air companies, accept the delayed payment method Bill Me Later which is brand of PayPal designed for US citizens.

Moreover, one third of the airlines already plan to enable the use of mobile payments for booking purposes in the next two years and PayPal is already accepted by an increasing number of travel booking websites.

Online payment fraud is among the top concerns of online travel agencies and booking websites, although only nearly 1% of online travel payments is fraudulent (quite a significant percentage, given the size of the market).