A travel payment solution is the system used by travel companies to handle secure transactions related to travel experiences, including flights, accommodation and tours. Solutions include access to payment methods, such as credit cards, bank transfers, digital wallets and Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) options, fraud prevention tools and supplier payment capabilities.
In 2025, travel demand is strong despite an uncertain economic outlook. Consumers are keen to travel despite financial difficulties, with 59% planning to go on an overseas vacation at some point this year. There are millions of eager travelers out there itching to book their next trip!
Now, it's up to you to convert that interest into a booking, and it all comes down to your payment process. A simple, secure and reliable payment experience could be the difference between gaining a loyal customer and losing them to a competitor with a less frustrating checkout page.
Common Travel Payment Challenges in 2025
Does it ever feel like your payment system isn't doing enough, or perhaps it causes more problems than it solves? You're not alone. Here are some of the most common payment challenges travel providers like you are facing today:
Losing customers to failed payments
A potential customer finds your website. They like what they see, and they add one of your services to their basket. They enter their payment information, hit the ‘Pay Now’ button… only for the payment to fail. Customers quickly get frustrated when this happens.
With more than one in 10 online transactions failing, it's a common occurrence. As many as 86% of consumers will leave a brand they trusted after only two poor customer experiences, so you can't afford to have payments fail regularly.
Travel payment processing costs are eating into your margins
Travel companies face a perfect storm of costs, including high cross-border fees, unpredictable currency conversion charges and chargebacks. Using a generic payment processing system only makes this worse by failing to find the most cost-effective routes for your transactions. It feels like you're losing money by getting paid.
Struggling to offer the payment options customers want
Today's global traveler expects the travel companies they interact with to offer a wide range of payment options, and not doing so means you risk losing valuable business to competitors that do offer the payment methods travelers prefer.
Concerned about increasingly sophisticated fraud
Then there's the constant worrying about fraud. For travel merchants and hospitality brands, fraud isn't just about lost company data and revenue. One survey exploring the main consequences of fraud found that low customer satisfaction and damage to brand reputation were ranked higher than lost revenue and stolen data.
To make things even more complicated, travel industry fraud takes many forms: friendly fraud, fake bookings with stolen cards, refund scams and merchant impersonation are just a few of the threats travel companies are dealing with.
The Benefits of Specialized Travel Payment Solutions
Choosing the right payment partner is a big decision, and it takes time to find the most suitable choice for your business. But one thing is certain: it's best to go with a specialized travel merchant account service.
Let's explore why this is the case:
Accept payments online to reach more customers
A specialized travel merchant account is your gateway to a global customer base. It provides you with the capabilities you need to accept payments online, significantly expanding your business's reach.
By enabling seamless online transactions, you meet customers' payment expectations and give your travel company a clear route to growth in new markets.
Strong security measures that keep customer data safe
Specialized merchant services are built on a foundation of robust security measures. Providers adhere to the highest levels of PCI DSS compliance to make sure that all sensitive cardholder data is protected against breaches.
By doing this, merchant account providers render your customers' data completely useless to fraudsters by using encryption and tokenization to obscure the data.
Improved cash flow
Many generic payment processors see the long gap between booking and travel as a huge risk. To protect themselves, they tend to ask for a high rolling reserve to cover potential chargebacks that customers may make between booking and delivery.
Specialized providers, which understand the complexities of the travel industry and therefore have different risk models, can offer much more favorable reserve policies. This might look like lower percentages or shorter holding periods, giving you access to more cash.
More flexibility for your growing business
In most cases, travel merchant accounts are built to grow with your business. As your transaction volume grows during the height of the tourist season and shrinks as business slows, a travel merchant account adapts to your needs.
This means you won't be paying high fees for services you're not using as much during the off-season. You get the flexibility you need without high costs all year round.
Build trust with customers
Every aspect of the payment process is an opportunity for you to build trust with your customers. In recent years, travelers haven’t been particularly forthcoming with their trust, with over 70% having had their trust broken by a travel business in the past.
A specialized merchant services provider is the ultimate partner in ensuring your customers trust you with their funds and sensitive data by offering a secure and reliable checkout experience.
5 Essential Features of a Reliable Travel Payment System
Choosing the right travel payment provider is about moving beyond what generic providers offer, finding features that are designed to help you grow (even if that growth isn’t consistent all year long) and protect your business from fraud.
Here are the main features you need to be looking for in a travel payment solution:
1. A wide range of payment methods
While cards are a must-have for many travelers, your travel payment system needs to go further. Offering as many payment options as possible helps customers feel at home and gives them the confidence they need to go ahead with the booking.
You also need to consider offering your customers the following payment methods:
- Digital wallets (Apple Pay, Alipay, PayPal)
- Bank transfers (This is something we at Repayd offer!)
- Buy Now, Pay Later (Klarna, Afterpay, Affirm)
2. Global and multi-currency payment processing
The travel industry is truly global, making cross-border payment processing a non-negotiable feature to look for in a travel payment solution. A standout cross-border travel payment solution displays prices and allows customers to pay in their local currency.
This seemingly small but impactful change removes a considerable amount of friction from the payment process, giving travelers the transparency they need to complete their purchase.
3. Advanced travel payment fraud detection and robust security features
Travelers are worried about fraud. In 2025, 74% of global consumers said they’d be willing to spend more time on identity verification when accessing travel and hospitality-related platforms if it improved security, up from 71% in 2024.
Providers that use robust security tools, such as 3D Secure 2, encryption, tokenization and intelligent fraud monitoring, are best placed to keep your customers’ sensitive data from prying eyes.
4. A reliable payment network
A travel payment solution you can rely on will use smart payment routing to reduce the number of failed payments. Instead of processing payments using one fixed path, payment routing uses the customer’s location, currency and card type to choose the route most likely to result in a successful payment.
A travel payment system with a reliable payment network will help to reduce unnecessary declines, giving your customers a considerably smoother payment experience.
5. Easy integration with booking systems
The travel payment solution you choose should integrate easily with your existing booking system. Having booking and payment data sync automatically saves you hours of data entry and reduces human error, creating a single source of truth for your travel business.
With 70% of travelers saying that a good payment experience would make them choose one travel provider over another, your checkout page is the place to make a difference in how travelers perceive your company.
Choosing the Right Travel Payment Solution: Questions to Ask
So, how do you identify the right travel payment system for your business? Here are a few questions you should be asking:
1. Do they specialize in travel specifically?
A reliable travel payment provider will be able to explain how their solution is built for the travel ecosystem specifically. They'll understand your world and provide you with the tools and expertise you need to meet the demands of travelers.
2. Are there sufficient customer support services in place?
You want to know that, if something goes wrong, you can access support (and access it quickly). You'll also want to make sure that the support team you'll be speaking to knows their stuff and can fix the unique problems you face as a travel provider.
3. What security protocols are in place?
A travel payment system provider you can rely on to keep sensitive data safe will mention the phrases "PCI DSS", "3D Secure 2", "encryption" and "tokenization". Your chosen partner should be able to explain how their security features protect sensitive data at every turn.
4. What is the fee structure?
Having a clear understanding of the fee structure is also essential. Ask the provider in question for a breakdown of all potential fees to make sure you're 100% clear on what payments you'll need to make.
Repayd: The Leading Travel Payment Solution
Repayd is the leading merchant solution for the international travel industry. Our mission is to make global payments simple, secure, and reliable for travel, hospitality, and aviation businesses worldwide.
So, how do we do it? We combine seamless cross-border payment processing for travel companies with built-in protection – covering chargeback prevention, insolvency cover and risk mitigation through diversified acquiring. Trusted across the global travel ecosystem, we empower your business to grow with confidence in every market you serve.
Here are some of the benefits you'll enjoy when you join Repayd:
Lower payment processing costs
Repayd offers multi-currency payment processing for travel businesses, enabling you to accept payments in various currencies and establish trust through secure and reliable transactions.
Accept global payments
Repayd is built for global payment acceptance, allowing you to confidently build your business without borders. Be ready to serve every customer that comes your way, no matter where they're booking from.
Detect and prevent fraud
Repayd's advanced fraud prevention system is designed to lower the chance of outright fraud and friendly fraud, helping you reduce your chargeback ratio.
Here's how it works:
- Our fraud monitoring system flags suspicious transactions based on the card/cardholder characteristics.
- Dynamic fraud settings based on your traveler's location protect your business while maximizing conversion.
- You also benefit from specific fraud rule settings developed over years of processing bookings in the travel industry.
- You're in safe hands because our dedicated fraud specialists handle all fraud and chargeback cases, allowing you to focus on running your business.
Easy booking integration
Getting up and running shouldn't be complicated. That's why Repayd integrates with your existing booking system, allowing you to:
- Create and view your bookings
- Keep track of all your transactions
- View your statements
- Know when your next payout will be and how much you will be receiving
- Review your ledger to check on payout processing progress
Additionally, Repayd's analytics capabilities enable you to analyze transactions and gain a deeper understanding of your customers.
Repayd makes global payments simple, secure and reliable, giving you everything you need to grow your business with confidence. Contact us today to learn how our all-in-one travel payment solution can help you deliver the seamless payment experience your customers expect.
