The Challenge
We know what it takes to build payment infrastructure for travel.
Generic payment APIs don’t fit travel business models
Standard payment integrations are designed for e-commerce: charge immediately, fulfill, done. Travel doesn’t work that way. You need deposit handling, split payments, delayed capture, multi-party settlement, and support for the weeks or months between booking and travel. Off-the-shelf solutions don’t accommodate this.
Your customers need payment features you can’t easily build
Tour operators want trust account compliance, consolidators need BSP settlement support, DMCs require multi-currency supplier payments. Building all of this yourself means becoming a payment company. Integrating multiple providers creates complexity your customers have to manage. There’s a middle path, but it’s not obvious.
Payment monetization without alienating customers
You could add revenue from payment facilitation, but travel companies already operate on thin margins and resist additional payment fees. Transparent monetization that customers accept requires understanding their economics and positioning payment value correctly—most SaaS payment playbooks don’t translate.
Compliance and licensing across customer operating markets
If you’re facilitating payments, you may need licensing, compliance programs, or partnership structures that vary by jurisdiction. Your customers operate globally, which means you need to support payment operations across different regulatory regimes without requiring them to manage the complexity.
Balancing payment flexibility with operational simplicity
Customers want payment method flexibility, multi-currency support, split settlement, fraud protection, and reporting. But they also want simple integration and minimal operational overhead. Building a payment layer that handles complexity without exposing it is harder than it looks, especially in travel.
Payment provider selection for diverse customer needs
Your customers have different payment requirements based on their business model, volume, and markets. A payment provider that works for high-volume OTAs won’t work for small tour operators. You need a provider strategy that accommodates customer diversity without fragmenting your integration and support model.
Why It’s Getting Harder
Market expectations are raising the bar on embedded payments.
Customer expectation for full-stack payment solutions: Travel companies expect their technology platform to handle payments, not just facilitate them. They want deposit management, trust account compliance, supplier payment workflows, and reporting built into your product. “We integrate with Stripe” isn’t a complete answer anymore.
Regulatory complexity in payment facilitation: If you’re touching payment flows, you may be subject to payment institution licensing, marketplace regulations, or money transmission rules depending on how you structure operations. Compliance requirements keep expanding, and the cost of getting it wrong—both regulatory and reputational—is significant.
Competitive pressure from vertical SaaS models: Investors and customers expect embedded payment revenue as part of your business model. Competitors are launching payment features, and you’re under pressure to match. But payment monetization in travel is different from restaurant POS or fitness studio software. The playbook doesn’t transfer directly.
Platform economics requiring payment monetization: SaaS subscription revenue alone may not support your growth targets. Payment facilitation revenue looks attractive, but it requires infrastructure investment, compliance costs, and customer acceptance of your payment economics. Building this incorrectly creates technical debt and customer relationship problems.
How We Help
Payment strategy for travel technology companies.
Embedded Payment Architecture
We help you design payment capabilities within your platform: integration approach, provider selection, what to build versus partner, and how to handle travel-specific requirements like deposit handling and multi-party settlement. This includes technical architecture and commercial structuring.
Payment Monetization Strategy
We design payment revenue models that customers accept: pricing structure, value positioning, and revenue optimization based on customer segments. This includes analyzing payment economics across different customer types and identifying where to monetize without creating adoption friction.
Compliance & Licensing Navigation
We help you navigate payment facilitation compliance: whether you need licensing, what partnership structures minimize regulatory burden, and how to structure operations across different markets. This includes identifying regulatory requirements and designing compliant operational models.
The Insider Advantage
We’ve built payment infrastructure for travel.
Most payment consultants come from fintech or traditional commerce. We’ve built booking platforms, integrated payment providers into travel technology, and designed embedded payment features for travel SaaS products. We understand the difference between payment advice for generic software platforms and the specific requirements of travel technology.
When you’re evaluating whether to build payment capabilities in-house or partner with providers, we can advise based on what we’ve seen work and fail in travel tech. When you’re designing payment monetization, we understand travel customer economics and what pricing models they’ll accept versus resist.
We’re independent—not representing any payment provider or infrastructure vendor. Our recommendations are based on your product strategy, customer base, and growth goals. We know which payment providers understand travel tech partnerships and which ones don’t. We’ve negotiated these agreements and know what terms are market versus what’s negotiable.
Get Started
Let’s discuss your payment product strategy.
Book a 30-minute call to discuss your specific situation. No sales pitch—just a conversation about whether we can help.
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