Pagamentos para a indústria de viagens Agências de viagens online.
As agências de viagens online enfrentam desafios complexos de pagamento, incluindo grandes volumes de transações, diversas bases de clientes globais e a necessidade de uma prevenção robusta de fraudes.
A Cardflo oferece uma plataforma abrangente de orquestração de pagamentos, concebida para otimizar as operações e aumentar as taxas de conversão para as OTAs.
- Indústria
- Agências de viagens online
- Categoria
- Viagens
- Suporte Cardflo
- Sim
A visão geral
Online travel agencies function as complex intermediaries within the travel distribution chain, necessitating a sophisticated approach to payment orchestration. These entities typically manage high transaction volumes across multiple jurisdictions, often acting as the merchant of record for flights, accommodation, and ancillary services.
The payment architecture for an online travel agent must handle various Merchant Category Codes, such as MCC 4722 for travel agencies, while coordinating with diverse domestic and international acquirers. Given the high average transaction values associated with travel bookings, ensuring high authorisation rates is critical.
This involves managing the intricacies of Strong Customer Authentication under PSD2, handling multi-currency settlement to mitigate foreign exchange risks, and implementing robust tokenisation to secure cardholder data.
The technical stack must bridge the gap between the customer-facing checkout and the backend financial reconciliation with service providers, often involving complex net-settlement or commission-deduction models.
Como funciona
Initial booking and authorisation
When a traveller initiates a booking, the payment gateway captures the card data or alternative payment method details. The transaction is routed through a series of fraud checks and 3D Secure protocols to satisfy SCA requirements.
The gateway then communicates with the relevant acquirer to obtain authorisation from the card issuer.
Smart routing across acquirers
To maximise approval rates, the transaction is dynamically routed based on logic such as the issuer country, currency, or BIN.
For instance, a transaction from a French cardholder may be routed to a European acquirer to increase the likelihood of authorisation and minimise cross-border fees charged by schemes.
Tokenisation and secure storage
Sensitive card data is replaced with a non-sensitive token. This allows the agency to facilitate future payments, such as hotel deposits or itinerary changes, without re-entering details.
It also simplifies PCI DSS compliance by ensuring the merchant does not store raw Primary Account Numbers within their local environment.
Settlement and fund allocation
Following successful authorisation, funds are captured and settled into the agency's merchant account. The platform manages the distribution of these funds, accounting for the agency's commission and the net amount due to the airline or hotel provider, often across different currencies and settlement cycles.
Por que importa
Conversion and authorisation uplift
In the travel sector, payment friction often leads to cart abandonment. By utilising smart routing and supporting local payment methods, agencies can reduce instances of false declines and technical failures.
Effective management of soft declines through automated retries ensures that genuine bookings are not lost due to temporary issuer-side issues or network instability.
Reduction in operational overhead
Manual reconciliation of thousands of bookings is prone to error and resource intensive. A unified payment stack consolidates reporting from multiple acquirers and payment methods into a single view.
This transparency simplifies financial auditing and helps in identifying discrepancies in scheme fees or interchange rates early in the settlement process.
Chargeback and risk mitigation
Travel is a high-risk sector for disputes, often due to cancellations or service dissatisfaction. Implementing advanced fraud screening and automated representment for chargebacks protects the agency's margins.
By providing clear transaction descriptors and managing retrieval requests promptly, agencies can lower their dispute ratios and maintain better standing with card schemes.
Notas regulatórias
PSD2 and SCA compliance
Online travel agencies operating within the European Economic Area must adhere to the Payment Services Directive 2. This mandates Strong Customer Authentication for most electronic payments.
Agencies must ensure their payment flow supports 3DS2 and properly handles exemptions to avoid unnecessary soft declines from issuers who strictly enforce these regulatory standards.
Scheme rules for travel
Visa and Mastercard have specific rules for the travel vertical, particularly regarding the timing of authorisation and capture.
For example, if there is a significant delay between a booking and the actual travel date, merchants must follow scheme-specific guidelines for 'delayed delivery' or 'advance payment' to ensure they do not fall out of compliance or lose dispute protection.
Casos de uso
Global flight aggregators
Agencies selling airfare across continents require multi-acquirer access to manage regional preferences and optimise interchange costs. They benefit from automated dunning for failed subscription or payment plan instalments.
Multi-vendor marketplaces
Platforms combining flights, car rentals, and hotels need to split payments between various providers. Tokenisation allows for consistent customer experiences while protecting data across varied vendor touchpoints.
Last-minute booking sites
High-velocity platforms require low-latency processing and immediate authorisation. Real-time decline analysis helps these merchants quickly adjust their routing logic during peak traffic periods like holiday sales.
Em números
Industry benchmarks suggest that implementing smart routing across multiple local acquirers can provide a modest but significant uplift in authorisation rates compared to single-acquirer setups.
The travel sector often experiences higher dispute rates than other retail sectors, with these figures representing a common range for agencies operating without advanced fraud prevention or automated representment.
In certain international markets, merchants can see a substantial increase in conversion by offering local payment methods instead of relying solely on international card schemes.
Termos relacionados
Book a scoping call to see how Cardflo would set you up.
O que está incluído.
- Encaminhamento inteligente dinâmico através de múltiplos adquirentes para otimizar as taxas de aprovação para reservas de viagens.
- Mecanismos avançados de recuperação de recusas para reverter receita perdida de transações falhadas.
- Suporte para uma vasta gama de métodos de pagamento alternativos preferidos pelos viajantes globais.
- Otimização integrada de 3D Secure para equilibrar a proteção contra fraudes com a experiência do cliente.
- Ferramentas abrangentes de gestão de estornos, adaptadas aos riscos específicos da indústria de viagens.
- API de programador para integração perfeita com sistemas de reserva existentes.
- Real-time analytics and reporting for a consolidated view of cross-border payment performance.
- Automated chargeback representment tools to defend against friendly fraud and service disputes.
- Network tokenisation support to maintain up-to-date card details via scheme-led account updaters.
- Flexible API-driven architecture for rapid integration with existing booking engines and GDS.
Talk to an acquiring specialist about your MID setup.
Perguntas frequentes.
Como é que a Cardflo ajuda as OTAs a reduzir as recusas de pagamento?
A Cardflo usa algoritmos de encaminhamento inteligente para direcionar as transações para o adquirente com maior probabilidade de as aprovar. A nossa plataforma também emprega estratégias de recuperação de recusas para tentar novamente os pagamentos falhados, aumentando as taxas de transações bem-sucedidas para as OTAs.
A Cardflo pode processar pagamentos internacionais para OTAs?
Sim, a Cardflo suporta uma vasta gama de moedas e métodos de pagamento locais, facilitando as transações internacionais. Fornecemos aquisição Tier 1 e especializada em mercados globais, garantindo um processamento contínuo para a sua diversa base de clientes.
Que ferramentas de prevenção de fraudes a Cardflo oferece para agências de viagens online?
A Cardflo integra a otimização de 3D Secure para proteger contra fraudes, minimizando o atrito. A nossa plataforma também oferece funcionalidades robustas de gestão de riscos e estratégias de prevenção de estornos especificamente concebidas para a natureza de alto risco dos pagamentos de viagens.
Why is multi-acquirer routing beneficial for high-volume travel merchants?
Relying on a single acquirer creates a single point of failure. If an acquirer experiences downtime or technical degradation, the merchant's ability to process payments halts.
Multi-acquirer routing provides redundancy. Furthermore, certain acquirers have better relationships or technical connections with specific local banks.
By routing transactions to the acquirer with the highest historical approval rate for a given BIN or MCC, an agency can see a measurable uplift in successful authorisations.
What role does tokenisation play in managing cancellations and refunds?
Tokenisation allows the merchant to store a secure reference to the cardholder's data.
In the event of a cancellation, the merchant can use the token to issue a refund or process a partial credit back to the original payment method without needing the customer to provide their details again.
This is particularly useful for travel agencies that may need to adjust bookings or take additional payments for upgrades after the initial transaction has been settled.
Can travel agencies process payments using local payment methods globally?
Yes, it is often necessary as credit card penetration varies by region. In many markets, Alternative Payment Methods (APMs) such as iDEAL in the Netherlands, Alipay in China, or Pix in Brazil are preferred.
A modern payment gateway for travel should offer a broad portfolio of these methods through a single integration. This ensures that the agency can caterpillar to local preferences, which is a key driver for international growth and reducing the cost of payment acquisition.
Indústrias relacionadas.
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