Our recent partnership with Mastercard’s Wholesale Program helps Online Travel Agents (OTAs) seamlessly pay out to their travel partner ecosystem using virtual cards.
These cards allow OTAs to collect a single payment from a traveler and arrange payments to multiple suppliers for hotels, rentals, tours and more through virtual cards. This provides a traceable link between each booking and its associated payments and reduces the complexity of managing a large supplier network.
When a traveler books a trip and confirms their itinerary, a virtual payment card is auto-created enabling the OTA to pay the hotel, airline, car rental agency, etc. When the OTA processes the virtual card payment, Checkout’s platform receives the authorization requests and assesses them against a collection of controls including spending controls, validity checks, and authentication controls.
We notify the OTA in real time about the authorization outcome. If there is an integration with their Accounts Payable system, this allows the transaction to be recorded for easier reconciliation.
Limited-time use virtual cards can provide temporary card details for each transaction. This minimizes the risk of unauthorized use and is more secure than traditional cards since they can't be used again.
And, if there is an issue, the OTA can instantly freeze cards as needed to prevent it from escalating.
Virtual cards also let OTAs choose the card's usage parameters. They can adjust spending limits, add geographic restrictions, and limit transaction types to minimize the risk of human error and enforce policies.
With Checkout.com Issuing, OTAs get comprehensive reporting on every transaction including payments, fees, and FX, with the option to add custom reporting fields.
They can push this data from our platform into expense management and accounting tools to free teams from inefficient manual accounting, invoice, or expense management.
It also offers better security and convenience for travelers. Card details are shared with the OTA only, reducing the risk that payment details could be exposed, and by offering only one point of contact from booking through to payment OTAs can increase customer satisfaction and brand recognition.
We pass a lucrative share of the interchange of their Checkout-powered cards to our OTA clients so they can start recognizing financial gains from their B2B card program.
Checkout.com offers an extensive range of card products under the Mastercard Wholesale Program. This includes varying levels of interchange, enabling OTAs to select the product that works next for their business or supplier relationship.
Contact your Account Manager if you’re interested in finding out more about our issuing solutions, whether for Online Travel Agents or our other virtual card solutions. You can also visit our issuing docs to find out more about the service.
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