Mastercard strengthens collaboration with Booking.com to remove payment friction for travel partners

Mastercard has announced it is strengthening its ongoing partnership with Booking.com, to streamline B2B payment processes in the travel and tourism industry.

This enhanced partnership with Booking.com focuses specifically on accelerating the utilisation of Mastercard Virtual Cards.

Together, the firms aim to simplify B2B payments and bring more flexibility, security, and convenience to the overall travel partner experience. 

The use of Virtual Cards will not only help increase visibility for transactions between travel partners and its suppliers through an automated reconciliation but also streamline business payments and introduce improved security. 

It's reported that virtual card technology has 30x lower fraud risk compared to traditional payment cards.

The partnership will also extend beyond payments, offering value-added resources and services to deliver payment innovation and an enhanced digital experience to Booking.com’s travellers and travel partners. 

During the course of the transformation, Mastercard will supporting Booking.com in the acceleration of its ‘Pay by Booking’ model to enhance travel partners’ payout experience by removing financial friction from travel payments and making them efficient and secure. 

Travel partners can easily track and reconcile payments, while benefiting from other virtual card benefits such as flexible pricing, financing options and card payment guarantees.

Mastercard will drive new value-added financial services for travel partners such as leveraging card rails and new rails to deliver frictionless payments and providing data insights to support partners’ business strategy and deliver to the evolving needs of travelers.

It will also support the expansion of Booking.com’s marketplace by investing in innovation to address the needs of existing and new travel verticals (such as air, car rental, experiences etc.), and ultimately have a greater control over the consumer’s experience

“We are thrilled to embark on a stronger partnership with Booking.com to simplify the process of buying and selling travel-related products and services,” said Mark Barnett, president of Mastercard Europe. 

"This partnership confirms our commitment to advancing existing solutions that contribute to the seamless functioning of the travel ecosystem throughout Europe."