With an enhanced focus on a seamless payment experience, Booking.com has announced the creation of a new internal fintech business unit.
As a global e-commerce company with business operations in nearly every country and city across the globe, the firm outlined its vision behind creating this new business unit is ‘to further remove financial friction from the travel process’.
Booking.com’s new fintech unit will be headed by Senior Vice President, Daniel Marovitz, who has been leading the company’s payments products strategy since 2017.
Commenting on the new expansion of the company’s offering, he stated: “What sets us apart from some of the other major players in the e-commerce space, who essentially operate a collection of domestic business verticals around the world, is the truly international scope and scale of our business.
“Our Japanese accommodation partners regularly host guests from France, and vice versa. The combination of cross-border and cross-currency transactions is a pain point for the marketplace and therefore an opportunity for us. Markets have vastly different payment practices and methods and bridging the gap between these, helps ease friction and enhances the value we bring as a global intermediary.”
He added: “Travel is different from nearly every other corner of e-commerce, strictly because of the often massive time gap between financial commitment from a customer booking and the time they actually take their trip.
“Many people book and pay for their travel up to a year in advance, which creates cash flow friction for travellers and providers alike. We will work to find creative solutions to help our marketplace work more efficiently, flexibly and securely for all participants.”
With a cross-functional team based in Amsterdam and Shanghai, the company reaffirmed plans to expand and grow the unit to more than 400 finance industry experts by the conclusion of this year.
