Ingenico ePayments, the online and mobile commerce division of Ingenico Group, today announced that it has signed an agreement to provide global payment processing and conversion optimization services to Booking.com, the global leader in connecting travelers with the widest choice of incredible places to stay. With Ingenico’s global footprint and large portfolio of international cards and alternative payment products, Booking.com is able to increase the conversion rate of visits into online payments made through its platform. Booking.com will also have access to Ingenico’s Elevate Business Intelligence solution for payments, which enables the company to analyze payment performance and look for ways to further optimize the payments process.

Originally founded as a reservation platform connecting consumers with available hotel rooms, Booking.com increasingly offers the opportunity for reservations to be paid during the reservation process by means of secure online payment. For suppliers, this removes the need to process the payment at arrival or departure and offers additional guarantees. For consumers, paying through Booking.com means they can use a wide range of local alternative payment products in addition to credit cards.

Accepting payments on behalf of suppliers is an increasingly important capability for Booking.com as it looks to grow its value proposition, and the company has been growing the share of reservations that are pre-paid through its platform at an incredibly fast pace for the last few years. As the total flow increases, it became increasingly important to Booking.com to find the kind of payments partner that could provide the necessary processing capability while boosting success rates. 

“As we grow the percentage of bookings that are paid directly through our platform, things like checkout optimization, platform stability and redundancy become increasingly important. To that end, we decided to work with Ingenico ePayments, who can deliver the kind of global footprint and rich portfolio of payment solutions that we require.”  said Olivier Bisserier, chief financial officer at Booking.com.

Pierre-Antoine Vacheron, executive vice president at Ingenico ePayments, has stated: “Booking.com is one of the world’s largest Online Travel Agencies, and they are going through an exciting growth phase as consumers increasingly opt to pay for rooms through the platform. We are proud to provide Booking.com with our services, expertise and ongoing support.”

Ingenico ePayments has a long-standing relationship with Booking.com’s parent company, Priceline.com, and already processes payments for various other brands in the company’s portfolio.