At its annual conference in Costa Mujeres today, The Advantage Travel Partnership has launched a new partnership with payment specialist Boodil, aimed at saving members time and money.

Founded by industry experts, Boodil transforms everyday consumer payments through open banking technology, resulting in a seamless, modern payment process.

Through this new partnership members of The Advantage Travel Partnership will have access to a fully self-branded payment portal making it easier and more efficient to manage payment collections from customers by using open banking technology - bank to bank money transfers - through an easy-to-use online platform. Open banking technology is relatively new to the travel industry and is used widely in other sectors. Payment transactions via open banking are growing at a year-on-year rate of 69 per cent.

Paul Nunn, Chief Operating Officer, of The Advantage Travel Partnership, said: “We are always looking at ways to add value to our members and in the payment space we are constantly speaking with suppliers to assess what’s new in the market, seeking out ways to add incremental value. It’s about offering the consumer a variety of ways to pay for their travel arrangements. Whilst many consumers still largely favour paying by card, Boodil offers a fresh modern approach to payment collection which we believe will continue to increase in preference. Through our new partnership with Boodil, members will have the chance to offer an alternative payment method to their customers and well as mitigate merchant processing costs.”

Dally Singh, co-founder at Boodil added: “We are delighted to be working with a company as distinguished as The Advantage Travel Partnership to roll out our product across their members and support their respective businesses. The concept behind Boodil's core cloud-based product is to make collecting payments from customers easier & safer, offer a solution which is cost effective, and provide a product that seamlessly integrates within any business.”

The portal enables members to:

• Securely collect customer payments remotely and without manual intervention.
• Collect payments in person or via a unique customer link or via a QR code, which can be sent my SMS text message or email.
• Help to reduce business costs associated with processing card payments.
• Process payments in a simple and efficient manner.
• Schedule payment collection up front, enabling members to pay for their travel arrangements over a period of time.
• Embed the payment portal into their website, encouraging more customers to pay by open banking.

Commenting on the new offering, Advantage member Jake Cullum-Hollins of The Good Travel Agent said “As an early adopter of the Boodil portal, I can say it has revolutionised the way we collect customer payments. 60 per cent of our card payments are now collected via Boodil. My customers comment on how easy it is to make their payment and my team find it simple to manage the payment requests. We are also saving a considerable amount of money compared to when customers pay by credit or debit card. It’s great Advantage is introducing this type of innovation to help support their members and reduce costs.”