Localizing global payments
Making your global process feel local
Like most other subsets of the travel industry, luxury accommodations has experienced the effects of increased globalization. Clientele come from a diverse range of countries, with many of Flywire’s clients in the space quoting an international client base of more than 80%.
Because of this, luxury accommodations providers will increasingly provide localized digital offerings - from localized website design, to offering communications in multiple languages and personalized, digital trip information. The process of accepting client payment through agents becomes rapidly more complex when a luxury accommodations provider has clients across dozens of countries. It also becomes very expensive, as described previously. Not only is it difficult and costly to process these transactions in foreign currencies without holding bank accounts in various markets, but it is also challenging to comply with country-by-country payment regulations and requirements.
When making international payments, it is not recommended to use the following methods:
International wire transfers
While an international wire transfer or Telegraphic Transfer (TT) is one of the more conventional ways to receive international payments; it can be risky. By displaying sensitive information on your website or invoice, you are increasing the risk of your bank account getting hacked. To send a wire transfer, the owner will likely be offered a poor exchange rate and charged a fee, which may be sizable and discourage them from making the payment. Businesses are also likely to receive short amounts due to intermediary bank charges. Moreover, if any of the account details were entered incorrectly, and the money is wired somewhere other than your bank, the wire transfer may be tricky to trace or recover. Reconciliation of wire transfers is also a common issue as wire information might be truncated, lost, or not provided in the first place.
International money orders
For a money order, a customer goes to a bank, shows an ID, and gets a money order either in their local currency or in your currency, which they then mail to you. The entire payment process can take several days, and there’s a risk of it getting lost in the mail. Counterfeiting of international money orders is also a significant issue, exposing the institution to fraud risks.