Today, Expedia Group, one of the world’s leading travel platforms, and Klarna, a leading European payments provider, have announced they are collaborating to allow customers at Hotels.com®, Expedia.com and ebookers to “travel now, pay later”.
With Klarna, Expedia Group brands will provide customers the flexibility to pay over time. When planning the next holiday, travelers in Germany and the Nordics will no longer be required to pay in full at the time of booking, easing the financial burden of booking a holiday and creating an overall better experience of planning travel.
Expedia Group and Klarna are all about providing superior customer experience to customers. Expedia Group brands already offer a range of payment methods preferred by customers in every market, including leading credit and debit cards and bank transfers like Sofort and BillPay, both part of Klarna Group.
The holiday countdown begins at the moment of booking, meaning buying travel should be as exciting as heading to the airport. Research from Klarna* conducted in the UK, Germany and Sweden shows that most shoppers think the upfront costs can create anxiety and force consumers to rein in their holiday spend, compromising trip quality.
The research also revealed that respondents would be more likely to book if they could pay the cost of travel over time and manage their finances in a sustainable way which also increases their excitement of booking travel.
A family trip to a beach holiday in Mykonos or the Blue Lagoon in Iceland could be a dream vacation, but the upfront travel cost will be a concern for many families when planning the trip. With Expedia Group and Klarna’s collaboration, customers will have the flexibility to choose how and when they want to pay, tailor their travel budget to their needs and ultimately enjoy their dream vacations.
Expedia Group aims to help customers by providing increased flexibility within payments at the point of booking and is in the process of deploying a range of different payment solutions from Klarna across the Expedia.com, Hotels.com and ebookers websites in different countries. For example, Klarna’s ‘Pay later’ service will give consumers in Germany and the Nordics up to 60 days after the time of booking to pay for their travel. Whereas the ‘Slice it’ service will allow consumers to spread the costs over time in several instalments at a low interest rate. It is planned to extend these services out to customers in other Expedia Group markets later in 2019.
Falk Richter, SVP, Expedia Global Payments commented: “Flexibility in payment options is important for many of our customers as they want to book and travel in ways that suit them. By introducing Klarna as an option, Expedia Group aims to make the booking experience painless and easy for customers.”
Michael Rouse, Chief Commercial Officer of Klarna added: “Together with Expedia Group we see a huge opportunity to do something innovative that helps travelers by offering flexibility, control and customer centric services which reduces the anxiety related to paying everything in advance. These customers want to explore and seek new experiences and we want to ensure that the planning and payment journey is also a great experience. Our smooth and convenient payment alternatives drive customer preference and decrease cart abandonment rates, and customers who use our credit products when booking travel online have a 20% higher booking value.”
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