When market leader Global Hotel Card changed suppliers to Expedia Affiliate Network (now called Expedia Partner Solutions) it needed to mobilise its underlying technology and payments infrastructure. The new Global Hotel Card website had to be fast, easy to use and compelling enough to stand out. It needed to support complex multiple payment and redemption options. It would be available in four languages and three currencies at the initial launch

A market leader in the travel gift card industry

With bookings for over 350,000 hotels worldwide, data volumes are huge. Competition is inherent in the global travel gift card market, estimated to be worth $3,003,320 million by 2023 (Gift Cards Market – Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2016-2023).

Global Hotel Card is a market leader in the travel gift card industry, issuing and redeeming millions of dollars of hotel spend annually through corporate and consumer channels.

Global Hotel Card stimulates travel as the vouchers are mainly bought by employers, with the advantage of being tax efficient. These are offered as a paycheck bonus to their employees.

Expedia Partner Solutions is responsible for sourcing hotel supply that reaches travelers through all of the Expedia Group brands.

Adapting the payments infrastructure

The two main challenges were to adapt the underlying technology and payments infrastructure to:

• Settle a hotel payment using a secure voucher on the Global Hotel Card website
• Redeem hotel payments from Expedia Partner Solutions.

This also called for developing a fast and easy to use website to create a compelling travel shopping experience that would stand out from the competition. 

A best-in-class travel shopping experience

With successful delivery on other technology projects in the travel sector, Global Travel Card asked Xoomworks Technology to design and build a solution from scratch. Xoomworks rapidly mobilised a team of developers experienced with both the travel sector and the payments industry.

The team were responsible for developing the underlying infrastructure, while an interface designer created a best-in-class travel shopping experience based on GHC’s brand guidelines. They followed a simple, agile approach in collaboration with GHC and its technology provider.

With a long list of required features, the Xoomworks team delivered a prototype using Ruby. AngularJS was selected to build an Expedia-partner single-page app. The bespoke solution consists of multiple integration points and a complex payment infrastructure.

The team employed a payment gateway system that included refund services, and advanced customer self-service capability to manage the user’s booking. The team successfully delivered the project within the agreed timescales and budget. At go-live, the fully functioning solution was launched in five countries.

Improved hotel booking experience

Xoomworks Technology built a payment infrastructure for settling hotel bills using secure vouchers that delivered a compelling and easy-to-use buyer experience. Mobile-friendly and supporting multi-language payment and redemption offers, this was a bespoke payment solution with multiple integration points and a complex payment infrastructure.

The new hotel shopping experience was well-received by Global Hotel Card’s users, handling hundreds of live hotel bookings daily since launch. The improved and modern look and feel of the interface has opened further business opportunities for Global Hotel Card in new markets with the potential to access many millions of dollars in hotel spending.

Contact us to discuss how a flexible partnership can support your technology requirements and business growth.