Antravia Research and White papers
Strategic Financial Insights for the Global Travel Industry
Virtual Credit Cards in Travel: Strategic Impacts for Hotels and Agencies
Virtual Credit Cards in Travel – Antravia White Paper 2025
An in-depth strategic white paper on virtual credit cards in travel. Insights for hotels, OTAs, and fintechs. From Antravia, July 2025.
Antravia White Paper | July 2025
Virtual credit cards (VCCs) are no longer niche. This white paper by Antravia explores how VCCs are reshaping hotel distribution, agency profitability, and payment architecture across the global travel ecosystem.Drawing on real-world insights from OTAs, DMCs, fintech platforms, and hotel operators, the paper offers a dual-perspective view:
For hotels: What operational, reconciliation, and compliance challenges VCCs create—and how to prepare for them.
For agencies: How to use VCCs as a strategic tool for margin protection, automation, FX control, and audit integrity.
The paper covers provider comparisons, FX risk, metadata and PMS integration, regulatory pressures (including PSD3 and BOI), and real case studies—all written for senior decision-makers in travel finance, operations, and distribution.
Key Themes
Automation, metadata, and reconciliation at scale
Supplier-agency friction over control, fees, and visibility
The growing role of fintechs in shaping B2B payment norms
Future pressures from regulation, cross-border data laws, and embedded finance
Who it’s for: Travel executives, hotel groups, finance leads, and technology providers navigating the shift to VCC infrastructure.
Beyond FX Fees: Currency Strategy for Travel Companies That Want to Scale
Beyond FX Fees – Antravia White Paper 2025
An in-depth strategic white paper on currency strategy in travel. Insights for OTAs, hotels, wholesalers, and treasury teams. From Antravia, July 2025.
Antravia White Paper | July 2025
FX strategy is no longer a back-office task. This white paper by Antravia explores how currency exposure is silently shaping margin, pricing, and payment flows across the global travel ecosystem.
Drawing on real-world insights from OTAs, wholesalers, DMCs, and hotel groups, the paper maps where FX risk sits, and how to move beyond passive management to active, structural strategy.
For finance leaders: How booking delays, refund cycles, and payment mismatches distort FX exposure, and how to realign your treasury model.
For operators: Why virtual cards, refund logic, and supplier payout timing can introduce FX breakage, even when your platform says “no conversion fees.”
The paper covers internal matching, hedging options, refund volatility, payment architecture, treasury governance, and real case studies, all written for senior decision-makers across finance, operations, and commercial teams in travel.
Key Themes
Booking-level FX mapping and treasury visibility
The margin impact of refund and VCC-related currency swings
Why “zero FX fees” can still cost you
FX strategy models for OTAs, DMCs, hotel groups, and wholesalers
Treasury structure, hedge accounting, and cross-entity compliance
Who it’s for: CFOs, controllers, revenue leads, treasury teams, and operators navigating cross-border flows in travel.
Payment Control in Travel: Merchant Models, Credit Risk, and the architecture of Payment Control
Payment Control in Travel – Antravia White Paper 2025
An in-depth strategic white paper on payment control in travel. Insights for OTAs, hotels, DMCs, and finance leaders.
From Antravia, August 2025.
Antravia White Paper | August 2025
This white paper by Antravia examines how merchant models, reconciliation, credit risk, and new payment rails are reshaping profitability and trust across the global travel ecosystem.
Drawing on insights from OTAs, DMCs, hotel groups, and payment providers, the paper presents a dual-perspective analysis:
For hotels: What Merchant of Record status, chargebacks, and settlement structures mean for liquidity, compliance, and supplier relationships.
For agencies: How to navigate working capital demands, credit exposure, reconciliation complexity, and the opportunities and risks of real-time payments, BNPL, and Open Banking.
The paper covers merchant architecture, reconciliation strategies, chargeback defence, credit governance, emerging payment models, and anonymised case studies, all written for senior decision-makers in travel finance, operations, and distribution.
Key Themes
Merchant of Record vs non-Merchant of Record: control, liability, and supplier trust
Credit risk as a structural exposure in B2B travel
Chargebacks, refunds, and cancellations as financial instruments
Emerging rails: RTP, BNPL, Open Banking, and crypto in practice
Strategic frameworks for aligning payment architecture with business model and risk appetite
Who it’s for: Travel executives, hotel groups, finance leads, and technology providers building resilient payment architectures in a fragmented, low-margin industry.