3 ms·

Why would the inbound be more complex? Inbound they're basically taking credit cards, and while they probably have a few card processors they use and some compl

Why would the inbound be more complex? Inbound they're basically taking credit cards, and while they probably have a few card processors they use and some complexity around taking different cards via different processors in different countries, it's not too complex. Outbound, they're paying into bank accounts (more complex), in many different countries with different protocols for bank transfers, with significant reporting and auditing requirements, invoicing, etc. Also paying on different timescales for different things – whether bulk purchasing inventory, paying for on-demand bookings, etc. Payment terms will vary by many factors including who the payee is. Some payees like large chains may have their own accounting systems that need to be integrated with. I'd have generally assumed that outbound would be much more complex!

ajhurliman 3y ago
I believe it was sarcasm; of course they’ll continue collecting money and not paying people during maintenance, because who doesn’t want more money?
- benjaminwootton 3y ago
  It was sarcasm but I still would hazard a guess that the public facing payments are harder than the backend payment runs. A few thoughts as a non expert: They might take thousands of bookings for a single hotel, so the volume of inbound payments is significantly more. Public facing payments have to operate 24/7. They have to deal with fraud and bad actors. Transactions need to be real time rather than batch. They need to support all kinds of international payments. They have to take payments over web, mobile and call centres. They have to support PCI and GDPR compliance on the customer side. I’m sure neither side is easy at their scale, but B2C sounds much trickier to me even though there are opportunities to outsource on both sides.
newhotelowner 3y ago
In the USA, they pay hotels through prepaid credit cards. CC is attached to each reservation. And the hotel charges the card on the day guest arrives. It may be complex, but they only give hotels 5 days for reconciliation, and won't accept any changes after 5 days.
- danpalmer 3y ago
  Ah yes I've heard about this. That's yet another mechanism and more complexity. I'm sure they aren't doing this for every payee though.
  - newhotelowner 3y ago
    agoda & priceline are doing for all the hotels in the USA for years. Booking.com just started now. They just started this year where guest pays to booking.com and they send it to the hotels. Until last year, they didn't collect payment from the guest.

ajhurliman 3y ago

I believe it was sarcasm; of course they’ll continue collecting money and not paying people during maintenance, because who doesn’t want more money?

benjaminwootton 3y ago
It was sarcasm but I still would hazard a guess that the public facing payments are harder than the backend payment runs. A few thoughts as a non expert: They might take thousands of bookings for a single hotel, so the volume of inbound payments is significantly more. Public facing payments have to operate 24/7. They have to deal with fraud and bad actors. Transactions need to be real time rather than batch. They need to support all kinds of international payments. They have to take payments over web, mobile and call centres. They have to support PCI and GDPR compliance on the customer side. I’m sure neither side is easy at their scale, but B2C sounds much trickier to me even though there are opportunities to outsource on both sides.

newhotelowner 3y ago

In the USA, they pay hotels through prepaid credit cards. CC is attached to each reservation. And the hotel charges the card on the day guest arrives. It may be complex, but they only give hotels 5 days for reconciliation, and won't accept any changes after 5 days.

danpalmer 3y ago
Ah yes I've heard about this. That's yet another mechanism and more complexity. I'm sure they aren't doing this for every payee though.
- newhotelowner 3y ago
  agoda & priceline are doing for all the hotels in the USA for years. Booking.com just started now. They just started this year where guest pays to booking.com and they send it to the hotels. Until last year, they didn't collect payment from the guest.