Payments are becoming the battleground for UK travel
In UK online travel, checkout is no longer “just payments”. It’s where trust is won, baskets are saved, and margin is protected.
Payment strategies of leading UK travel companies is a 2026 competitive benchmark of the top 10 UK online travel agents (OTAs), analysing the payment methods and checkout choices shaping conversion, resilience, and brand confidence.
With 81.7% cart abandonment in travel and 37% of abandonment reasons payment-related, there’s a clear performance gap, and a clear opportunity. An estimated £16.5bn in addressable UK travel revenue is sitting behind payment optimisation.
What you’ll take away
You’ll get a front-row view of how payments are being leveraged to drive revenue, efficiency, and customer experience. Discover:
- How the top 10 UK OTAs design their payment stacks and what that signals about their strategy
- The biggest levers for travel checkout performance: wallets, BNPL, pay-by-bank, orchestration, and false decline reduction
- Practical ideas to prioritise next, whether you’re optimising mobile conversion, cost, approvals, or new method rollout
Inside the report
A clear benchmark of verified payment offerings (November 2025) across brands including Booking.com, Airbnb, TUI, easyJet Holidays, Expedia, Jet2holidays, On the Beach, lastminute.com, Travel Republic, and loveholidays – plus what “best-in-class” looks like in practice.
You’ll also get:
- Why mobile-first payments are the fastest route to closing travel’s conversion gap
- How BNPL and instalments change the economics of high-value bookings
- Where open banking (and VRPs) can unlock cost savings and reduce fraud exposure
- How orchestration and smart routing help reduce false declines and protect repeat bookings
- What to watch next: Click to Pay, Wero, VRPs, and dynamic payment personalisation
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