PlanPay is Australia’s newest pay-tech platform, taking a payment concept that people know and love (layby) and digitising it, enabling customers to spread the cost of their holidays and experiences before they travel. Having landed partnerships with Ovolo, Roomstay and EVT in early 2023, PlanPay is perfectly positioned to shake up the travel market.
On paper, PlanPay is a payments platform, but in reality, it’s in the business of promoting financial freedom for all – designed to help customers unlock meaningful experiences by allowing them to pay in flexible upfront instalments. Amid the rising cost of living pressures, PlanPay helps take the pressure off saving for holidays and enables travellers to have the experiences that may have otherwise be unattainable to them.
While joining forces with a growing number of hotel groups has been the focus of recent growth – this is just the start of a much bigger vision. PlanPay’s head of commercial, Tim Clark says “as travel volumes return to pre-pandemic levels, the cost of customer acquisition is higher than ever, third- party commissions can be upwards of 25% as tourism and hospitality operators compete for customers. Consumers too, are demanding flexible payment methods as they seek to preserve their disposable income given inflation levels. We’ve designed PlanPay specifically for the travel industry to address these and other challenges and are looking forward to what we can accomplish with our partners.”
How does PlanPay work?
PlanPay can be fully integrated and customised with a wide range of travel backend systems, meaning that set up is quick and easy for merchants and the payment platform can be seamlessly placed within a customer’s checkout experience.
PlanPay can also be made available without a checkout integration, through an agent-assisted checkout experience, where agents can simply and easily set up a payment Plan for their customers.
Regardless of how PlanPay is accessed, the experience is simple and free from credit checks. Opening an account and setting up a Plan is entirely free for customers and takes just a couple of minutes. Plans are designed to be very flexible and can be customised to suit the traveller’s lifestyle – for example, setting the automated payments to be weekly, fortnightly, or monthly to match their salary rhythm between when they book and when they intend to travel.
Huge upside for travel providers and customers
Offering PlanPay as an option at checkout certainly has a huge upside at a fraction of the cost of other platforms. Customers are almost twice as likely to consider premium options, upgrades or longer holidays when paying in upfront instalments. Offering PlanPay helps travel providers boost their direct bookings and increase purchase value by acquiring new, high value customers. PlanPay also drives retention and repeat behaviour through ongoing marketing by displaying the cost of holidaying in smaller payments.
For customers, PlanPay differs from ‘buy now pay later’ platforms as it’s a debt-free option that provides customers with the opportunity to use their own money throughout their buying journey, meaning PlanPay customers don’t have to rely on any form of credit to experience their dream getaway.
PlanPay is entirely fee-free for customers to use with no strings attached, and if a Plan needs to be cancelled, there’s a straightforward process to follow. Customers can lock in rates ahead of time (up to 2 years in advance) and be protected from any last-minute price fluctuations, and travel providers see an increase in yield with a minimum of 21 days between booking and travelling.
In a post-pandemic world, the everyday traveller has changing needs. PlanPay gives customers the freedom and flexibility to spread the cost of travel before they go – making post-holiday financial hangovers a thing of the past. With its sights firmly set to be available across every vertical in the travel industry, PlanPay is poised to become the pay-tech of choice for everything travel!
