Luxury online travel club increases payment offering with WorldPay

LONDON (Feb 5th, 2013) – WorldPay, a global leader in payment processing, risk and alternative payments and Secret Escapes, UK’s top luxury travel deals experts, has today announced an agreement which will see WorldPay handle the website’s payment transactions.

Secret Escapes, the independent online travel club, which runs exclusive flash sales of luxury handpicked holidays and hotels worldwide, has more than 2 million registered members and more than 1,000 hotels and suppliers since it first launched in February 2011. It recently announced it had secured £8 million of new funding to bolster the company’s position in the UK market and support international expansion plans in the U.S, Germany and the Nordic countries.

In today’s competitive online travel industry, offering customers’ optimum transaction acceptance is essential. To stay ahead of its competitors, the agreement means that WorldPay will offer its gateway and acquiring services, and alternative payment acceptance functionality to Secret Escapes as the company aims to increase its international presence.

Following engagement with a shortlist of providers, Secret Escapes selected WorldPay due to its vast global expertise in the payments market and reliable service that would meet the demands of its customers. Secret Escapes required a solution that was simple to implement and had the ability to streamline customer transactions whilst providing the flexibility to expand as the company grows.

Looking to the future, WorldPay will enable the company to accept a wide range of alternative payment types, aiding its expansion internationally using WorldPay’s extensive payment offering. WorldPay provides over 200+ alternative payment types globally and has the expertise of working with merchants selling to customers in multiple countries globally. WorldPay is connected to more than 50 local currency clearing systems and has more than 400,000 merchants worldwide.

Shane Happach, Chief Commercial Officer, eCommerce division at WorldPay, comments: “The challenge for retailers in this industry is to make travel booking as simple as possible, while still providing options for customers through the channel and currency they desire. Secret Escapes has ambitious growth plans in 2013 and we’re excited to be a part of that and support its international expansion helping them to provide the best online purchasing experience to their customers.”

Alex Saint, CEO of Secret Escapes comments: “WorldPay is committed to innovation in the travel industry and we believe this partnership will benefit our customers. It will also help us to grow our revenue streams in global markets as we look to expand internationally in 2013.”