Secret Escapes Chooses Nium to Enhance Payment Experience for Hotels

London, 5 March, 2024 – Nium, the leader in real-time cross-border payments, today announced its partnership with Secret Escapes, one of the world’s leading luxury travel and experiences companies, to deliver enhanced payment services for its global network of hotel partners.

Secret Escapes partners with trusted providers to offer its 60 million members hand-picked luxury travel deals at prices they can’t find anywhere else online. The company also completes over 1 million price checks across all types of deals every month to ensure that it offers its members the best value anywhere online.

Using Nium’s virtual card solution, Secret Escapes can efficiently pay its partners and suppliers around the world in over 20 local currencies, enabling its new and long-standing providers alike to get paid instantly without the headaches of manual reconciliation and costly foreign exchange fees.

Increased acceptance rates, better protection against fraud, and the ability to get money back for undelivered services are also among the benefits to Secret Escapes’ hotel customers.

Tanith Langford, Director of Financial Operations at Secret Escapes, said: “At a time when hotels are grappling with inflation and evolving consumer expectations, expensive, rigid, and lengthy payment processes are the last thing they need. Our partners are a crucial part of our business, and we are constantly striving for ways to make their lives easier. With Nium, we are providing more flexibility and choice for our providers, in turn driving better deals for our members. To us, it’s all about adding value to our members’ lives and our partners’ businesses, now and in the future.”

Spencer Hanlon, Global Head of Travel Payments at Nium, said: “For too long, the travel industry has retrofitted outdated payment methods to its unique ecosystem of travellers, tourism suppliers, and third-party vendors. Our partnership with Secret Escapes is yet another excellent example of how virtual card payment solutions are driving the travel industry towards a better future, for the benefit of all its participants. I look forward to watching our partnership grow and continuing to deliver innovative solutions at the forefront of travel and fintech together.”

Building on Nium’s virtual credit card solution, Secret Escapes will have the opportunity to expand its partnership via access to Nium's real-time cross-border payments network for collections and payouts to bank accounts, digital wallets, and cards in over 100+ currencies and 190+ markets around the world.