Antravia Research - Payment Control in Travel: Merchant Models, Credit Risk, and the Architecture of Payment Control

This white paper by Antravia https://antravia.com/ examines how merchant models, reconciliation, credit risk, and new payment rails are reshaping profitability and trust across the global travel ecosystem.

Drawing on insights from OTAs, DMCs, hotel groups, and payment providers, the paper presents a dual-perspective analysis:

For hotels: What Merchant of Record status, chargebacks, and settlement structures mean for liquidity, compliance, and supplier relationships.

For agencies: How to navigate working capital demands, credit exposure, reconciliation complexity, and the opportunities and risks of real-time payments, BNPL, and Open Banking.

The paper covers merchant architecture, reconciliation strategies, chargeback defence, credit governance, emerging payment models, and anonymised case studies, all written for senior decision-makers in travel finance, operations, and distribution.

Key Themes

• Merchant of Record vs non-Merchant of Record: control, liability, and supplier trust

• Credit risk as a structural exposure in B2B travel

• Chargebacks, refunds, and cancellations as financial instruments

• Emerging rails: RTP, BNPL, Open Banking, and crypto in practice

• Strategic frameworks for aligning payment architecture with business model and risk appetite

Published by Antravia Advisory – more resources at https://antravia.com/antravia-research