In an exclusive interview, Robert Del Greco, Senior Account Executive – Global Strategic Travel Partnerships, and Maria Mehtani, Vertical Lead US Enterprise Sales – Travel, Hospitality, Media & Entertainment, shared insights into PayPal’s payment solutions for the travel industry
PayPal is at ITB Berlin 2025 to show that it is adding value to the payment process for its travel industry partners, and helping them attract new customers.
What are your priorities at ITB Berlin 2025? What are you looking to accomplish?
Robert Del Greco (RDG): I think the main goal for us here is to let the industry know that PayPal is a major player in the travel sector, not just from a digital checkout perspective, but also from a credit card processing standpoint. And everything in between – we have solutions for every aspect of payments.
Maria Mehtani (MM): We also want the industry to know that we have significantly invested in our solutions over the past year and have several new products coming to the market. Our Fastlane guest checkout product, for example, is a solution that utilises our massive global network to pre-populate personal and payment information. This makes checking out as a guest seamless for consumers, and increases conversion for merchants.
PayPal has developed some new partnerships. What can you tell us about those?
MM: We have invested heavily in partnerships to make integration easier for our partners, including those in the travel sector. We recently announced our partnership with Verifone that will allow us to expand our reach further throughout in-person payments. Travel is one of our main focus areas. We have launched some major travel industry partnerships over the last couple of years in the hotel, airline, OTA and cruise spaces to power complete payment solutions.
You mentioned hotels. What solutions is PayPal bringing to the hotel sphere?
RDG: The hotel industry has historically been tricky for digital payments because of the franchise nature of the business. It’s franchised, it’s global, there are many brands, and it’s omnichannel. PayPal has a lodging-specific solution that can allow large hotel groups to accept payments on their channels for their franchises. Without having to do any major technical work, hotel franchises can accept PayPal transactions just like any other credit card transaction today. This means any hotel brand can integrate directly with PayPal, to offer PayPal as a checkout solution. Additionally, we can offer PayPal checkout for prepaid bookings when customers pay immediately, but also for post-paid bookings when a customer pays after checking out on property. On top of that, PayPal offers a suite of client-aligned pay-later solutions which are becoming increasingly popular globally.
“Without having to do any major technical work, hotel franchises can accept PayPal transactions just like any other credit card transaction today.”
Why is Buy Now, Pay Later an important part of your travel strategy?
MM: We have about 430 million active consumer accounts globally, so the ability for us to bring new customers to these merchants is super powerful. PayPal is a two-sided network which differentiates us from our competitors because we have end consumer data.
I think with travel bookings being such large purchases, Buy Now Pay Later is really important to allow customers to feel more comfortable about making their bookings and not just the original booking they were expecting, but upgrading when they know they can spread the expense across several installments.
What makes ITB Berlin an important event for PayPal?
MM: I am from Berlin. As a student, I used to work at the show representing various countries, so I have been familiar with it for a long time. I love travel as a consumer, but also as a professional. It’s incredible to see the entire industry come together and it really is international and the biggest travel conference in the world.
And, of course, its great to get together with the industry and network with the travel sector to highlight that we are investing for travel, in an industry that is, from our perspective, under-penetrated. We have lots of opportunities that can add value and bring new customers to our partners, but also from a consumer perspective we are making checkouts easier, for example.
Travel decisions made painless
For many, travel can represent a big expense. Having to make advance payments for trips that may be months away often makes the decision-making process difficult. With PayPal Pay Later, the flexible spending solution that lets travellers spread out payment for their trips, those big decisions have been made easier. “PayPal Pay Later helps customers feel more comfortable about making their bookings,” says Maria Mehtani. Additionally, the flexibility of Buy Now Pay Later also allows for upgrading. “When you know you can spread the amount out over installments with a trusted provider like PayPal, you’re more likely to say, maybe I’ll get that business class ticket,” Ms Mehtani adds.
