For 25 wonderful years, a passionate desire to share the treasured history, traditions, gastronomy, and natural wonders of the Iberian Peninsula has been the driving force behind Madrid-based, luxury DMC, Made in Spain & Portugal. By crafting bespoke, immersive, and enriching itineraries, they have introduced thousands of travelers to the rich cultural heritage and incredible landscapes of two wonderfully hospitable countries.
Made for Spain & Portugal at a glance
Offering holidays costing, on average, €18,000 Made for Spain & Portugal recognizes that the client’s experience starts well before they get on a plane and believe that having their booking and payment experiences match the experience promised in the future is critical to client satisfaction. This belief led them to rethink payments, offering optionality, transparency, and security, to give exceptional client experience from the very beginning.
Challenge: Experience mismatch; manual payment process, high fees, complaints, and chargebacks common
Made for Spain & Portugal wanted to improve their payment process, providing options that fit client needs, and making it quicker, easier, and more secure for their clients and their finance team.
The first moment of travel is payment…it must be fast, easy, and secure with flexibility. Nothing should be a surprise [to clients].
Before Flywire, finance was heavily reliant on travel agent intermediaries to provide card details to be able to take payments. Merchant fees made it expensive for Made for Spain & Portugal to process the payments, and for clients, international transaction and FX fees tacked on costs they could not see until they got their card statement, causing complaints and, sometimes, chargebacks.
Most significantly for Made for Spain & Portugal, their bank offered limited personal attention and support, which made resolving any payment issues more challenging. As a result, Made for Spain & Portugal faced difficulties in delivering optimal payment support to their clients.
Solution: Optionality at the click of a link within a single payment solution
Using the Flywire Payment Request Solution, the Made for Spain & Portugal finance team now provides an invoice and payment request link to clients, most commonly via their travel agent intermediaries. Each link is unique to the requested transaction and, when clicked, directs clients to Flywire where they securely complete their payment. From here, clients can choose from a variety of local payment methods, including the option to use an international credit card. They see exactly how much the transaction will cost them in their local currency, including the international transaction fee and FX margin applicable to the payment – and can choose the option that best fits their payment needs.
Implementing Flywire improved the Made for Spain & Portugal customer experience immediately. For agents and clients that want to use an international credit card, clear fee structures provide the information to make the most cost-effective choice, given that international cards come with FX fees and merchant processing fees. This, and the ability to adjust payment options, gives clients a personalized payment experience that matches their expectations.
Results
This has saved a significant amount of money for the DMC, but more important to Made for Spain & Portugal is the level of support they and their clients now receive. The Flywire team is always on hand to help resolve any payment issues and implement any requested modifications. Clients too have dedicated local language customer support available to them around-the-clock.
With Flywire, Made for Spain & Portugal has demonstrated that providing different payment options can save costs for everyone in the ecosystem while ensuring payment doesn't cause a roadblock to booking the trip.
Offering optionality through Flywire has improved our client experience immeasurably. Flywire has also contributed to the growth of our business, not just by simplifying internal processes but also because they provide us with business-critical payment data that we use to make strategic decisions.