When it comes to B2B payments in travel, inefficiency isn’t evenly distributed. Modulr's research, The Hidden Costs in Travel Payments, shows that among more than 500 European travel businesses, both pain points and cost vary significantly as businesses scale.

Yet while the symptoms differ, the cause is often the same: payment infrastructure hasn’t kept up with the demands of a modern, connected, always-on travel sector.

The short story is, if payments are still treated as a back-office function, your business could be missing the opportunity to turn them into a scalable strategic advantage.

Bigger businesses, bigger burdens

Larger companies – those with 250 or more employees – report the sharpest impact from inefficiencies. More than 60% say they lose over 1.5 hours per employee every week to manual payment processes. At scale, that’s not just frustrating, it’s a material drag on operating efficiency and profitability.

60% of large travel firms lose more than 1.5 hours per employee per week to manual processing.

Fragmentation is also more acute at this level. With 7 to 10 payment methods typically in play, ranging from cards and wallets to SWIFT and local alternatives, reconciling transactions across systems becomes a daily challenge. At the same time, fraud exposure rises sharply. Over 85% of large firms report a significant increase in fraud risks in the past three years, driven in part by the complexity of managing high volumes of global supplier payments.

These firms are responding. More than half have already allocated 1% or more of their annual budget to transforming payment operations, often prioritising orchestration, automation and fraud prevention capabilities such as Confirmation of Payee checks or segregated virtual cards.

For larger OTAs and enterprise travel operators, automating outbound payments across time zones and banking schemes isn’t just a convenience. It’s fundamental to operational resilience and supplier confidence. But doing all that comes at a price paid in people and hours.

Mid-sized firms feel the scale squeeze

Travel companies in the 50 to 249 employee range often sit in a tricky middle ground. They’re large enough to feel operational strain, but not always resourced with specialist finance or payment teams.

1 in 2 mid-sized firms cite reconciliation and refund challenges as their biggest operational pain points.

Many still rely on manual processes, including uploading payment files, tracking supplier settlements via spreadsheets and resolving issues manually. For mid-sized firms managing a growing network of hotel groups, tour operators or regional DMCs (destination management companies), this approach quickly becomes unsustainable.

The result is growing operational friction, time-consuming exception handling and increased risk of error. Embedded, API-first payment infrastructure helps firms in this bracket to reduce manual work, improve visibility and scale confidently, without needing to double headcount.

For travel professionals in this category, it’s not about replacing their entire finance stack. It’s about plugging in smart automation where it’s most needed – across pay-outs, reconciliation, and reporting.

Small firms face barriers to change

At the other end of the spectrum, smaller businesses (under 50 employees) tend to use fewer payment methods and report lower fraud exposure. But they’re also the most constrained by cost, capacity and legacy habits.

Fewer than 30% of small firms have allocated budget to payment improvement, despite recognising the need for change.

Manual payment processes remain common. This isn’t due to complacency, but because the perceived effort to automate feels disproportionately high. For many of these firms – such as boutique OTAs or niche operators –  the focus is staying lean and responsive to client demand, not building an internal payments team.

What these firms need is not a full transformation project, but instant accounts, real-time pay-outs and out-of-the-box automation that can be turned on without heavy development effort or disruption to the core business.

One ecosystem, different journeys

Regardless of size, travel businesses are united by a common issue: current B2B payments are slowing them down. But the right fix depends on where you are in your growth journey.

• Large enterprises need orchestration, real-time – visibility and enterprise-grade fraud controls.

• Mid-sized firms need scalable, embedded tools that remove friction without overhauling their tech stack.

• Smaller businesses need simple, reliable automation they can trust from day one.

For operators managing global supplier networks, emerging embedded solutions now offer more than just functionality. They deliver a real edge – in trust, speed and control.

At Modulr, we build payment infrastructure that adapts to your size today and scales with your ambition tomorrow.

Start building a payments setup that won’t hold you back. Explore Modulr for Travel and see what’s possible through payments.