When you think about margin erosion in the travel sector, your first thoughts might go to discounts, commission costs or seasonality. But one of the biggest threats to profitability is something far more mundane: reconciliation – the process of matching incoming payments to bookings or invoices.

In fact, Modulr research surveying more than 500 European OTAs highlights just how much operational drag outdated systems are placing on the sector:

• 44% of businesses waste more than 1.5 hours per person, per week, managing payment inefficiencies

• 96% believe their payment processing could be more efficient – with 70% stating “much more efficient”

• 91% say their current payment methods do not support clear growth opportunities

The fact is, manual reconciliation is slow, fragmented and costly. And for travel businesses juggling thousands of transactions each day – across currencies, suppliers and geographies – it’s a hidden drain on time, money and momentum. Time for a change.

Why reconciliation is particularly challenging in travel

It starts with a spreadsheet. Then another. Then a payment lands without a reference, or an amount doesn’t quite match. Someone checks the booking system. Someone else emails the supplier. A few hours later, the payment is confirmed.

Now repeat that a few hundred times.

In the meantime, valuable hours are lost to manual processing, financial visibility is delayed, and reporting suffers. Meanwhile, errors undermine supplier trust and slow settlements, leaving everyone frustrated.

For most travel businesses, reconciliation isn’t just a tedious admin task – it’s a structural challenge. With 83% of OTAs executing supplier payments manually, it’s a big challenge as well.

B2B travel payments often span multiple currencies, suppliers and time zones. Payments can come via card, bank transfer, virtual card, or even cheque, and frequently arrive without clean references. And because many bookings are low-value but high-volume, even minor inefficiencies quickly scale.

In short, travel companies aren’t just reconciling payments – they’re navigating oceans of fragmented financial flows every day.

Counting the real cost

If your finance team spends just two hours a day on reconciliation, that’s more than 40 hours a month. Add the time spent chasing missing references, correcting misapplied funds or liaising with suppliers, and the costs escalate quickly.

But this isn’t just about staff time. The downstream impact includes:

• Missed reporting deadlines and delayed settlements
• A lack of real-time financial visibility
• Inaccurate data across systems
• Eroded confidence among partners and suppliers

In a competitive sector like travel, these inefficiencies don’t just impact operations – they chip away at profitability and agility.

What automation unlocks

Automated reconciliation flips the equation. With embedded payment infrastructure travel firms can remove bottlenecks and build financial operations designed for scale.

Let’s say you could reduce reconciliation time by 80% after switching to automated processes. That’s dozens of hours freed each month – time your finance team could spend analysing performance, managing risk or improving partner relationships.

With Modulr, you can generate unique payment accounts per booking or customer for precise matching, track incoming and outgoing transactions in real time and eliminate the need for file uploads or batch processing.

The result? Instant identification. Fewer errors. Faster reporting. And more time back for your team.

Reconciliation, reimagined with Modulr

Modulr’s embedded payment solutions are built to handle the complexity of travel payments – offering clarity where there was confusion, and automation where there was friction.

• Create payment accounts instantly, mapped to individual customers or trips
• Pay via virtual cards – with almost instantaneous issuance of highly specific cards assigned to individual customers or payments
• Monitor payment status through real-time dashboards and webhook alerts
• Simplify reporting with clean, consistent data across systems

And because Modulr has is a primary issuing partner of Visa and Mastercard, a regulated EMI licensed to create safeguarded electronic money accounts, and has direct access to payment networks including Faster Payments and Bacs, alongside SEPA Instant transactions, automated payments can be processed with speed and reliability – without banking intermediaries slowing things down.

That means no more second-guessing. No more delay. Just financial clarity from booking to balance sheet.

Futureproofing your finance function

Automated reconciliation isn’t just about efficiency – it’s a foundation for growth. As customer expectations rise and supplier relationships become more critical, finance teams need tools that enable agility and confidence.

With less time spent matching payments, your team can focus on insight and strategy. You get better oversight, faster month-end close, and the ability to scale without adding overhead.

Your next step

Reconciliation shouldn’t be a silent cost centre in your business. In a sector as competitive as travel, it’s a chance to gain ground.

Discover how Modulr’s embedded payments can simplify reconciliation, reduce costs and help you move faster.