Marriott, PPRO and Alipay+

The challenge

Landmark events that bring people together require skill, co-operation and co-ordination across the sectors of travel, hospitality, entertainment, retail and commerce. At the crossroads of it all, between consumers and businesses, you need a payments team you can rely on. 

Bookings for Asian tourists to Germany rocketed by 125% ahead of the 2024 UEFA European Championships. The tournament, sponsored by Alipay, saw a spike in travellers from China in particular – which surged by 132%.

Munich was a top destination.  

If you’re not offering the right local payment methods, you risk missing out on a sizeable slice of your potential customer base. If, say, a traveller from Asia cannot see you accept Alipay+ on your website or in-person, they may not book and certainly cannot pay digitally. The alternative is to use cash or not use your business at all. Either option removes them from your trackable customer base, so it’s easy then to overlook demand and potential growth for your business. 

Currency conversion, cross-border payment regulations and the ability to integrate with various payment methods and providers were historically considered a challenge. But such challenges are easily tackled together by local-payment specialists PPRO and Elavon – the global payments experts.  

This was made possible through Elavon’s partnership with local payments specialist PPRO. Acting as the local payments partner, PPRO enabled seamless onboarding of Alipay+ into Marriott hotels, ensuring guests could pay with familiar, trusted methods while travelling.

“Offering Alipay gives our customers, especially those from Asia, a payment option they’re familiar with and trust,” says Merve Varol, who leads the front office for both Westin Grand Munich and the Four Points by Sheraton Munich. “Customer feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. Some have specifically mentioned how much they appreciated seeing Alipay as a payment option. So, a win-win for both us and our customers.” 

Daniel Czukor, assistant director of finance at the Munich Marriott Hotel City West, says: “The technology side and the process was insanely easy: it took us one afternoon with the team from Elavon on site. They did some work with our terminals and then, suddenly, it all just worked. It was very, very easy and smooth – and then getting the payments, again, was smooth and easy. "

“We’d been asked a few times before if we accepted Alipay or not, because only a few in Munich did,” adds Daniel. “We didn’t…and then we did! Now we don’t have to say ‘no’ to a customer. It just makes us more flexible.” 

"At Elavon, we're here to help you serve your customers easily, smoothly and securely,” says Alen Veljan, head of enterprise verticals at Elavon. “As more people travel for fun experiences like concerts and live sports, we want to help you focus on what really matters: making sure travellers enjoy their trip without worrying about payments.” 

To make cross-border and local payments easy for your customers, simple for your team and brilliant for your business, talk to us.