Trip.com Group is the first online travel agency to partner with Hopper for use of its Hopper Cloud fintech products for bookings in North America and Europe.
Beginning in early 2022, Hopper’s Price Freeze feature will be enabled for users in North America and Europe booking flights on Trip.com in-app, on mobile browser and on desktop.
In October, India-based OTA MakeMyTrip — which is nearly half-owned by Trip.com Group — announced a similar partnership to use Hopper’s price-freeze technology. Additional customers for Hopper Cloud include Kayak, Amadeus and Capital One.
“Travel is rebounding and as international borders continue to open, we’ll see prices increase to match demand,” said Yudong Tan, CEO of the flight business group at Trip.com Group.
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“At Trip.com Group we are constantly seeking out ways to bring benefits to travelers. With this new price freeze feature powered by Hopper, we are giving our customers more ways to save money when they book flights.”
Trip.com users will be able to pay a fee to freeze the flight price for up to 14 days before booking the trip. If the price goes up, Hopper covers the difference up to a set amount, and if the price goes down, the traveler pays the new lower price.
“Travel fintech has the potential to generate $200 billion in customer spend annually,” said Fred Lalonde, CEO and co-founder of Hopper. “These products have the ability to generate incremental revenue for brands, while offering customers the flexibility and transparency they want from the travel industry.”
Hopper Cloud offers additional risk-protection products such as flight disruption and price drop guarantees, but the company said, for now, the integration with Trip.com is just for the price freeze feature for flights, although future collaboration is possible.
Source: PhocusWire
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