LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Corporate Traveller, the UK’s leading specialist provider of business travel management services to SME companies, has partnered with BitPay, the largest global blockchain payment provider. The agreement means that Corporate Traveller can accept bitcoin and bitcoin cash payments from its SME customers for business travel bookings.
Corporate Traveller, a division of Flight Centre Travel Group, one of the world’s largest travel companies, has carved a niche in the market for providing travel management services to clients across the UK with an SME-size annual business travel spend of £50K to £2M. Corporate Traveller has offices in 20 locations nationwide and is the largest and only UK travel management company delivering online and offline services purely for this client sector. As a result of parent company Flight Centre Travel Group’s £10 billion global negotiation strength, Corporate Traveller can give its clients access to unrivalled airfares, hotel rates and product options not normally available to companies with an SME business travel spend.
Andy Hegley, UK General Manager, Corporate Traveller said: “We have been leading the way in terms of looking after the specific business travel needs of SME companies for the last 20 years. Our business is built around our customer and will only continue to be successful if we focus on the delivery of a customer service experience that clients will not receive anywhere else. That’s why we continue to evolve and pioneer products and services that are tailored to our clients in order to retain existing customers as well as reach new clients.
“We identified an increasing demand from our clients for the option to pay in bitcoin for business travel bookings made by our travel consultants. We chose BitPay to manage our merchant processing because they make it easy and handle the entire process of getting the Bitcoin or Bitcoin Cash from the customer and depositing cash into our account. The blockchain industry is growing exponentially and we are excited to be able to offer our clients the ability to pay in bitcoin, whilst having the reassurance of our settlement from BitPay being in pounds sterling. We believe Corporate Traveller is the first business travel management company to offer this payment option to SMEs in the UK.”
Using BitPay, payments received via bitcoin or bitcoin cash will settle directly in Corporate Traveller’s bank account within two business days - denominated in GBP. There is no price volatility or risk to the company, and as a push transaction, the user sends the exact amount of Bitcoin or Bitcoin Cash needed to pay the bill. Unlike the high cost of credit cards, BitPay charges 1% to approve the bitcoin or bitcoin cash transaction and settlement.
BitPay enables transactions from any computer or mobile device and invoices can be generated by an email invoice, or as an online eCommerce transactions, making it convenient and reliable for Corporate Traveller’s customers. As of 2018, BitPay processes more than $1 billion annually from thousands of merchants and B2B customers globally.
“We are excited that Corporate Traveller is committing to offering clients the ability to pay in bitcoin and bitcoin cash,” said Sonny Singh, Chief Commercial Officer of BitPay. “We know blockchain payments provide a strong user case for travel, with customers now able to spend bitcoin on corporate travel bookings. We have seen big growth from airlines and travel agents who are tapping into the massive blockchain market.”
For more information on Corporate Traveller please visit https://www.corptraveller.co.uk/. And for more information on BitPay, please visit https://bitpay.com/.
About BitPay
Founded in 2011, BitPay is the pioneer and the most experienced company in bitcoin and blockchain payments. Its suite of products enables businesses to send and receive cross border payments, also enabling consumers to manage digital assets with the BitPay Wallet and turn digital assets into dollars with the BitPay Prepaid Visa® Card. The company has offices in North America, Europe, and South America and has raised over $70 million from leading investors including Founders Fund, Index Ventures and Aquiline Technology Growth. For more information visit https://bitpay.com
The BitPay Visa® Prepaid Card is issued by Metropolitan Commercial Bank, member FDIC, pursuant to a license from Visa, U.S.A. Inc. “Metropolitan” and “Metropolitan Commercial Bank” are registered trademarks of Metropolitan Commercial Bank © 2014. Use of the Card is subject to the terms and conditions of the applicable Cardholder Agreement and fee schedule, if any.
About Corporate Traveller:
First established in the UK in 1999 by parent company Flight Centre Travel Group, Corporate Traveller specialises in providing travel management services regionally to clients across the UK with an SME-size travel spend of £50K to £2M. We have offices in 20 city/town locations nationwide and are the largest and only UK TMC delivering online and offline services purely for this client sector. Our travel consultants operate in small teams personally managing the travel needs of their locally-based clients. In addition to the UK, Corporate Traveller has offices around the world, including the USA, Canada, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and India www.corptraveller.co.uk.
