How TUI and Gr4vy Are Powering the Next Wave of Payments

Inside the Payments Machine

When you work in travel, payments are never just a transaction. They are a blend of timing, psychology and technology and increasingly, personalisation.

John: Do you customise your checkout for particular consumers, beyond just localising by country?

Charles: Yes and no. We personalise at the geo-targeting level and, where possible, based on past spending habits. For example, if a customer typically pays in full, we prioritise showing that option. However, our challenge lies in the data - how much we can pull from upstream systems and how we translate that into what we display.

John: Do customers change payment methods over time, say, when paying down a holiday balance?

Charles: Yes, we allow that. It is less about personalisation and more about convenience and recovery. Many start with cards, which account for about 70% of payments, and then switch to alternative payment methods later to pay down the balance of their bookin. Allowing customer to quickly change payment methods allows them recover their transaction in cases of false declines. Everything is tracked by method and amount so refunds and fraud checks are manageable.

Cost, Risk and Conversion – The Balancing Act

John: Optimising around cost and risk is a constant challenge. Open banking is cheaper than cards but carries different risks. How do you decide what to roll out in each market?

Charles: We do not make those decisions in isolation. We talk to multiple partners, compare insights and build roadmaps per market. For instance, each region—UK, Belgium, Netherlands, Switzerland, Germany etc has its own preferences for new payment methods, such as open banking . .

John: That is where orchestration helps. It lets you experiment, test a method like TWINT in Switzerland without a massive engineering roadmap. 

Tackling Fraud and Friendly Fraud in Travel

John: Travel is high-risk…big-ticket items, long lead times, cross-border transactions. How do you manage fraud?

Charles: We have a dedicated fraud team and strong tooling. Much of our fraud is friendly fraud - customers go on holiday, then claim something went wrong. Our team investigates thoroughly and often disproves claims with evidence from our systems. Our fraud partner has even said we are one of their lowest-risk merchants, thanks to our team’s diligence and our shared data from other travel merchants.

The Rise of Agentic Shopping and AI-Driven Payments

Charles: How do you see fraud evolving with agentic shopping AI-driven bots making legitimate purchases on behalf of consumers?

John: That is something we are working on closely, including with Google. The challenge is knowing when an agent is legitimate. We think there should be a fourth entry point into commerce, specifically for agents, to separate them from normal website or call centre traffic. We have built an early product that lets merchants open a verified gateway for agent interactions, complete with credentials that confirm both sides are legitimate. It is about trust and authorisation at every step.

Should Merchants Block Bots?

Charles: We have debated blocking bots internally because OTAs use them to scrape inventory. We do not block them right now because, honestly, we still want the revenue. What is your view?

John: There is a balance. If you give OTAs legitimate data feeds, they should not need bots. But the real shift is coming from consumers using agents like ChatGPT or Gemini to plan travel. That changes everything because they may never visit your website again. Your focus needs to be on getting your data surfaced first when agents search for trips. That means structured, high-quality, keyword-rich data. The best offering will be the best-presented offer.

Charles: Exactly, and that creates a new AEO (Agentic Engine Optimisation) world, just like SEO. But what happens when everyone optimises?

John: Then it is down to data quality and experience. If you can surface first and keep the checkout seamless, you win.

Preparing for Agentic Payments

Charles: So, what happens when customers book via ChatGPT or another agent - will merchants still need orchestrators like Gr4vy?

John: Yes. The payments still need to be processed somewhere, through PSPs, acquirers and orchestrators. ChatGPT’s integration with Stripe is just one example, but it is an open standard. Orchestrators like us will support multiple protocols so merchants can manage agentic transactions regardless of the underlying PSP. In fact, this makes orchestration even more important, it ensures you can still control routing, optimise costs and stay relevant as commerce moves into these new channels.

 Looking Ahead

Both Charles and John will be speaking at the Payments Leaders’ Summit in London in the coming weeks. Expect deep discussions on payment orchestration, personalisation, fraud prevention and the future of agentic commerce, and how travel and retail businesses can stay ahead of the curve.

Gr4vy will also have a live demo of Agentic Checkout - working with ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini, see how it works in action by joining us in London: Payments Leaders' Summit | UK October - Payments Leaders Summit 2025