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.
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“Travel
is rebounding and as international borders continue to open, we’ll see prices
increase to match demand,” says Yudong Tan, CEO of the flight business group at
Trip.com
Group.
“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,”
says 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 says, for now, the integration with Trip.com is just for the price freeze feature for flights, although future collaboration is possible.