JayWay Travel scales across Europe with faster, smarter financial workflows

Crafting dream vacations across Europe 

Founded in 2006, JayWay Travel set out to make every European vacation feel like traveling with a local friend. What began as a team of one planning dream trips for friends and family has grown into a boutique tour operator offering fully personalized journeys across the continent. 

From Rome and Florence to Croatia, Greece, and Portugal, JayWay designs itineraries that strike a balance between freedom and thoughtful organization. It offers travellers handpicked accommodations, curated excursions, easy transfers, and dedicated local staff in each destination.

As JayWay expanded, so did the complexity behind the scenes. Managing payments to hotels, guides, and suppliers across dozens of countries – each with its own currencies and banking systems – created friction that slowed the business down.

To keep trips running smoothly and ensure providers were paid on time, JayWay turned to Airwallex to streamline cross-border transfers, automate card issuing, and bring control and visibility to its financial workflows.

The challenge: too many providers, too little control

As JayWay grew, so did the complexity of managing spend across dozens of destinations. The company leaned on a patchwork of providers – Capital One for cards, Wise for transfers, Brex for controls – but none could keep up with the demands of a growing travel business.

Capital One’s card program was particularly painful. It didn’t support multiple users, so 45 cardholders were tied to a single phone number for authentication codes. Every time someone needed to approve a transaction, the code was sent to that one phone, forcing staff to track down the person who had it. When several hotel cards were compromised, Capital One shut down every card, leaving all 45 cardholders and dozens of hotels unable to charge anything, with 50 tours on the ground at risk. 

Charles Neville

Marketing Director, JayWay Travel

“We had 45 cardholders, none of whom could buy anything, nor could any of the hotels that our guests were staying in at the time. With 50 tours on the ground, it was a nightmare.”

Capital One wasn’t the only problem. Even Brex, which initially felt like an “oasis in the desert,” turned out to be a mirage. Rising FX fees left JayWay juggling multiple providers to cover gaps. Meanwhile, finance teams spent hours creating and tracking virtual cards, reconciling surprise deductions, and re-sending incomplete payments.

The solution: smoother journeys with Airwallex

JayWay switched to Airwallex to unify its financial workflows – from issuing secure cards for its network of hotel partners to paying suppliers in their local currencies.

On the card side, the Airwallex Issuing API cut card creation from 6–10 minutes to just five seconds. Instead of logging into clunky portals and manually copying card details, the reservations team now issues a virtual card with just one click. “It’s probably more than a hundred times faster,” said Charles. “Game-changing for both finance and reservations.”

Airwallex’s built-in merchant category and currency controls also reduced fraud exposure. By locking cards to the hotel’s local currency, JayWay prevents dynamic currency conversion (DCC) attempts – a practice where hotels often switch to USD or EUR to earn commission at poor exchange rates.

“Hotels will sometimes pick dynamic currency conversion because they get a commission on it,” said Charles. “The problem is it comes with a particularly horrific exchange rate.” 

This control saves JayWay 5–10% on transactions where hotels attempt DCC and eliminates the manual work of identifying and correcting overcharges.

For transfers, Airwallex delivered consistency. What JayWay sends is exactly what suppliers receive – no mystery deductions, no angry phone calls over missing euros. Even small shortfalls, like a €9 deduction, used to trigger hours of rework across local staff and finance. With Airwallex, that friction disappears.

“A small discrepancy with a contractor might be manageable, but with a supplier – like a hotel hosting our guests – even €9 missing can cause real problems,” Charles explained. “With Airwallex, the money we send is the money that arrives. That’s absolutely essential for us.”

The results: faster cards, happier hotels, better trips

Since adopting Airwallex, JayWay has turned finance from a source of headaches into a source of efficiency:

• Card issuing time cut by up to 120x – from minutes to seconds

• Unexpected FX costs eliminated – no surprise deductions, no wasted time chasing down short payments

• 5–10% savings on transactions involving DCC – blocking DCC charges from partner hotels 

• Happier suppliers = better guest experiences – prompt payments strengthen supplier relationships, which translate directly into smoother service for guests

Charles noted, “By paying promptly, our guests actually get better service from our providers. Something as simple as being efficient in finance can improve the customer experience.”

Don’t wait for takeoff to automate

For Charles, the lesson is clear: travel companies shouldn’t wait until financial workflows become unmanageable to modernize their operations.

Charles Neville

Marketing Director, JayWay Travel

“Tasks you did once a week suddenly happen five or six times a day as you grow. You can either hire more staff or you can automate. With Airwallex, we sped up virtual card creation by a factor of over 100. That kind of efficiency lets you scale without scaling your finance team at the same rate.”

With Airwallex running quietly in the background, JayWay’s finance team can keep trips running smoothly – and focus on delivering journeys their guests will never forget.