Minor Hotels to save over US$7.2 million a year with Airwallex's global acquiring and treasury platform
Airwallex replaced Minor Hotels’ patchwork of payment systems with a single platform that frees finance teams, improves cash flow, and elevates the guest experience as the group scales to nearly 900 hotels.
US$7.2 million
in annual savings
30%
improvement in payment success rates
90%
reduction in reconciliation time
Minor Hotels is a global hospitality group with nearly 600 hotels and resorts in 78 countries. Its portfolio spans luxury to midscale brands, including Anantara, NH Collection, Avani, Oaks, and Tivoli. The group delivers world-class experiences to travellers across Europe, Asia, Australia, and beyond.
Industry
Hospitality
Company size
10,000+
Location
Bangkok, Thailand
Introducing Minor Hotels
Minor Hotels, a leader in international hospitality, operates nearly 600 hotels and resorts across 78 countries, and plans to reach 900 in the coming years. Its portfolio covers everything from beachfront Anantara luxury, recently starring in HBO’s The White Lotus, to historic city hotels in Europe, long-stay apartments in Australia and Asia, and new launches in Japan.
As Minor expanded, payments became complex. Finance teams had to manage multiple payment providers and currencies, which resulted in hours of manual work each week. Revenue slipped through the cracks, and operational complexity began to slow growth.
The challenge
Fragmented systems and lost revenue
Minor Hotels managed payments through a patchwork of Payment Service Providers (PSPs), local acquirers, and banking portals. Each property reconciled settlements and payment flows independently, complicating global cash management, driving up FX spreads, and making it nearly impossible to offer guests consistent local payment options at checkout.
“We process payments in 78 currencies across 78 countries, and many of our hotels ran their own separate payment systems,” said Brian Clark, Director of Product for Payments and Fraud at Minor Hotels.
This fragmented setup left finance and treasury teams juggling siloed payment data, inconsistent reports, and settlement cycles that stretched to T+5 days. 60 finance professionals spent two hours each day on manual reconciliation, matching spreadsheets from multiple providers. The treasury team struggled to move cash efficiently between accounts or optimise FX rates.
Nearly US$2 million slipped away every month through a mix of declined cards, abandoned checkouts, and revenue lost in conversions. Guests often couldn’t pay using their preferred method, contributing to failed checkouts. The number of supported currencies also changed from property to property. Without like-for-like settlement, cross-border conversions drove up fees.
Brian Clark
Director of Product for Payments and Fraud at Minor Hotels
“We knew we couldn’t scale from 500 to 900 hotels with payments in this state. Fees were out of control, reporting was a nightmare, and every abandoned payment hurt the business.”
Payout cycles added another layer of friction. In some cases, guests would pay for a booking on a Monday but funds might not reach the hotel’s account until Friday, depending on the PSP. This created liquidity gaps and made cash flow forecasting unpredictable for the team.
With 78 currencies in play, frequent cross-border flows, and aggressive expansion on the horizon, the legacy setup became a bottleneck to efficient scaling. They needed a way forward.
The solution
End-to-end payment control, from guest to supplier
To break through the complexity, Minor Hotels partnered with Airwallex to create a single, API-driven payment infrastructure. Instead of juggling a dozen PSPs and banking portals, everything now runs through one platform built for global hospitality. Finance, treasury, and product teams across all hotels can finally see every transaction, manage currencies, and send payouts without delays.
Brian Clark
Director of Product for Payments and Fraud at Minor Hotels
“We knew we had to unify payments across all our hotels. That means standardising protocols, giving the corporate team real oversight, and coordinating FX and treasury globally. Airwallex made that possible. They gave us the global footprint, payout network, and virtual accounts we needed to scale, backed by an excellent team and top-tier acquiring.”
Airwallex routes all guest payments into a central parent-account structure, while spinning up virtual multi-currency accounts for each region. This eliminates the need for opening new bank accounts for every entity and gives the treasury team real-time control over holding or converting currency balances. Opening an account for a new property is now as simple as provisioning it through the Airwallex API, removing weeks of onboarding and paperwork.
Through Airwallex’s local acquiring network that supports transactions across 130+ currencies, Minor Hotels can accept cards, wallets, and more than 160 payment methods worldwide, including Klarna, PayPal, and instant bank transfers – all in the guest’s preferred currency. Settlement times now range from same-day to T+2, boosting cash flow across the group.
Supplier payouts no longer depend on slow settlements. With Airwallex, guest payments land quickly in the central account, so finance can pay out to hotels, regions, or suppliers as soon as funds clear. This cuts delays, tightens cash flow, and gives teams the confidence to move money where it’s needed. “If you want to scale, you need to fix these challenges from day one,” Brian adds. “Automating reconciliation and payments was critical for us, even if it meant taking a bit more time upfront.”
With advanced API integration, Minor Hotels has added tokenization, embedded payments, and automated reconciliation, reducing manual work and supporting higher authorisation rates. Minor Hotels expects payment success to dramatically increase, recovering millions in annual revenue and lifting guest satisfaction at checkout.
The result
Minor Hotels is replacing its tangled payment systems with a single platform built for global hospitality. The finance team now swaps spreadsheet marathons for real-time dashboards, turning what was once a daily grind into a growth engine.
It’s not just finance that benefits. With Airwallex, the group can focus less on chasing missing payments and more on crafting memorable guest experiences across continents.
Minor Hotels projects over US$7.2 million in annual savings by using like-for-like settlement and local acquiring with Airwallex.
Treasury expects settlement times to drop from five days to the same day.
Payment success rates are set to rise by close to 30%, recovering millions in lost bookings.
Daily reconciliation shrinks from a two-hour chore for 60 staff to just 15 minutes.
With payments now sorted, Minor Hotels can move at the speed of its ambition, opening new destinations, adapting to traveller needs, and outpacing the competition.
For any hospitality leader eyeing global growth, Minor’s message is simple: payments should fuel your expansion, not hold it back. With Airwallex, they’ve built a foundation for faster scale and better guest experiences, wherever opportunity takes them next.
Struggling with fragmented finance systems?
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