iOL Pay, a Dubai-based fintech company, has announced the official launch of its new platform (“iOL Pay”) for the international hospitality industry. Now live in 37 countries across North America, Europe, the Middle East, APAC and Africa, iOL Pay’s industry-focused approach will create scalable value for the hospitality sector in multiple areas. The company’s broad range of solutions has seen it secure deals, prior to launch, that enable it to be deployed across hotel properties in several countries from day one. The fintech startup is founded by Faisal Memon, and backed by hospitality and technology industry veterans.

The company has partnered with global financial services and fintech leaders in their quest to reimagine how hospitality businesses transact and manage payments.

Through 2022, iOL Pay, in conjunction with its strategic partners, will enable clients to manage over half a billion dollars in Total Processing Value (TPV) from across all of the platform’s revenue streams, which will grow over 6x by 2023. Building upon this growth and pipeline of clients, the newly launched startup aspires to become the first global hospitality fintech unicorn in the world in the next 12 months, while expanding its geographic footprint to reach 19 additional countries.

Faisal Memon, Founder & CEO of iOL Pay said, “As digitalization has swept through the hospitality industry, consumer & B2B payment systems and processes haven’t advanced at the same pace. iOL Pay builds on our decades of experience, solving challenges of renowned hotel chains through future-centric and innovative technology and key strategic global partnerships.”

“As the world’s first multifunctional fintech platform for the hospitality industry, iOL Pay will simplify transactions, accelerate savings, and enhance revenue flows. The platform reduces fraud and chargebacks, streamlines management of canceled bookings, whilst transforming the guest’s experience at multiple points in their online and offline interactions with the hotel,” he continued.

Every year, hotels worldwide process payments worth $1.45 trillion. Focused primarily on the $450 billion 4 & 5 star hotel category, iOL Pay will help unlock value-addition of approximately $23 billion as the sector experiences a post-COVID-19 resurgence. The platform will provide hotels with a single automated payments solution, support global payment compliance and standards, improve cash flow and elevate guest experiences to encourage customer conversions.

Designed to create a seamless process, the iOL Pay platform also provides customers with a single unified solution, using its strategic partnerships which encompasses global payments, virtual cards, merchant wallets, remittances and FX. Putting hotels in control of the payment process, it can act as a merchant of record, thereby removing a significant administrative burden from hotels by having one platform to manage all payments directly for hotel chains across their properties, franchises and affiliates. iOL Pay will also create an industry-first revenue stream for hotels, giving them rebates on all digital payments made to suppliers.

Through its global integrations, iOL Pay’s pilot customers are able to achieve significant savings in fees and completely eliminate manual processing, creating a new benchmark for the hospitality industry. iOL Pay will also facilitate secure one-click booking integrated into hotel apps and websites, enhancing the guest experience while driving improved conversions for hotels.

iOL Pay supports 26+ languages, 135+ currencies and dynamically provides options from 250+ methods to give guests the optimal choice for payments.

Headquartered in Dubai, iOL Pay is a subsidiary of Illusions Online which operates one of the largest global hotel marketplaces for the international travel and tourism sector delivering services for over 23,000 hotels.