SALES & MARKETING
A New York-based Starwood Preferred
Guest hotel that offers Alipay
ALIPAY
US
By CHLOE RILEY , ASSOCIATE EDITOR
eyes the
AS CHINESE INBOUND TOURISM GROWS , STATESIDE HOTEL COMPANIES MUST UP THEIR PAYMENT GAME .
Chinese consumers know what they want : streamlined mobile payment options . And perhaps no one knows this better than China ’ s most-used mobile payments provider , Alipay .
Established in Hangzhou , China , in 2004 by Alibaba Group and founder Jack Ma , Alipay split off from Alibaba in 2011 and is now operated by parent company Ant Financial Services Group , an affiliate of Alibaba .
But while the service ( users receive financial incentives to take money out of their bank accounts and temporarily store it on the platform ) has exploded in China , there still are major hindrances to getting the mobile payment provider into the hands of Western hospitality chains .
While Alipay would not disclose the estimated cost to hospitality companies using the service in and out of China , independent marketing consultant Simone Puorto says there ’ s a large disparity .
“ The real problem is a logistical problem ,” says Puorto , based in Val-de-Marne , France . “ When it comes to accepting Alipay payments ( outside China ), you have to go through a third party and it ’ s a struggle .”
But it ’ s a problem that Western hotel companies
May 2018 hotelsmag . com 49