Cendyn Expands Payment Ecosystem Tackling Cart Abandonment

Unified payment framework removes direct booking friction, provides hotels with greater operational control, and delivers flexibility to facilitate booking conversion

Cendyn, the leading hospitality marketing software and services platform, has launched a new unified payment framework within the Cendyn CRS to help reduce cart abandonment for direct bookings.

With four new integrations to leading payment platforms, the Cendyn CRS now removes payment friction, providing guests with greater choice and enables hotel finance teams to remain in full control of how transactions are structured, collected, and reconciled.

Working with Flex Pay, FreedomPay, Stripe, and Gr4vy, the direct channel can now support buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) options, policy-driven lifecycle management, global currency acceptance, and intelligent gateway routing. By augmenting payment and financial management capabilities, hotels can reduce poor digital experiences, which cause 52% of travelers to abandon their cart [Siteminder 2025].

Cendyn CRS gives hotels access to new and alternative payment models such as BNPL to not only meet guest expectations by offering choice but provide a better digital experience to secure the transaction. According to NerdWallet 2026 Summer Travel Report, about one-sixth of 2026 summer travelers (17%) say they’ll pay travel expenses with BNPL services, while 43% of BNPL guests upgraded their stay [Uplift 2024].

This integrated payment ecosystem delivers the infrastructure to meet local guest preferences and enable greater financial flexibility, including booking modifications, cancellations, and refunds, and offering partial payments as part of pre-booking conditions. With the addition of regional payment gateways, hotels can better secure international direct bookings by significantly reducing declined authorizations and currency limitations.

“Every lost booking is a revenue decision. When guests abandon the checkout it’s often because their preferred payment method isn’t available. This is a conversion failure that hits both the commercial P&L and the direct channel,” said Kevin Duncan, Executive Vice President Product, Cendyn. “Hotels work hard to drive guests to book direct, it’s a shame to forfeit bookings when the rest of the journey is robust. Losing guests at the payment stage is avoidable and in expanding our payment ecosystem we’re giving hotels the flexibility guests expect while giving finance teams greater control over how payments are managed.”

“Today’s travelers expect greater flexibility in how they pay for their stays, and hotels are looking for new ways to convert demand while preserving control of their commercial strategy. Through our integration with Cendyn CRS, hoteliers can introduce Buy Now, Pay Later options directly within the booking experience, offering guests more choice while helping drive booking completion and direct revenue growth,” said Tom Botts, President, Flex Pay. 

“Hotels need payment infrastructure that can adapt to the realities of modern commerce while maintaining control and consistency across the guest journey. Our integration with Cendyn CRS enables policy-driven payment management throughout the reservation lifecycle, helping hoteliers streamline payment operations, support flexible payment strategies, and deliver a more seamless booking experience for guests,” said Kevin Carson, Senior Vice President Global Partnerships, FreedomPay. 

“At Gr4vy, we believe the payment process should be seamless, no matter where the guest is booking from. Our integration with Cendyn ensures that global hotel groups can provide a smooth, consistent experience that ultimately boosts authorization rates and revenue,” to John Lunn, CEO & Founder, Gr4vy. 

The Cendyn CRS payment ecosystem is available as part of a standard subscription to Cendyn CRS.

About Cendyn
Cendyn is a global hospitality cloud-based technology company that enables hotels to drive revenue, maximize profitability, and create deeper connections with guests through its integrated solutions.

Serving hoteliers for 30 years, Cendyn drives commercial success for hotels through its Find, Book, Grow promise: find the right guests; drive them to book direct, and grow loyalty and revenue across the spectrum of digital guest interactions.

Cendyn has over 32,000 customers worldwide in more than 150 countries generating more than $20 billion in annual hotel revenue. The company supports its growing customer base from locations across the globe, including the United States, France, the United Kingdom, Singapore, Bangkok, and India.

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