FX Best Practices In Travel: Payments, Pricing, Timing

Key takeaways

• Travel FX risk is usually a timing problem, deposits, balances, and refund windows create exposure.¹

• The biggest cost leaks often come from fee visibility and workflow friction, not a single bad rate.²

• Teams reduce surprises by standardizing currency rules and making payments predictable, staged, and well-reconciled.³

Travel is inherently cross-border: you sell packages in one currency, pay suppliers in another, and manage deposits months before delivery. That creates “FX windows” everywhere: between quote and deposit, deposit and balance, and balance and service delivery.

This guide focuses on practical controls travel SMEs use in 2026 to reduce variance without turning finance into a trading desk.

Map the real travel payment timeline

Most travel businesses have at least three recurring payment types:

• Deposits (often 30–180 days pre-trip)

• Balances (30 days pre-trip or at service)

• On-trip incidentals (rebooks, refunds, emergency suppliers)

The FX risk is not just rate movement, it is that your payment calendar is long and layered.

Choose a currency strategy that matches how you sell

Option A: Sell and settle in one base currency

Pros: simpler accounting
Cons: supplier FX costs may be embedded into their pricing

Option B: Local currency pricing for customers

Pros: better conversion, fewer checkout surprises
Cons: you now manage FX between sale and supplier payment

Option C: Hybrid by corridor

Most mature operators end up here:

• high volume corridors get a defined currency strategy

• low volume corridors stay simple

Supplier terms are an FX tool (even if no one calls them that)

Terms that reduce FX risk:

• quote validity windows

• defined deposit schedules

• clear refund and reprice rules

• invoicing reference requirements

If supplier quotes reprice quickly, EUR and GBP can react strongly around guidance and data windows, which is a theme in modern cross-border environments.²

Build a repeatable “payables playbook”

A simple travel payables playbook has three layers:

Layer 1: lock what is truly locked

For example:

• hotel deposits due in 21 days

• confirmed group bookings with fixed itinerary
  These are usually candidates for staged conversions or locked rates.

Layer 2: keep a buffer for change

Travel plans change. Hold flexibility for:

• room count changes

• itinerary edits

• supplier substitutions

Layer 3: standardize execution

The highest-leverage travel wins are operational:

• scheduled payments aligned to deposit and balance dates

• batch supplier runs by currency

• clean beneficiary data and consistent invoice references

Global cross-border payment initiatives emphasize improving speed, transparency, and predictability, which aligns with this operational approach.¹

A small table that helps travel teams choose actions

FAQs

Should travel businesses hedge everything?

Usually no. Many start with committed deposits and balances in top currencies, then improve workflow for the rest.¹

Is it better to convert all at once?

Staging can reduce timing concentration risk when multiple payables cluster.

How do we avoid supplier short-pay issues?

Use consistent beneficiary data and references, and prefer payment options with better transparency where available.¹

Wrap-up and how Xe can help

For travel teams, FX best practice is mostly execution: predictable timing, fewer reworks, and clear rules for deposits, balances, and refunds.

If you want to operationalize that, Xe Business can support:

• Paying overseas suppliers via international payments

• Holding and deploying working balances

• Scheduling deposits and balance payments

• Running supplier batches by currency

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The content within this blog post is for informational purposes only and is not intended to constitute financial, legal, or tax advice. All figures and data are based on publicly available sources at the time of writing and are subject to change. Actual conditions may vary depending on location, timing, and personal circumstances. We recommend consulting official government resources or a licensed professional for the most up-to-date and personalized guidance.

Citations

¹ Financial Stability Board / BIS CPMI — Roadmap to enhance cross-border payments — (2020).
² European Central Bank — SEPA overview (context for EUR payment environment) — (n.d.).
³ SWIFT — ISO 20022 overview (structured payment data context) — (n.d.).

Information from these sources was taken on January 21, 2026.