Parisienne Marie Elefteriou’s love for travel and a chance meeting with a South African (who is now her husband), led her to create a life in the vibrant “Rainbow Nation” of South Africa. In 2011, driven by the desire to showcase the beauty of Southern Africa, she founded Travel with Marie, a French-speaking inbound travel agency. From bases in Cape Town,Johannesburg, and France, Marie and her business partner Bénédicte Spinewineoffer tailored trips across South Africa, Botswana, Mozambique and Namibia to French-speaking travelers from France, Belgium, Reunion Island, Switzerland and French-speaking regions of Canada.
Marie and Bénédicte, the Travel Designers, take a personal approach with clients, taking time to understand their personalities and preferences during the planning stage so they can curate trips that are truly individual and something quite special. The Cape Winelands, Kruger National Park, and a 4x4 road trip across Namibia, where clients camp under the stars in their roof tents are the most popular trips organized by Travel with Marie designers. But, no matter the client’s taste, Travel with Marie designers will select the perfect elements to form the trip of a lifetime.
Problem: Complicated payments confused clients, held back growth
Travel with Marie clients regularly had problems paying for their trips, regardless of the payment method they chose. Bank transfers came with unclear FX fees for the clients and subpar service on the part of their provider. What’s more, the bank transfer provider changed their bank account details regularly, sparking security concerns. Travelers choosing to pay by card had surcharges tacked on after their initial quote. It all caused confusion and often delays in issuing itineraries.
Travel with Marie travel designers also spent too much of their time dealing with payment administration or client concerns. But, when the bank transfer provider ceased trading there was no option but to find another solution.
Solution: Simple and efficient payments, saving time and stress
Recommended by travel industry peers, Flywire has simplified and improved Travel with Marie’s payments. Travel designers simply send a payment request link to clients, where they can see the total amount owed in their local currency and pay using their preferred method. Invoice amounts are pre-populated and currency conversion is handled by Flywire, so there are fewer mistakes and delays. While clients pay in their local currency, payments are received by Travel with Marie in South African Rand which means local suppliers are paid, and itineraries confirmed, promptly.
“Honestly,” Elefteriou says, “it’s like night and day. Clients can still choose how they want to pay but they can do so at their own convenience. Any relevant charges are added automatically by Flywire and we no longer have to calculate the currency conversion so there is less administration. It has saved us so much time.”
Results
Clients are much more comfortable using the simple Flywire solution and very few enquiries have been generated. If clients do have a question about their payment, their first point of contact is Flywire’s around-the-clock multilingual support. Only the more complex questions require the attention of the Travel with Marie team. The time saved is used by the team to focus on doing what they love and are good at - designing magnificent trips.
In the 12/13 years I have been running Travel with Marie there have only been a few tools that have made a tangible difference to my business and Flywire is one of them. This year we had our best January and February yet, and I can confidently say that my business has grown because we are using Flywire.