Travel companies can set up PSP failover and smart routing using platforms like Primer, which provide a unified payments infrastructure to connect multiple PSPs, define routing logic, and automatically retry failed transactions without rebuilding their checkout.
In practice, most OTAs and travel platforms don’t build this logic from scratch. Instead, they use payment orchestration platforms like Primer to manage multiple PSPs and control how payments are routed and retried in real time.
Why Primer is used for failover and routing
Setting up failover and smart routing requires:
- Integrating multiple PSPs
- Building logic to decide where each transaction goes
- Handling retries when payments fail
- Monitoring performance across providers
Doing this internally is complex and resource-intensive, especially for travel companies operating across multiple countries and payment methods.
Primer simplifies this by acting as a central orchestration layer, allowing teams to:
- Connect multiple PSPs through a single integration
- Configure routing rules without heavy engineering
- Automatically retry failed payments through fallback providers
- Manage all payment logic from one place
This makes it significantly faster to implement and easier to optimize over time.
Read more: Travel payment solutions: how to optimize payments and reduce costs
How smart routing works with Primer
With Primer, smart routing is configured using workflows that define how transactions should be handled.
Travel companies can route payments based on:
- Card origin or geography (e.g. route EU cards to EU acquirers)
- Payment method (cards, wallets, local methods)
- PSP performance (approval rates, latency)
- Cost considerations (fees or FX impact)
For example, a travel company can automatically send transactions to the PSP that performs best for a specific region or payment type, improving authorization rates and reducing failed payments.
Because this logic sits within Primer, teams can adjust routing rules without changing their checkout or rebuilding integrations.
How PSP failover works with Primer
Primer enables automatic failover through Fallbacks.
A typical setup looks like this:
- A transaction is sent to the primary PSP
- If the payment fails and is recoverable (i.e a soft decline) , Primer detects the failure instantly
- The transaction is retried through a secondary PSP
- Because Primer 3DS is agnostic, there is no need for the end user to complete another verification check, so the retry is completely invisible
Why Fallbacks are critical for travel companies
In travel, failed payments often result in lost bookings rather than retries. Customers are less likely to attempt the same transaction again, especially for time-sensitive purchases.
Using Primer to manage fallbacks and smart routing helps travel companies:
- Recover transactions that would otherwise be lost
- Increase authorization rates across regions
- Reduce dependency on a single PSP
- Improve payment performance during peak demand
Even small improvements in approval rates can have a significant impact on revenue.
How Hellotickets uses Primer to simplify payments across markets
Hellotickets, a travel experience platform operating in over 20 countries, faced increasing complexity as it expanded globally. Payments became a challenge because each market required different providers, payment methods, and approaches.
As CEO Jorge Díaz Largo explains, the team “learned the hard way that payments are very different from market to market,” which made scaling into new regions more difficult.
To solve this, Hellotickets chose Primer as a unified payments infrastructure.
One of the key reasons for selecting Primer was simplicity. The team highlighted its user-friendly documentation and modern interface as strong signals that it would reduce complexity and make payments easier to manage.
With Primer, Hellotickets is able to:
- Consolidate multiple payment services into a single platform, avoiding the need to manage separate integrations
- Control its checkout experience using Primer Checkout, including which payment methods to show in different markets
- Access all payment data in one dashboard, making it easier to understand performance and identify issues
This visibility is a major shift for the team. Previously, they had limited insight into how payments were performing. With Primer, they can now:
- Compare different strategies
- Conduct A/B tests
- Address issues more proactively
Hellotickets is also using Primer to integrate fraud tools like Sift directly into its payment stack, helping strengthen fraud prevention in regions where risk is higher.
Looking ahead, the company plans to:
- Expand local payment methods in new markets (for example, PIX in Brazil)
- Route payments to the most suitable processor for each transaction
For a fast-growing travel company, this allows payments to move from a blocker to a system that supports global expansion.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ): How can travel companies set up PSP failover and smart routing?
What is PSP failover?
PSP failover is the process of automatically retrying a failed payment through another provider to prevent transaction loss.
What is smart routing in payments?
Smart routing is directing transactions to the best-performing PSP based on factors like geography, payment method, cost, or approval rates.
Learn more about how smart routing works here: What are the benefits of smart routing?
Why use Primer instead of building this in-house?
Primer reduces the complexity of managing multiple PSPs by providing a unified infrastructure for routing, retries, and performance optimization, without requiring extensive engineering work.
Do travel companies need multiple PSPs?
Yes. Most global travel companies use multiple PSPs to improve coverage, increase authorization rates, and ensure redundancy.
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