Hooper Technology Solutions (HTS) focuses on operation of travel booking platforms for loyalty programs of financial organizations. In Japan, HTS has started operating ‘V Trip,’ a travel booking platform for Sumitomo Mitsui Card members since the spring in 2025. Travel Voice interviewed Raphael Lanfant, HTS Vice President, APAC & META, who attended WiT Japan 2026.
Strengths in operating a third-party platform
Hopper serves OTA for general consumers in North America only, while HTS focuses on BtoB globally, including partnerships with financial organizations’ loyalty programs.
HTS has developed capabilities to forecast flight price trends by analyzing vast amounts of historical data, as well as a range of fintech products designed to mitigate risks associated with unforeseen events such as cancellations and delays. Furthermore, the company offers "à la carte" solutions tailored to the specific needs of travel suppliers, including airlines and hotels, for use on their direct-booking websites.
On ‘V Trip,’ HTS offers services such as flight price alerts and a "worry-free cancellation option" that refunds 80% of the flight cost upon cancellation, regardless of the reason, in addition to travel products like hotels, flights, rental cars, and dynamic packages.
“The partnership was realized quickly because SMBC possessed a clear vision and knew well about examples of innovations from overseas,” Lanfant said. “By running point-based campaigns and offering special perks, we are steadily growing both its membership base and overall performance.”
Expansion of the services and supports
HTS made its full-scale entry into the B2B sector in 2021 through a partnership with the U.S. financial institution Capital One. Since then, it has successfully increased the booking volume on "Capital One Travel"—the travel platform for the institution's members—by more than tenfold.
Travel represents the largest category of discretionary credit card spending and serves as a cornerstone of loyalty strategies. Lanfant said, “It is crucial for both acquiring and retaining members, while also driving increased spending—both domestically and internationally. A key is differentiation in delivering unique value not only when members book flights or hotels but also when they earn and redeem their loyalty points.”
Also, he emphasized that HTS’s strength is to create option services to reduce travelers’ stresses as highly marketable products at a fair price.
HTS’s financial-sector clients include Lotte Card (South Korea), Lloyds Bank (UK), and the Royal Bank of Canada (Canada). For client companies that lack an existing loyalty program, HTS sometimes provides end-to-end support, including program development. Recently, HTS has also expanded into advertising and promotion services for travel suppliers and regional DMOs looking to run campaigns on travel websites.
In addition, HTS has been extending its business to airlines that want to enhance sales of their ancillary services. “In addition to contributing to increased revenue per passenger, improvements to the user experience (UX) on direct-sales websites are driving higher repeat usage of the airlines' own sales channels,” Lanfant said.
Clients in the Asia-Pacific region include Virgin Australia, Oman Air, Saudia (Saudi Arabia), and Jazeera Airways (Kuwait). Since April 2026, HTS has successively signed contracts with Wizz Air (Eastern Europe's largest low-cost carrier), Porter Airlines and Avelo Airlines (USA), and WestJet (Canada).
HTS Raphael Lanfant
‘Cancel for Any Reason’ is more preferred
Among the products HTS offers, two have seen a surge in usage since this spring: the ‘Cancel for Any Reason’ option and the ‘Premium Disruption Assistance’ option. Usage of these services reportedly spiked by 90% and 120%, respectively, following the outbreak of conflict in the Middle East, according to Lanfant.
He explained, “Travelers are seeking greater peace of mind, stronger guarantees, and more flexible service than ever before. These options are managed via automated app-based systems. While users can still speak to a representative by phone if they wish, 98% of customers are able to resolve their needs through the automated service.”
Offering flexibility at a fair price
In the autumn of 2025, HTS launched "HTS Assist," a feature designed to support customer service operations that arise after a booking has been confirmed. This product was developed by commercializing a tool that HTS originally used for its own internal operations. HTS analyzed millions of customer interactions and conversations accumulated over the past decade and used them to train an agent-based AI, according to Lanfant.
By connecting to suppliers' back-end systems, the AI handles post-booking tasks, such as cancellations, rebookings and upselling suggestions, thereby reducing the operational burden on our partners.
“We are data science experts. Leveraging data to create services that solve travel-related pain points is the very DNA of Hopper,” Lanfant said. “we will continue to build upon our foundation of flexibility-focused logic. We aim to grow alongside our partners by exploring new applications within the travel industry, developing new sales channels, and pursuing more flexible approaches to cancellation policies and pricing.”
