The Setup
Club Villamar accepts a steady flow of bookings from holidaymakers from across France, the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium. On paper, they look like a typical client for any PSP, and for their first ten years in business, this is exactly how things ran.
Their structure is less standard: non-resident ownership within a lower-tax offshore economic zone. Most providers would take a quick look at the paperwork before promptly declining their applications.
Club Villamar has always kept a line open with Akil, founder of Tonkr.
"We have always had ongoing conversations with Akil and said, ‘Okay, if you have a serious option, we're always interested’. However, the pressure really started last March, as we were without a payment service provider and we had to collect all payments manually by bank transfer."Robin Coenen, Director, Club Villamar
The Problem
Club Villamar tried most major and mid-level European PSPs, including PayPal, Payoneer, Paysera, Ecommpay and PayU. Each onboarding ended in the same way: a routine compliance check questioned Club Villamar’s ownership structure or deposit timelines long after initial approval, and the account was quickly closed.
Most recently, their Live PSP gave no warning before closing their account. Every guest was individually asked to pay by bank transfer and, as you can imagine, some holidaymakers abandoned their bookings at checkout, and Club Villamar’s revenue suffered.
"The provider told us that our ownership, our offshore setup and the way we take deposits were no longer something they could support. And just like that, our account was closed again."Robin Coenen, Director, Club Villamar
Each closure cost the business time, technical effort and bookings.
What Tonkr Did
Tonkr tracked which PSPs were taking on complex ownership models and which would walk away at the first compliance review. For Club Villamar, this meant avoiding providers with a limited understanding of independent principalities and only being presented with three that did. Two agreed at first, then withdrew or suggested complicated workarounds on second review. The third works with cross-border businesses in specialised risk categories. Akil took Club Villamar’s case to the PSP’s management team, covering ownership, villa booking deposits, processing costs and guest arrival timeframes. When satisfied with the PSP’s response, the full application pack was sent straight to the priority onboarding team instead of a general sales inbox.
"In the end, Akil came to us with the solution: a supportive PSP. He said he had triple-checked everything, and that they were the one provider who could accept us. And in the end, that worked out."Robin Coenen, Director, Club Villamar
Connecting the new PSP to Club Villamar's existing systems took several weeks of coordination. When communication stalled, Tonkr escalated the case directly with the PSP.
"Akil stepped in because when he first asked us for a case study meeting, I said now is not a good time because our integration was problematic. I then asked him not to intervene, but he escalated our case on his own initiative, and our issues started being resolved more fluidly."Robin Coenen, Director, Club Villamar
What changed for the Business
Six weeks after the first provider meeting, Club Villamar was fully Live and processing card, Apple Pay & Google Pay payments once again. The cost of the outage is hard to calculate, but the business is now far ahead of previous years.
"If we examine our recent performance, we're around 50% ahead on year-on-year sales compared to our expectations. So, yes, it's difficult to calculate our losses, but now I think about it, we're starting to overperform this year!"Robin Coenen, Director, Club Villamar
Club Villamar pays a competitive rate for its booking volume and sector, with scope to review pricing as its processing history builds. The gain here comes from having a reliable PSP which supports independent, tax-efficient states and not a marginally lower processing rate.
What Club Villamar would tell you if you are in the same position
"In low-tax jurisdictions like ours, other companies will have the same problem. Local banks charge 3.4% or more for card, Apple Pay & Google Pay processing, and don't want to service companies who operate internationally. For those companies, I think Tonkr can really make a difference."
"And for Akil, he never gave up—This was a good thing. He never gave up! He kept coming back with questions, possibilities, and new solutions. We believed our ideal state would never work in the same way again. We were back to the Stone Age with just bank transfers, which, for the record, is exactly how it felt. How are we going to do this? And then he came again. We found one, we found another one."Robin Coenen, Director, Club Villamar
If you are in the same position
If you are deciding whether to source atypical solutions yourself or bring in a payments specialist, Tonkr offers a free audit. Send a recent processing statement and a short description of your current and ideal states, and we will tell you on the first call whether the case is one we can move—The work then starts. If not, we will usually let you know within 30 minutes.
Visit Tonkr.io to get started.
