Embedded Payment Solutions — Photo by Stayntouch

As the hotel industry becomes increasingly digital, payment facilitation is evolving into a critical area of focus. Hotels face numerous challenges, from managing payment timing to ensuring a seamless guest experience while balancing costs and risk. Hoteliers are increasingly optin to integrate a payments platform directly into the hotel's Property Management System (PMS). By embedding payments within the PMS, hotels can streamline processes, reduce risk and improve guest satisfaction, offering a holistic solution to payment complexities.

Balancing Convenience with Risk with Customizable Payment Touchpoints Across the Guest Journey

One of the major challenges in hotel payments is balancing convenience with risk. Theoretically, a guest can pay at any number of touchpoints一e.g., immediately before booking, during check-in, during upgrade or amenity purchase and during check-out一each with different levels of convenience for the guest and risk for the hotel. Broadly speaking, the hotel benefits when guests pay for their stay up front, as payments involving multiple touchpoints require more transactions, processing fees and fluctuations of the final price. This dynamic creates friction for guests and exposes hotels to risks associated with delayed or disputed payments. Hoteliers must also manage the risk of chargebacks or fraud when payment timelines don't align with guest expectations.

An embedded payment system within a cloud PMS solves this by accepting payments at any touchpoint and automatically updating the total cost. This ensures transparency and flexibility, allowing guests to settle charges seamlessly and reducing the risk of disputes, chargebacks or fraud, ultimately enhancing the guest experience and operational efficiency. This real-time updating mitigates risks related to billing adjustments and improves the overall guest experience by offering a seamless, flexible approach to payments.

Reduce Costs and Increase Security with Level 2 Processing

All businesses, including hotels, must submit processing data to credit card companies during transactions. Level 1 data includes basic information like card numbers and transaction amounts, but offers limited benefits to hotels. Level 2 processing, however, caters to businesses handling higher transaction volumes, requiring additional details such as start and end dates, destination addresses, and invoice numbers. To meet Level 2 compliance, hotels must also adhere to stricter security standards, including completing self-assessment questionnaires (SAQs), regular network scans and maintaining Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) compliance.

One of the major benefits of Level 2 processing for hotels is the significant cost savings. For hotels processing large volumes of transactions, Level 2 processing can reduce interchange fees by around 0.5 percent per transaction, leading to significant long-term savings and improved data security.

An embedded payment system within a cloud PMS simplifies this process by automatically providing much of the required Level 2 data from guest profiles and invoices. Hotels should choose a PMS vendor that is PCI DSS 4.0 - Level 1 compliant and offers proactive software security measures, including regular scans and penetration testing, to ensure optimal data protection for both the hotel and its guests.

Eliminate Friction to Deliver Guest-Centric Payment

In today's hospitality landscape, offering guests payment flexibility is essential to delivering a superior guest experience. Modern travelers expect a range of payment options, from traditional credit cards to mobile payments and digital wallets. Hotels that cater to these preferences by offering options such as digital wallets, payment links and links within guest messaging messaging apps will stand out from the competition.

One critical aspect of guest-centric payments is reducing friction. A seamless experience, where payment credentials are securely stored and accessible for future bookings or added charges, eliminates the need for repetitive data entry and enhances convenience. The “One-Click” payment option, for instance, allows guests to store their information and complete transactions effortlessly, making their experience smoother from the moment of booking to check-out.

By embedding these features directly into the PMS, hotels can offer guests a range of flexible payment options that align with their preferences, ensuring a frictionless experience that is both secure and convenient. Additionally, hotels can reduce reliance on OTAs and keep more of their revenue by enabling guests to complete their bookings and pay on the same webpage with a single click.

Conclusion

The future of hotel payments lies in embedded solutions within cloud-based PMS platforms. By addressing the challenges of balancing risk and convenience, reducing costs and offering guest-centric payment options, hotels can enhance their overall payment experience. An embedded payment platform not only improves the operational efficiency of the hotel but also elevates the guest experience, setting the stage for long-term success in an increasingly digital world.

About Stayntouch

Stayntouch delivers a cloud-native and guest-centric hotel property management system (PMS) with a comprehensive library of over 1,100 integrations. Stayntouch's cloud-native PMS empowers independent hotels, hotel groups, and management companies to drive revenue, reduce costs, enhance service, and captivate their guests. In 2022, Stayntouch launched Stayntouch 2.0, a fully integrated technology suite featuring its core cloud-native PMS and guest kiosk solution, a comprehensive chain management module, a seamless booking engine (Stayntouch Booking), a robust payment processing platform (Stayntouch Pay), and a powerful channel manager. Stayntouch 2.0 enables hotels to streamline their operations, maximize and diversify their revenue streams, and deliver an even more enhanced guest experience with the innovation and support of one trusted technology partner. Stayntouch is supported by a team of professionals with deep roots in the hospitality industry and is a trusted partner to industry-leading management companies including Sage Hospitality, HEI Hotels & Resorts, and EOS Hospitality, innovative independent brands such as Village Hotels, Pod Hotels, and First Hotels, and iconic flagship properties such as the TWA Hotel, Showboat Hotel Atlantic City, and Zoku Amsterdam. For more information, visit www.stayntouch.com.

Elliott Mest
MFC PR
Stayntouch