Despite the efficiency of digital card payments, hoteliers face challenges. Serious security and reconciliation risks exist when using traditional systems with a wide range of channels and payment methods, especially with the common methods of hotels. Managing multiple payment options can create vulnerabilities, especially with the rise of online fraud and data breaches.
Hoteliers must implement robust online payment systems with enhanced security measures such as two-factor authentication and payment tokenization to protect guest data and ensure a seamless payment experience. This article explores the challenges and shows how tokenisation can secure payments to bank-level security while removing the need for manual reconciliation.
In the hotel industry, secure online payments are an absolute necessity. As the volume of online transactions grows, so does the need to protect sensitive customer information. A robust online payment system safeguards guest data, ensuring their personal and financial information stays confidential.
When guests feel confident that their payment details are secure, it builds trust and loyalty, increasing guest satisfaction and repeat business. Secure online payments can also help hotels avoid the costly repercussions of legal fees, fines, and reputational damage.
It can also reduce transaction fees and chargebacks, significantly impacting a hotel’s bottom line. By minimizing these risks, hotels can increase revenue and focus on providing exceptional guest experiences.
Investing in secure online payments is a strategic move that pays off in an industry heavily dependent on trust and reputation.
Hotel bookings come from channels including phone calls, emails, or online travel agency (OTA) extranets. To process booking fees and enforce guarantee policies within specific timeframes, hotels must collect and store credit card information for future use.
When their traditional hotel systems don’t allow secure handling of credit card details, it puts hotels at significant risk – potentially exposing guest information that could lead to financial loss, legal issues, and severe damage to the hotel’s reputation.
Lacking a secure way to handle credit card details, it's common for staff to save card numbers on post‑it notes or in unsecured fields in their traditional hotel system to manually process card details in physical point of sale (POS) terminals.
Hotel payment solutions that tokenise credit cards and allow the processing of payments based on those tokens stop these unsafe practices and are essential to protect guest data and keep trust. Implementing secure and efficient payment processes reduces risks and improves overall operations.
Let’s see how a hotel solution, in partnership with a payment service provider (PSP), can securely handle transactions, removing these risks by offering flexible and secure payment solutions.
Tokenization is a process where visible credit card details (number, date, name, CVV code) are converted into a unique token, which cannot be used to retrieve the actual card information. A payment gateway acts as a secure intermediary in this process, ensuring that the actual card details are securely stored with the payment processor, not the hotel, reducing the risk for hoteliers.
When guests book through an insecure channel, the agent can send them to a secure and PCI DSS-compliant environment. The payment gateway immediately tokenises the credit card information, transforming it into a token that can be used for all booking and during-stay transactions, including on terminals, without revealing the real card details.
This way, hoteliers can handle every online payment securely without storing sensitive credit card information, significantly minimising the risk of breaches.
How Clock secures payments with tokenisation:
Traditional systems: Guests provide credit card details through paper forms or unsecured digital means. Staff manually enter these details into payment terminals, leading to human error and increased security risks. This process is time-consuming, delaying payment collection and frustrating guests with long check-in and check-out times.
Clock: Guests enter payment details once through Clock’s secure platform, which tokenises the details. Payment processing is automated, eliminating manual entry and errors. The secure payment options improve guest satisfaction by facilitating smoother transactions and building trust. Transactions integrate into the hotel system for accurate, real-time reconciliation, resulting in a faster, more secure payment process and improved guest satisfaction.
Traditional systems: Tracking and reconciling payments manually from multiple sources is complex and risky. Discrepancies can lead to financial errors and time-consuming audits. Staff spend hours reconciling payments and detracting from customer service, while errors in billing or delayed refunds can lead to guest dissatisfaction.
Clock: The system automatically records and matches payment data to bookings in real-time with tokenisation, eliminating manual reconciliation. This automation contributes to a seamless payment experience for guests by reducing errors and ensuring accurate financial data. With accurate billing and faster service, guests and staff are happier, enhancing customer satisfaction and loyalty.
Ensuring payment security compliance is a critical responsibility for hotels. The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) sets the benchmark for secure payment processing, and compliance with these standards is non-negotiable. Hotels can protect sensitive customer information by adhering to PCI DSS, significantly reducing risks.
Beyond PCI DSS, hotels must comply with the Payment Service Directive 2 (PSD2) and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). These regulations mandate stringent security measures and data protection practices, ensuring that payments are robust and secure.
Compliance with these standards protects guest data and enhances the hotel’s credibility. Guests are more likely to trust and choose hotels that prioritize their security. For hoteliers, this means implementing secure payment gateways, regularly updating security protocols, and conducting thorough audits to ensure ongoing compliance. By doing so, hotels can safeguard their operations and maintain the trust of their guests.
Payment authorization and verification are the cornerstones of secure online payments. These processes ensure that transactions are legitimate and that customer information is protected from fraud. Payment authorization involves verifying the customer’s payment details, such as credit card information, to confirm the transaction's validity.
Verification further confirms the customer’s identity, preventing theft and fraudulent transactions. Hotels can employ various methods to enhance payment authorization and verification, such as 3D Secure and tokenization. 3D Secure adds an extra layer of security by requiring customers to authenticate their identity during the transaction process.
Tokenization, on the other hand, replaces sensitive payment information with a unique token, which can be used for transactions without exposing the actual data. These methods protect customer information and ensure the hotel complies with industry standards.
A robust authorization and verification process lets hotels provide guests with a seamless and secure payment experience.
Effective staff training and access control are vital. Staff must be well-versed in the importance of payment security and the correct procedures for handling sensitive customer information. Training programs should cover identifying and preventing fraudulent transactions, ensuring staff can protect guest data.
Access control is equally important. Hotels must implement measures to ensure that only authorized personnel can access sensitive information. Role-based access control (RBAC) effectively assigns access rights based on an employee’s organisational role — ensuring that staff can only access the information necessary for their job functions.
Two-factor authentication (2FA) adds a layer of security, requiring users to provide two forms of identification before accessing sensitive systems. By combining comprehensive staff training with stringent access control measures, hotels can create a secure environment that protects guest information and maintains compliance with industry standards.
Guests trust hotels to keep their payment details safe and billing information accurate. The widespread risky practice of manually collecting and charging credit cards in POS terminals proves that traditional systems and modern payments don’t go together. No person would willingly risk their credit card information to leak like that – likely not even you.
Clock’s hotel system with in-platform payment processing tokenises every payment, replacing sensitive credit card details with secure tokens. This modern approach protects guest payment information and your reputation, automates payment processing, and removes manual reconciliation errors. Secure payment services are crucial for protecting guest information and maintaining your hotel's reputation, and Clock supports various payment methods through reliable payment gateways.
By transitioning from a traditional hotel payment system to Clock, hotels can safeguard guest data, maintain their reputation, and enhance overall security, providing a smooth and secure experience for staff and guests.