Processing Payments is a tricky business for hoteliers like you, isn’t it?
From issues with accepting multiple payment methods, chargebacks, credit card thefts to inefficient processes that involve guests sharing their payment details multiple times, there are many opportunities for slip-ups.
However, payments are also a good opportunity for you to provide a great guest experience (if managed in a streamlined manner).
This blog is the perfect resource for you to gain insights on how FacilePay (a mobile payment application) can be the right technology for hotel and resort businesses like yours to overcome their challenges with its full-suite solutions.
Here are the aspects that will be covered in the below sections:
- Top 5 challenges that hotel and resort businesses face with payment processing
- How FacilePay help overcome the challenges a hotel/resort business faces with a real example
So, shall we begin?
Let’s start.
Contents
5 Payment Processing Challenges for Hotel/Resort Businesses With Solutions
Running a successful hotel business isn’t a cakewalk. There are immense risks and challenges involved. Hoteliers need to keep an eye on every hurdle that comes their way and find a solution to it before that becomes a burning problem resulting in revenue losses.
Below are some core payment challenges that hotel businesses struggle to manage with solutions on how to address them.
Challenge 1. Security for Credit & Debit Cards Used in Transactions
What often comes across as a challenge for hoteliers is keeping their guest’s sensitive data secured because they operate tasks like payment processing manually.
Managing guests’ credit/debit card information manually on their arrival makes the whole process risky and prone to fraud and chargebacks. There are plenty of scenarios where guests made claims of theft for their credit card information at hotels.
Solution:
Leverage the use of feature-rich technologies that help process payments without sharing sensitive data of credit/debit cards with anyone. There are many very good payment processors available with great security and compliance standards. For example – FacilePay.
How FacilePay Helps Address This Above Challenge?
- First, FacilePay uses Stripe as its payment gateway which follows compliance regulations of the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS). This is a very stringent security and compliance standard and has detailed guidelines on the ways businesses should process credit/debit card information and protect them. This includes restricting access to credit/debit card data on a need-to-know basis. The app doesn’t store any payment information within it.
- Second, you don’t have to manually enter the credit/debit card details in the app. You can scan the card through the smartphone’s camera or tap any card with the PayWave/PayPass logo on the back of the NFC-enabled device and get paid. This avoids any sharing of the payment details with the hotel staff.
- What was the earlier process of accepting payment?
- What was the biggest hurdle while accepting payments from clients across the world?
- How did you find out about the FacilePay application?
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Earlier Process of Accepting Payment at Beach Resort
Earlier, Mr. Tony use to accept payments only in cash and debit/credit cards whenever any guest booked a room with them.
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Biggest Hurdle While Accepting Payment
Some of the challenges that Mr. Tony faced while accepting payments in his Beach resort are:
- Guests with less availability of cash with them
- Payments pending till the end of the trip because of unavailability of cash
- Credit or debit card acceptance becomes expensive for the business because of high terminal charges
- Longer time spent juggling with transactions
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Knowing About the FacilePay App & its Uses
One of the guests visiting the resort from the United States suggested using FacilePay.
Initially, the hotel team did not give much attention to the suggestion. But, with the ongoing challenges becoming difficult to resolve, the app details are researched and the decision to experiment is made. From then there is no looking back. That one decision has eliminated the payment challenges the business is struggling with and also helped explore features of accounting and real-time tracking of payments.
Mr. Tony got what he needed to overcome his payment challenges with FacilePay. If you are in a similar situation and want to streamline your process of accepting payments, you can consider using this app.
- mPOS (mobile point of sale) system
- Card reader or Tap & Pay solution for NFC-enabled devices
- Scan and pay solution
- Online payment solution
- Secured payment gateways like Stripe or PayU
- Real-time tracking and comprehensive reporting of payments
- Hotel inventory management system for better expense tracking
- Tax management system
Challenge 2. Convenience With Acceptance of Multiple Payment Methods
This is probably a common problem that most businesses encounter with the surge of digital payments across the globe.
Did You Know?
Statista reports that the total transaction value of digital payments is estimated to have an annual growth rate of 12.31% resulting in a projected amount of $15.17 trillion by 2027.
Therefore, this isn’t a surprise that every business is struggling to adapt to this change to provide their clients with the utmost convenience possible.
For example – Mr. Tony – the owner of a Beach Resort in Thailand has to struggle a lot with cash and card payments resulting in revenue hardships. Not just him but the travel handlers associated with him are also facing a big time problem getting paid for their services.
[Read the full story below]
Are you struggling like Mr. Tony? Here’s a solution that has helped Mr. Tony overcome his challenge and will also help you.
Solution:
Opt for a processor that accepts multi-payment methods. This can be a POS/mPOS system and a mobile point of sale app. You can use FacilePay as it is an mPOS system as well as an app accessed via your smartphone with several added features like online payments and items management.
How FacilePay Helps Address This Above Challenge?
FacilePay is a smartphone app solution that accepts payment via multiple payment methods and channels. Whether someone wants to pay using a credit card, debit card, or via an online payment link, this app can be used to process payments. FacilePay makes accepting payments streamlined and seamless.
Mr. Tony mentioned in the above example has leveraged this app to get over his payment challenges. If you have similar problems with your hotel business, you can consider this app as well.
Challenge 3. High Fees for Processing Payments With Credit/Debit Cards
Processing credit/debit card payments are quite expensive with high per-transaction charges or fees and monthly charges on payments. Additionally, instances of failed payments and retries make it more costly to handle the expenses. Being in the hotel business, the total expense value of these terminal charges can be very huge. Thus, several hoteliers are now looking for different payment options that can lower this expense value for them.
But, what can be the ideal method to optimize this cost? Because card payments cannot be completely stopped as that will create inconvenience for several guests who rely on that method.
Solution:
While this is true that hotel businesses can’t completely stop accepting card payments, they can surely replace their terminal points to optimize the process which lowers the cost as well. This can be done using payment processors or payment softwares that allows mPOS features such as Square Payments and FacilePay.
How FacilePay Helps Address This Above Challenge?
FacilePay charges a 1.25% fixed flat rate on each transaction with no additional fees associated. Card payments can be done via this app without those heavy terminal charges.
Challenge 4. Payments Reconciliation
Independent hotels or resorts often don’t have a big accounts team or sophisticated systems to handle and record each transaction details with accuracy. Additionally, because of manual intervention, the results are often corrupted with errors and discrepancies. This creates a lot of hassle for the business and also with guests.
Solution
Using an easy-to-integrate software that manages the accounts and keeps a tally of all cash inflows and outflows can help overcome this challenge. There are efficient softwares like FreshBooks, QuickBooks Online, and FacilePay that can help you achieve a solution to this challenge.
How FacilePay Can Address This Above Challenge?
FacilePay offers real-time reports of payments that help gain insights into the cash inflows and outflows, monitor gaps (if any), and detect discrepancies (if any).
Additionally, FacilePay is very easy-to-use and gets integrated into your hotel business payments system swiftly. This app works via Stripe API and makes recording transactions efficient resulting in better scaling capabilities for the business.
Challenge 5. Speed of Transactions
When running a hotel or resort business, you need to ensure that your guests are having a quick and efficient service experience. But, often it takes a lot of time for the guests to complete their payment formalities upon arrival which makes the experience inconvenient for them. Due to this reason meeting customer expectations becomes challenging for the hotelier.
Solution
The best way to overcome this challenge would be to seek the help of a highly featured payment software. There are many payment processors that can be used to increase the speed of transactions and make the entire process seamless. Some of the best-known payment processors in the market are Square, QuickBooks Online, FreshBooks, and FacilePay.
How FacilePay Can Address this Above Challenge?
FacilePay can help create and send professional invoices in seconds and get payments made directly inside the invoice. This app can also help create payment requests via online links that can be shared with the guests through SMS, Email, and Whatsapp. Your guests can simply follow the link to make a quick payment using the method that works best for them. These features make payments convenient and quick for the guests.
Why is FacilePay the Right Payment Processing Technology for Hotel/Resort Businesses?
FacilePay app brings convenience, speed, efficiency, and affordability to hotel and resort businesses. The unique and key benefits of using FacilePay have already been elaborated above with each challenge. Let’s get a better insight into the ways using this app helps with a real example.
You remember the mention of Mr. Tony above.
He has immensely benefited from using the FacilePay app.
Now, guests, who book rooms and villas in his resort with special activities and accommodations, make payment through FacilePay. They don’t have to worry about payments with cash or cards anymore. Knowing this, a short interview is conducted with Mr. Tony to understand his experience of using this payment app and the solutions he could achieve with it. Below are the questions asked to him.
Let’s find out their answers.
Frequently Asked Questions About Payment Challenges in the Hotel Industry
How feasible is it to integrate and de-integrate a payment processor?
The feasibility or convenience of integrating a payment processor and de-integrating it will depend on the type of software you use. Some softwares have a complex system while others are simple. For instance, payment processors like Square and FacilePay have an easy integration and de-integration system.
What features are mandatory in a payment processor used for the hotel business?
Again, this will depend on your particular hotel business challenges. However, some general features that a hotel business should look for in a payment processor include the following.
Which are the best payment processors for hotels/resorts?
There are many payment processors in the market with varied features in it. The best choice always varies with regard to your unique requirements. However, the three best payment processors for hotels/resorts, in general, are mentioned below.
Choose Payment Software for Your Hotel/Resort Business
Payment softwares or processors are not new. Several businesses are leveraging this technology support to optimize their operations, scale high, and achieve customer retention.
As a hotel business, you might have faced the above challenges. With payment processors or softwares, you can overcome all such issues. Additionally, you should also have awareness of the comparison between one-time payments and recurring payments to create avenues for your business to gain profit using payments.
In this cashless world, FacilePay is a great option for all small businesses and startup owners, who are dealing with daily payments.
To know more about this application and how it can benefit your business, get in touch with us. We will revert to you shortly.
