Guide to dematerialized and secure payment in the hotel industry

The advantages of dematerialized payment

A health benefit

Dematerialized payment represents a real health advantage, because it makes it possible to avoid the exchange of physical objects, which takes place when using a payment terminal, a card, receipts... During the Covid 19 epidemic, this solution has been specially developed to curb contamination.

Improved customer satisfaction

Dematerialized payment improves team productivity and customer satisfaction. Payment is made faster, giving subsequent customers the opportunity to wait less.

Thanks to dematerialized payment solutions, you can more easily take care of late arrivals as well as early departures. Indeed, if you do not have 24/7 reception, these payment techniques are great allies to better manage your business.

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What solutions to offer a dematerialized payment?

Contactless payment

Contactless payment is also called “Near Field Communication”. This is a system introduced in 2004 which gives customers the possibility of paying for their purchases without having to insert their bank card into the payment terminal. It saves considerable time, and makes payments more hygienic, because the seller and the customer do not exchange any object.

Distance selling payment (VAD) on TPE

To make a dematerialized payment, you can make a "Distance Sale" on a TPE. To do this, you just have to enter the customer's card number on the TPE in order to debit it. This solution requires a VAD contract, usually free, between your hotel and your bank. The contract indicates the commissions that will be charged according to the types of cards used for payment. In general, the rate is around 0.3% to 0.6%. If the card is foreign, the rate is higher.

This dematerialized payment system is particularly interesting in the hotel industry: it is used in particular when customers have not gone through the reception at the time of check-out or when they have not come to the hotel.

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The payment gateway

The payment gateway also requires a secure distance sales contract, as it is the digital version of the physical TPE. Commissions are deducted from each payment, and you also pay a subscription as well as the fixed costs of the virtual TPE provider. These fees can amount to €30 and €60 per month and between €0.05 and €0.1 per transaction.

To set up this dematerialized payment system, there are several payment gateways, such as PayZen, Paybox, Payline, Monetico, which is a gateway offered by the Crédit Mutuel bank and the CIC, Systempay or Click&Pay…

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All in one payment system

With the all-in-one payment system, a third-party financial organization is responsible for collecting payment from your customers and transferring it to your hotel. Here, you do not need to make a contract with your bank: the secure distance selling contract is provided in the service provider's offer. It can be the well-known Paypal, Stripe, HiPay, PayGreen, Adyen, or even Mollie…

The commissions are higher here: there is a variable part and fixed costs for each transaction carried out. The funds collected by the payment system are then transferred to your bank account.

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The all-in-one gateway and system for more security

To be certain of receiving payment, it is safer to go through all-in-one gateways and systems, rather than VAD payment. Indeed, the latter can be easily challenged by the customer, and can therefore lead to an unpaid bill. With VAD payment, the customer does not authenticate himself in a “strong” way, and can therefore dispute the payment. Also, note that all-in-one solutions are used less often than payment gateways, as they are less competitive in price.

The stages of dematerialized payment

In the hotel sector, it is common to carry out, when the customer arrives, a bank pre-authorization: it is a bank guarantee which allows you to reserve a given amount on your customer's account, in order to to be sure of being able to be paid later. It could be :

• A physical pre-authorization on a TPE
• An online pre-authorization, which can be done just before the client's arrival, the morning of arrival or the evening before.

In order for a pre-authorization or a payment to be perfectly secure for the hotel, it is essential that the bank card used for the payment be associated with a so-called "strong" authentication of the customer: this is the entry a secret code in the event of payment on a TPE or 3D Secure authentication, if the payment is made online.

At the end of the stay, the hotel can then offer the customer to debit their card for the exact amount of the stay.

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