The hospitality industry is all about quality of service, by how well you deliver services, and how appreciative the services are to your clients needs. This means that putting your client's priorities ahead of the business may become essential, although it does not bode well with your bottom line. Key in your deliverables is your payment processing; you need to make sure that your clients get the best possible service that meets their convenience needs and which are cost effective, provide up to date security standards and are reliable.

For the hospitality industry where payment processing is a support arm rather than a key generating activity, you cannot opt for the cheapest services or the lowest fees. Before you make the decision, consider all your client needs, you will discover that finding a one size-fits all solution is hard to get. The following are a few pointers that will help you select the best payment processing for your clients and your bottom line:

1. Ensure that you Meet Global Standardization

Buying equipment and signing up to any payment processing partner will allow you to process credit cards, but it is a far cry for international hospitality payment processing you can get from an industry leader. This is because most of your international clients will require a global standard of payment processing before they submit their credit, debit or travel cards. The local payment system for your POS is not a lost cause, since you can integrate those services with a merchant service which connects you to the following global standards:

·      EMV Certification - This is a global standard for integrated circuit cards which are used on point of sale and other electronic payment systems. The standard is modeled after the acceptance of major international payment systems worldwide.  

·      PCI - This is a standard that protects the card-holder information from possible compromise. Compliance to this standard means that appropriate security measures have been taken to protect your client's financial information.

2. Accounts Control

In order to manage payment processing in the hospitality industry, monthly reporting is required for ease of reconciliation of transmittance of funds into your financial institution.

Since you cannot predict what financial institution your clients will use to submit their payments, you will need an integrated system that not only accepts most payment methods and institutions, but one that accounts for each transaction and is able to provide the feedback required when reconciling and auditing your accounts.

3. Efficiency of Service

Your Point of Sale systems, online systems or your wireless terminals must be reliable and available all the time. Remember your clients are after the quality of service and one that you can only find with a reliable payment processing partner.

4. Authoritative Branding

If you are considering an overhaul or upgrade, you need to consider authoritative branding your payment system like MICROS and OPERA. This is because for all the virtual transactions you will conduct, the associated infrastructure has to be reliable and efficient.

5. International Accessibility

This may be by far the most important feature, considering that most of your clients may demand:

·      A system that does not cost them additional processing fees

·      A system that they can pay at the currency of their discretion

Meeting this demand can be challenging, but not if you get the right payment processing partner to provide you the payment processing system that will give you these features for your hospitality business.

When selecting the right payment processing partner for your hospitality establishment, consider a solution that works to solve your needs, dynamic or static, a solution that is able to integrate with the services you offer as well as existing infrastructure for payment processing.