The Right Fear to Prioritize with a Payment Processing Solution Provider

Merchants in the hospitality industry tend to make every effort to offer the easiest and most convenient payment experience possible. Consumers spend multiple billions of dollars on hospitality solely to enjoy leisure time and use disposable income, so it is important that they feel they are getting the most out of their leisure time. Restaurants, hotels, amusement and entertainment venues, and anyone involved in supporting the tourism business all know the importance of credit card processing for the hospitality industry as far as customer satisfaction is concerned.

The hospitality industry faces two big problems that stem partly from online-based credit card payment processing solutions. The first is security. 2009 was a year full of headline-grabbing, small-scale credit card theft, with cyber-criminals targeting hotels and other hospitality businesses that are likely to have weaker security in place and to use smaller scale and less sophisticated security measures. It is reasonable for small businesses in the hospitality industry to worry about cyber-security, but it is entirely possible for businesses to protect themselves. It is important for businesses that see a lot of one-time customers to check with their Point of Sale providers and virtual merchant software providers to make sure that encryption and password protection for all sensitive transactions are unique, as opposed to using processor or hardware defaults. As well, merchants should make sure that their processing service provider offers a plan that includes routine security checks to be sure to catch any potential loophole exploitation, and should get very familiar with how their processing tools should look and perform.

The second problem is fee structure. Small and medium sized hospitality providers obviously do less business – have a lower volume of sales – than larger entities. As a result, they need to be sure that they keep the transaction charges, costs for accepting foreign currencies, and service fees for credit card processing in the hospitality industry within an acceptable range – something that may be difficult with cookie-cutter processing policies or with processing providers that don’t offer customizable plans. Thus small businesses looking to succeed in the hospitality industry should prioritize credit card processing services that offer customizable fee scenarios.