Today’s guests expect payment to be the simplest part of booking their stay – but for many accommodation providers, it’s anything but straightforward. Accepting multiple payment methods, handling virtual credit cards, managing currency conversions, and protecting sensitive data all add layers of complexity to what should be a seamless process.
Yet in a digital-first world, properties that don’t adapt to guests’ diverse payment preferences risk abandoned bookings and missed revenue. Guests increasingly expect options like e-wallets and payment links in addition to traditional card payments. And simply offering choice isn’t enough if payments aren’t secure, automated, and correctly tracked.
Controlling payments, regardless of source
Security and data handling are among the most common pain points when accepting multiple payment methods and schedules. Without robust processes, businesses risk exposing guests’ personal information, which can lead to significant fines under regulations like GDPR or CCPA, not to mention reputational damage. Beyond compliance, manual processes like re-entering card data or relying on unsecured forms of collection can increase the risk of chargebacks or lost payments.
Equally important is how these payments are reconciled. When payments are received from different sources – such as direct bookings and OTAs – discrepancies can easily creep in if systems aren’t synchronised. For instance, failing to match OTA payouts with expected amounts or misunderstanding how commissions and virtual credit cards work can create shortfalls or mismatches in your records. The solution lies in automating reconciliation, which not only improves accuracy but frees your team from tedious manual checks.
Automation is also key to avoiding common accounting mistakes, like misclassifying advance payments as revenue before the stay is completed. By automating the capture, storage, and allocation of different payment types, you can ensure advance deposits are recorded correctly as liabilities and only converted to revenue when appropriate, supporting accurate financial reporting and compliance.
One platform, all transactions: centralising payment management
The most robust property management systems (PMS), like eviivo Suite™, offer tools let you collect payments securely in real-time, preauthorise cards with 3D Secure to protect against chargebacks, and generate clear, compliant records of all transactions.
eviivo Suite supports many of the world’s biggest payment gateways, giving you more options to accept payments automatically online while retaining your preferred merchant accounts and banking configurations. Supported gateways include:
- CardConnect / Clover – A Fiserv-owned payments platform available exclusively in North America. Requires a merchant acquiring account with Fiserv.
- PayPal – A globally recognised Payment Service Provider (PSP), available in over 200 countries. eviivo Suite offers three connection options with PayPal, supporting card payments, Pay in 3, and PayPal wallet transactions.
- Worldline (including Ingenico and Bambora) – The 4th largest PSP globally and the largest in Europe. Worldline owns both Ingenico, which European property managers can link to their acquiring bank, and Bambora, used similarly by North American businesses to process payments.
- Stripe – A PSP available in 46 countries. Businesses can connect Stripe to their preferred bank account to accept payments.
- Intuit – A financial technology provider that offers PSP services via QuickBooks Payments, primarily for North American users.
By choosing from these eviivo-supported providers, you can offer guests a wide range of payment options, including major credit and debit cards plus e-wallets like Apple Pay and Google Pay™. In total, eviivo supports over 500 different payment configurations, allowing you to provide the frictionless, flexible payment experience your guests expect – while ensuring every transaction is protected, accurately recorded, and effortlessly reconciled through your PMS.
To learn more about secure, automated payment processes that provide flexibility while protecting your revenue, download our new White Paper on Payments.
Stay tuned for Chapter 2 of our blog series, where we’ll explore how to protect your income – and your guests’ experience – with effective deposit management.