Maestro PMS is now integrated with b4checkin’s online payment platform, TransForm. The joint solution aims to help hotels fight chargebacks and fraud by ensuring that no one, aside from the cardholder, can see a person’s full credit-card information.
By automatically passing encrypted credit-card data from TransForm directly into the correct ledger within Maestro PMS for card-not-present transactions, hoteliers can increase operational efficiency and improve staff productivity.
“Hoteliers are looking for foolproof ways to prevent fraud and mitigate losses associated with chargeback disputes,” b4checkin Co-Founder Saar Fabrikant said in a statement. “Paper-based credit-card authorization forms are labor intensive and not PCI compliant. By connecting to Maestro to process deposits and payments, we are eliminating manual data entry which is prone to errors and opens the hotel up to chargebacks. By removing manual data entry and using a fully PCI compliant system, this greatly reduces the opportunities for chargebacks and fraud, as well as streamlines check in and helps prevent front-desk staff from accepting fraudulent forms of payment.”
Transaction Types
Traditionally, fraudulent room reservations were avoided by requiring payment in person, verifying the credit card against the cardholder’s personal identification. The rise of the OTAs, brand.com booking engines and other forms of online shopping has resulted in hotels having to accept payments through card-not-present transactions. While most non-face-to-face transactions occur via the internet, CNP denotes any transaction where the cardholder is not physically present at the merchant’s card reader or PIN entry device to authenticate the payment via a chip-and-PIN, chip-and-signature or another form of two-factor authorization. This can mean transactions completed over the phone, via a faxed authorization form, through an email exchange or during an SMS correspondence, which are not secure or PCI compliant and leave the hotel open to opportunities for fraud and chargebacks.
Through this integration partnership, TransForm has a direct connection to Maestro PMS, ensuring all payment data will be automatically posted into the appropriate ledger to align with the correct guest folio, group master or other account in real time. This level of protection can help eradicate many of the chargeback disputes.
“Maestro’s integration to TransForm represents a sizeable shift for online payments by minimizing costs associated with chargebacks and lowering credit-card processing fees,” Maestro President Warren Dehan said. “Through the use of these best practices and our joint technology, we will greatly reduce the problems surrounding chargebacks for hoteliers.”
Benefits of this integration partnership include:
- Posting to the proper ledger saves hotel staff time during billing reconciliation.
- Having a card on file enables hotel staff to post additional charges or charge for incidentals.
- More transactions attributed to an account gives hotel staff more data on guests to make smarter choices for packaging and promotions.
“With the demand for contactless onsite experiences on the rise, guests expect hotels to accept payments via CNP transaction channels, and this trend will only continue as travelers use the conveniences of technology to make payments,” Dehan said. “If you don’t allow customers to pay via these methods, they may decide to stay elsewhere. We partnered with b4checkin to reduce the risk associated with payment processing, and TransForm supports the same credit-card gateways that Maestro supports. When hotels implement best practices and leverage PCI compliant solutions to protect payment card data, it will have a positive impact on the bottom line.”