Elavon eliminated the need for hotels to print and store paper copies of customer card data. The payments provider introduced Converge Hospitality, a digital invoicing system for the hotel industry. The system makes it safer and more convenient for customers to pay for deposits on events and concierge-like services at hotels, while eliminating the need to send card data remotely.
Currently, hotel guests are required to call, fax or email credit card authorization forms containing personal and card data, along with a photo of the payment card for such items as conference or event deposits, gifts sent to guest rooms or payment to return an item left at the hotel. These manual ways of accepting third-party payments exposes hotels and their guests to major security vulnerabilities. Converge Hospitality eliminates these risks and reduces Payment Card Industry digital standards scope by moving the payment process online for both the hotel and the customer – taking away the need to transfer or store any sensitive cardholder information.
“The current practice of accepting payment for these types of popular services at hotels is very manual, time-consuming and extremely risky,” said Eric Liebman, VP, head of product strategy, hospitality at Elavon, in a statement. “Converge Hospitality protects payment data and all purchases at the hotel property are completely streamlined. With our e-commerce capabilities and record of the electronic transaction, it also reduces human errors and adds greater convenience and peace of mind to guests.”
Here’s how Converge Hospitality works:
- The customer calls the hotel to arrange payment for an event deposit or an amenity such as a bouquet of flowers for a hotel guest.
- The hotel representative generates an instant, electronic invoicing through the system.
- The customer instantly receives an email with a link to the invoice and pays online using a secure, Elavon-hosted payment page.
- The transaction is complete and stored electronically.
Converge Hospitality does not require any integration to the property-management or point-of-sale systems so it is simple and quick to implement.