EASY MONEY
Flexibility is the new objective for electronic point of sale, with multiple payment types taken from cards, apps and in person answering the needs of businesses. Ben Walker reports
T
he relationship between hotels and online travel agencies (OTAs) has long been a fractious one, never more so than
now with news from multiple sources that thousands of hoteliers and accommodation providers are facing long payment delays for reservations made via
Booking.com. The incentives for hotels to drive direct bookings have never been greater. And yet a recent survey shows that nearly two-thirds of UK guests opt for OTAs to make their book- ings – the main reason being that they don’t want to pay in full up-front. Hoteliers looking to grow direct book-
ings should therefore consider offering pre-authorisations or deposits to help ease the pressure UK guests are facing on their discre- tionary spending, says the survey of more than 6,000 consumers published by software, payment and technology firm Planet. Once they are at the property, almost three- quarters of Brits prefer to pay with their cards, with the use of digital wallets much lower at 17%, the research says. Only a quarter of UK guests in the survey said that it was very important that payment methods other than credit and debit cards are available at the hotel. But this changes for an international
18 | Technology Prospectus 2024
audience, with 35% wanting to use alterna- tive payment methods – particularly German, Spanish and Chinese guests. For hotels with an international clientele, offering a variety of payment options and currencies is important.
HEALTHY INCOME
Payment flexibility was high on the agenda for Champneys, the leisure and wellness brand with six UK resorts, when it implemented Planet’s all-in-one payments platform in Sep- tember 2021. Commercial director Nicola Eager says: “Providing a wider range of pay- ment options all on one stylish Android termi- nal, fully integrated to our systems, allows us to deliver a luxurious guest experience.” Guests have the option of paying in their
own currencies and with contactless or digital wallets across the resorts, and staff can process payments anywhere using the latest Android mobile terminals. Guest card data is stored securely via tokenisation, allow- ing guests to make multiple purchases dur- ing their stay without staff having to ask for payment details again. Tokenisation is the process by which card
data is encrypted and replaced by a unique code, known as a token. The token can be created
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