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"What Payment Processing Equipment does Lodging require?"
Here are Credit Card Processing Consulting's
definitions of a Hotel and Motel equipment and processing
needs.
Lodging
businesses operate different than any
other establishment. The size, operating procedures and
of course budget, will determine what type
of hardware,
software or any other credit card processing mediums you
should consider. Almost any size Hotel or Motel
should be
using POS computer hardware and software to
operate the payment processing and other functions of
operation. The
exceptions to this is if the location has
only a few rooms. Then the use of a cash register and credit
card processing terminal will work fine.
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LODGING - Lodging businesses need to
swipe 80% or more of the credit cards
through a magnetic swipe reader, (MSR) so
they will receive the
lowest qualified rates available. Any Hotel,
Motel, Cabin rental and etc. is considered a lodging
establishment.
What
equipment should I consider?
Number of Rooms-
If you
have enough rooms then the POS system is a
must. The back office and management options that the
point of sale software can offer is the best way to go
for controlling the environment. Even security systems
can be handled through the point of sale software. For
most lodging establishments that only offer cabin
rentals, the use of a credit card processing terminal
would be the best way to handle payment processing for
credit card sales.
Operations
- Most of the time the very
first contact with the customer is on a telephone
conversation and taking the credit card information over
the phone. This is where most lodging establishment make
the mistake of actually processing the transaction
instead of only authorizing the credit card. This causes
the transaction to be downgraded to a mid-qualified rate
which is a higher processing
rate.
Budget - Budget issues
are usually pretty simple with the fact that usually
there are not any lodging businesses that are of medium
size and it is pretty cut an dry on the budget if a POS
computer system should be used or a credit card
processing machine. In almost all cases a Hotel will
have a POS system, a Motel and cabin rental will
have a terminal with possibly a cash register. Most of
the Hotels choose a MICROS system for their POS. You can
actually save some money if you choose a different
system. The MICROS system charges an extra $.05 just for
using their system. Other point of sale systems do not
charge this fee.
With proper analysis
of the items listed above, we can plan
a strategy for you to be successful and stay open. A
POS computer system will cost a little more than a cash
register and terminal. If your budget is very tight then
you probably should not be thinking about a POS
payment processing system or you can lease the
system.
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