No more money lost on no-shows and chargebacks, thanks to streamlined payment system
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International payment provider ECOMMPAY has developed a simple payment solution for Accor Hotels, which aims to save the hotel chain money when no-shows, chargebacks and different preferences in guests’ payment methods impact.
The hotel chain faced three serious problems at its hotels in Riga, the capital of Latvia, when heavy metal band Rammstein was about to play a huge gig in the city. All the hotels were overflowing with tourists, and rooms were going for three times the usual price.
When the date arrived, three Accor hotels in Riga: Pullman Riga Old Town Hotel, Ibis Riga Centre Hotel, and Mercure Riga Centre – were hit with a large number of “no shows”. When the hotels tried to charge the clients, payment card data turned out to be wrong.
Valdis Vanadziņš, General Manager of the three Accor Riga hotels, said: “These are painful problems, and the hoteliers don’t like to talk about them or put them in their annual budgets. Nevertheless, it creates major losses over the year, and we should act on that.
“The entire setup process was super easy, and people at ECOMMPAY were always very supportive whenever we had any questions or requests,” Vanadziņš added.
A simple solution: a payment link
The payment link is an invoice generated for each and every customer. It can be sent via email, messenger, or any other communication channel.
When a client clicks on it, they access an invoice, enter their payment details, and confirm the transaction. The whole process takes only a few clicks.
The main features of a payment link:
- one-time and customer-specific: it is only generated for a single transaction;
- easy to share: the link itself contains no sensitive data, so it can be sent over email, messaging apps or any other way the guest prefers;
- secure: the customer confirms the order using 3DS technology, which requires the user to enter an individual code to complete the payment.
Payment links are simplified invoices, and guests see them as such. The customer does not have to enter the hotel bank account and payment amount, as it has already been filled out for them.
The customer just has to open the link, enter his or her payment data, and click “Pay”. If they make a mistake, they won’t be charged the wrong amount or send the money to a different account. They will just receive a message that the payment has been unsuccessful, so they can try again.
Once they complete the payment, they receive a confirmation which they can keep for their own reference.
Easy to set up and manage
Setting up a payment link is easy for businesses. There is no need to integrate it with the provider’s payment gateway through an API. Moreover, there are no web pages to design; no extra IT infrastructure or staff members are required.
All one has to do is to log in to your ECOMMPAY client interface profile where all the payment links are generated, analysed and monitored.
The payment link uses 3DS technology which has been specifically designed to reduce chargebacks. It verifies the user identity several times to make sure it is really them.
As a result, fraudulent users cannot claim they did not make the payment. This significantly reduces, if not eliminates, the risk of fraudulent chargebacks.
Photo: The Mercure Riga Centre was one of the three Accor hotels hit by the payment issue