Payment System In Hotel Industry

 What is payment system?

  A payment system is any system used to settle financial transactions through the transfer of monetary value, and includes the institutions, instruments, people, rules, procedures, standards, and technologies that make such an exchange possible. A common type of payment system is the operational network that links bank accounts and provides for monetary exchange using bank deposits.

  Payment systems may be physical or electronic and each has its own procedures and protocols. Standardization has allowed some of these systems and networks to grow to a global scale, but there are still many country- and product-specific systems. Examples of payment systems that have become globally available are credit card and automated teller machine networks. Specific forms of payment systems are also used to settle financial transactions for products in the equity markets, bond markets, currency markets, futures markets, derivatives markets, options markets, and to transfer funds between financial institutions both domestically using clearing and real-time gross settlement  systems and internationally using the SWIFT network.

Method payment in Hotel

  Hotel is a business organization which runs solely for making money. Hotel earns money mainly by selling rooms. So, it is the major responsibility of a front office agent to collect the room payment from guest properly, generally, guest pay during their registration and in time of check out.

  Some method are widely used as methods of guest payment in hotel industry such as cash, credit card, personal check, direct selling, pre-payments are payments that may be required to reserve a hotel booking in advance of the hotel stay and mobile payment.

 

1. Cash Payment

   Some guest prefer to pay room charge by cash. Guests living for shorter period of time have such tendency. They do not expect to extend their in house credit by shopping having food in hotel. If he want to extend his credit then the front desk agent may collect his credit card imprint or politely request him to settle his account immediately in times of his extended purchase or use of my amenities. If a guest wishes for cash payment then in times of registration, the front desk agent should acquire full room rate and some anticipated usage amount such as room services to avoid fraud. If any guest don't wish to pay anticipated amount in times of registration then he will be charged and have to pay every times he purchase or use any service from hotel.

2. Credit Card Payment

  Payment through credit card has become the most common methods of payment. Some of the well known brands are American Express, Visa, Master card. The agent obtain the card in times of registration and has an imprint. In all the hotel there is a computer system by which agent can know whether the card is valid or not with sufficient amount of money. This is referred to as card approval. Computer automatically calculates anticipated amount of money to be charged by calculating room rate and amount to stay.

3. Payment By Personal Check

  Some hotel allows such method of payment while other has totally strict policy this method of payment. Personal check verification is a similar process like credit card. Through the issuing bank, fund to cover are verified. For the approval pf personal check hotel needs following points of information like guest's driver's license number, address, telephone number, contract details, etc. These think need to be written on the back side of the check. One point to be mentioned that travelers check and certified check do not need any approval because they are solely issued by exchanges of payment while those are issued.

4. Direct Billing

  

  

  

 Direct billing arrangement is made through guest or company and the front desk agent in advanced of the guest arrival In this case, the guest needs to just sign in the bill in times of check in ad check out. The agent just review guest credit application and check whether the bill exceeds the limit or not. Generally hotels offer to use this type of methods to their loyal guest or whom who are representative of any company with whom hotel has prior contract. Bills are sent to guest in their office or other addresses after they finishing staying in the hotel. 

5. Pre-Payment

  Requires payment at the time of booking for part or all of the hotel stay at the time of booking.

  If the booking is canceled, the amount or availability of a refund varies according to the rules associated with the specified booking code.

6. Mobile Payment

  

   Hotels that recognize this trend can offer a complete mobile experience, capitalizing on the many advantages mobile payments offer customers, such as speed and convenience, as well as the ever-important security benefit. 

  With payment details stored online, mobile payments create the fastest and simplest method for payment. One of the current disadvantages of the online booking process is its length. This is why many sites offer a progress bar, to ensure the customer that he has almost completed his booking. Mobile payments shorten this process, enabling users to make faster decisions and complete their bookings with just a 1-2 taps on their screen.

  

References

• "What is a Payment System?" (PDF). Federal Reserve Bank of New York. October 13, 2000. Retrieved 23 July 2015.
• November 08, 2016 Eran Feinstein Marketing, Online payment processinghttp://blog.directpay.online/increase-hotels-bookings-various-payment-methods
• 2014 free hotel management training blog, by Chetan'sWP copyprotect, http://www.hospitality-school.com/hotel-guest-payment-methods.

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