Technology is fueling changes across the board — the cloud, big data, and mobile apps, are some of the biggest influences disrupting the hospitality industry. Add the payment space to this list! SkyTouch Technology has compiled a roundup of the payment lingo hoteliers and guests will be buzzing about in 2015:
What is EMV? It’s the acronym for Europay MasterCard Visa, the global standard for inter-operation of integrated circuit cards (IC cards or “chip cards).” Chips are embedded into credit and debit cards for added security versus the mag strip that most U.S. card carriers have historically used. Yet, 2015 will see a migration to EMV due to liability rulings that will take effect in October of this year. Merchants will be forced to upgrade their payment infrastructure to EMV during the designated timeframe or risk assuming the liability for transactions found to be fraudulent. If they haven’t already upgraded to EMV, now is the time for hotel operators to begin exploring EMV technology and implementation!
Know NFC. Otherwise known as Near Field Communication, NFC is synonymous with “touchless” mobile payments. As hotels shift to EMV, they will find that their new systems are often NFC enabled. Apple Pay and Google Wallet are two of the major payment methods that rely on NFC and have brought it to the payment forefront for merchants. With NFC now available in the iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus and Apple Watch, it is poised to play an pivotal role in the way guests use their phones for payments.
What about P2PE? P2PE means Peer-to-Peer-Encryption. It is essentially a security standard that helps protect sensitive card data through the payments process. With security breaches making headlines throughout 2014, P2PE will become familiar jargon for hoteliers hoping to protect guest data by implementing this technology into their payment networks.
The take on Tokenization. Tokenization is increasingly being looked at as one of the most secure payment mechanisms available. Having recently become more mainstream due to its use with Apple Pay, tokenization removes a guest’s actual debit or credit card number and replaces it with a randomly generated number called a token. That number is useless to fraudsters and hackers in the event of a merchant data breach. In addition, tokenization removes a huge storage burden for hotels, since the guest’s credit card information never actually enters their system or online payment portal.
More Mobile POS! Mobile payment technology will continue to disrupt the way hotels do business. Mobile POS delivers on guests’ desire to be able to book and pay whether they are on-site or remote. At the same time, hotel staff can utilize a tablet POS system to check in guests, grab their contact information, and book them for on-premise amenities. Embraced, for good reason by hotels and guests alike, mobile POS will continue to bring efficiency and convenience to the hotel payment experience.
Hotels of all sizes and types would be wise to learn the above lingo, stay abreast of the latest technologies, and take steps to implement these practices within their own properties to satisfy evolving guest payment needs in the digital age.
