Whether you own a small quaint bread and breakfast in the mountains, a luxury resort on the beach or a business hotel in the city you will need to work with a credit card processing company in order to serve your clients and meet your business needs. Choosing a credit card processing company that can meet all of your needs can be a challenge. Here are some tips to follow.
What You Need To Look For In A Merchant Account
When you select a merchant account for your hotel, inn or other accommodation location you will first need to make sure that the account you select can meet all of your credit card processing essentials. Depending on what your needs are you may need to accept payments over the internet, once guest arrive at your location and even over the phone. You may also need to be able to take a deposit that you can refund once the guest checks out, be able to add on incidental charges during the stay and more.
Many merchants will offer special accounts tailored toward the accommodation industry and its specific processing challenges. You will want to specifically seek out one of these accounts.
Pricing
Pricing will be your next area to look at. Pricing can range from one credit card processing company to another and you will want to make sure that you choose an account that offers competitive pricing. You will want to check for application and start up fees along with monthly fees, minimum transaction fees, fees per transaction and more.
Credit Card Processing Equipment
Next you will have to decide what type or types of credit card processing equipment you will need. You most likely will need to be able to process customer’s credit cards on the internet if they are making their reservation on line, on site and maybe even over the phone. You will need to make sure you merchant account will have the capacity to cover all of your processing needs. Additionally, you will have to purchase or rent processing equipment for on site.
If you are a small inn or bed and breakfast you may want to consider an on line third party processor for your internet payment needs. If you do not do a lot of on line transactions you can usually save money by going this route. PayPal is one of the more common third party processors and it is fairly easy to set up an account with them.
Additional Items to consider
Many hotel owners also look for their merchant accounts to have additional services and benefits. You may want to consider looking at accounts that offer the following:
- An account with fast transaction capabilities. While some accounts you may have to wait several days to get your money, others may be instant or in just a few hours.
- A merchant account that has the capabilities to produce multiple reports that make running your business easier.
- A merchant account that has the capabilities of dealing with guarantees and when to charge the card.
- A merchant account that will help you with meeting PCI compliance.
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