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At NeoBookings, our passion is aimed at revolutionizing the digital experience in the hotel sector. Recently, at the outstanding TIS Sevilla event, our Global Business Development Manager, Sonia Mateos Arco, shared valuable insights on the optimization of digital transactions in the industry. With a focus on how these innovations are simplifying the reservation process for guests, Sonia offered an interesting perspective on the advances we are designing.
In this article, we transcribe part of his interesting contribution to the discussion table «Optimizing the guest experience: electronic payments for digital travelers«, moderated by Pol Payet and Noelia Ruiz Santacana, from Comercia Global Payments – CaixaBank.
The Essence of the Perfect Reserve: Simplify the Payment Process
Before the question of "What is done well and what can be improved in the reserve processes?"Sonia explained: “An frictionless, or ideal, process begins at the moment the user is on our website and decides to make a reservation. at that time, It should be clear to you what the conditions of that reservation are and the cancellation policies. This is fundamental, because our potential customer is carrying out a transaction and needs to understand precisely how, when and how much they are going to be charged.”
“Once the guest begins to provide their data, Our role is to facilitate an agile and comfortable process to select an appropriate payment method to their needs, regardless of their geographical origin and preferences"Sonia continued, “This is fundamental at the conversion level. make the customer feel comfortable. That you can use your wallet card, Google, without having to enter card data manually.”
«Getting an experience without any type of friction, in the same click of the reserve, without the presence of popups -something that can generate a little mistrust-, is the perfect process“, he finished.
security through Tokenization
Security in digital transactions took a central place in the debate, at which point Sonia recalled that, previously, online payments did not leave a record of the cards, which made it difficult to manage additional charges. A few years ago, with the implementation of the tokenization, our recommendation is always to validate the customer's card on a payment gateway, whether there is a payment or not, to keep the token authenticated, very valuable data and not with only a card numbering, which It is an empty data, but that this case is “A reality still present in many hotels”He affirmed, adding that these practices should gradually disappear, something that, from neobookings, they try to promote in their training talks.
Delving into how NeoBookings anticipates current security challenges, Sonia explained:We have years of experience with tokenized payment gateways. The token is an encrypted version of the card, so even if they intercept us, they will not be able to do anything with it, since it is a code that no one external, not even the hotel equipment, can use.»
With the tokenized gateways, either by processing a payment as a guest or user, the transaction is verified in such a way that it is confirmed that the client is the cardholder, allowing possible future charges. “We recommend not collecting useless data, such as the card number. Instead, it is preferable to direct the customer through a payment gateway, regardless of whether a charge is made or not. This provides us with valuable data for safe operations in the future.”
Advantage before the management of no-shows
Sonia reflected on the management of no-shows: «Although there is no one hundred percent infallible strategy, we can improve our current practices. We implement a tactic called OTB*, which leads the user through the payment gateway for authentication, without the need to make an immediate payment, acting simplyas a card verification. This confirms that the card is legitimate and provides us with more guarantees that we can make the payment.”
Advances in payment automation
Remembering a visit to a hotel, Sonia spoke about the transformation that Neobookings has been carrying out many years ago: “During a visit to a hotel, we saw staff spending hours on manual card processing. Valuable time that could be invested in other tasks and that, in addition, generates errors and makes it impossible to know if these cards are valid, have funds or are expired. It was then that we decided that automation of payments was the future«.
"We are very concerned about what daily operations are, the hotelier. We constantly ask ourselves, what can we do to speed up that process? And well, thanks to the catwalks that we have integrated behind our system, We have created a suite of payments in which we really put an end to that cumbersome process.”
The perspective that Sonia shared in Tis Sevilla is not only a testimony of current practices, but also the vision of what Neobookings is forging for the future of hospitality. Committed to continuously improving the experience of both the guest and the hotelier, we ensure that every step of the customer's journey is safe, comfortable and hassle free.
*open-to-buy (OTB):
Validation of a card through an authorization transaction for zero value.