Payments Blog

Checklist to Minimize Credit Card Fraud in Your Hotel

More often than not, hotels process relatively high transaction amount values making card acceptance crucial to their operations. Card acceptance not only offers convenience to your guests but also helps increase revenue by encouraging spend at your property. Even as card use is highly encouraged, it is important to ensure that you put measures in place to help you mitigate credit card fraud. 

First, to understand what exactly credit card fraud is; according to Wikipedia, credit card fraud is an inclusive term for fraud committed using a payment card, such as a credit card or debit card. 

Recommended Read: Understanding & Preventing Online Card Fraud

Tips for Minimizing Credit Card Fraud in Your Hotel

1. When the card holder is present, ensure that your verification process is done at the point of check-in. Check:

• Card and confirm that it has not been tampered with
• That the passport has not been tampered with
• That name on the card matches the name on the passport

2. When the cardholder is not present, confirm that:

The cardholder has authorized the transaction in writing. This can be done using a pre-auth form. The authorization should include;-

• The cardholder’s passport copy, phone and physical address
• Details of the guest checking in including name and passport number

3. Where the cardholder is a corporate, a letter authorizing the transaction will suffice. The letter should include the photo of the card (front and back) and statement highlighting the charge

• Make sure to inform them to obscure their card number except last 4 digits and CVV or CVV 2 numbers
• A call should be placed to the cardholder/ corporate to confirm details of the authorisation. The call should include a check on the brand and last 4 digits of the card

4. Before check-in ensure that you have the following:

• The passport copies
• Any communication with cardholder/guests
• Check in-form

For  online bookings, please observe the below:

1. Look out for suspicious email addresses and domains- If the email address the customer is using contains too many characters or mismatched letters e.g [email protected] ask him/her to send verification details.
2. Prompt for the card security code - Most online card payment processors require customers to input the CVN/CVV number. Depending on your payments provider the consumer may also be asked to provide a One Time Password.
3. Chanel refunds back to the card used - Most fraudsters will request that refunds get done via mobile money or direct bank deposits, thereafter a charge-back will be raised against the same payment. It is therefore wise to ensure that the refunds are channeled back to the card used to avoid such losses.
4. When in doubt, ask for verification - Trust your gut. If you are suspicious, ask the customer to provide proof of identification as well as a picture of the card showing the last 4 digits.

Tips for Minimizing Credit Card Fraud in Your Hotel