Online payments are uniquely beneficial for tourism businesses! You can charge customers all over the world, no matter where you are, and in a wide variety of currencies – which is incredibly helpful when your customers come from different countries.
However, online payments – as with all payments – carry a certain level of risk. There's no need to worry, though – there are important steps you can take to keep these payments secure! This means more security for you and your business, a higher chance of guaranteeing successful payments, and fewer chargebacks (if you want to learn more about chargebacks, please take a look at our Support article).
Tab has a number of security measures in place to help you protect your payments – such as the security selfie on Tab Instant payments – but there are additional steps you can take to improve your payment process and protect the payments you receive.
Before your customer arrives
Many businesses are able to take payments in advance with the help of Tab.
Here are some tips for protecting your Advance Bookings:
Check all the bookings you receive, especially from third-party platforms and OTAs
There are a few questions you can ask.
- If they have provided card details via Booking.com or Expedia, are the card details in the customer's name, or someone else's entirely?
- Does this booking seem unusual?
- Have they booked out a high number of rooms for an unusually long time?
If any early customer behaviour concerns you, make sure to get in touch with them. If they've already made a payment, you can ask for a copy of their ID to verify the cardholder's identity. If they're not responsive to your emails, you might want to cancel their booking and refund them, leaving you free to resell the room.
Watch out for unusual behaviour
For example, if a customer asks to be refunded to a different card, this can cause suspicion - because card regulations say you should always refund the customer via the method they paid. Don't refund the customer via a different method - you should always refund them the way they paid. Refunds are easy to do via your Tab dashboard.
During your customer's stay
Tab Instant payments – processed via the Tab for Business mobile app – include the security selfie as a safety measure. This is useful evidence in case of a chargeback, and acts as a form of digital signature.
Other measures you can take during your customer's stay include:
- Taking a copy of your customer's ID for your records
- Implementing a signature as part of your check-in process
- When taking any payments, make sure the cardholder name matches the customer ID on your records
After your customer's stay
While most businesses will never receive a payment dispute (commonly called a chargeback), it's good to be prepared just in case.
You can keep good records of recent customer transactions — up to 6 months after the initial charge should cover the risk period of the payment, when a customer can file a dispute with their bank or credit card company.
It's always good to be prepared, and if you do receive a chargeback, Tab will help you to gather evidence and submit it to the customer's bank.
If you ever have any questions about the security of your payment, just contact our Support team! They'll always be happy to help.
