Elavon Transforms Hotel Guest Experience by Offering Digital Payments for Gift Orders, Events and More

Elavon said it eliminated the need for hotels to print and store paper copies of customer card data. The global payments provider announced the debut of Converge Hospitality, a digital invoicing system for the hotel industry. The system makes it safer and more convenient for customers to pay for deposits on events and concierge-like services at hotels, while eliminating the need to send card data remotely.

Currently, hotel guests are required to call, fax or email Credit Card Authorization forms containing personal and card data, along with a photo of the payment card for such items as conference or event deposits, gifts sent to guest rooms or payment to return an item left at the hotel. These manual ways of accepting third-party payments exposes hotels and their guests to major security vulnerabilities. Converge Hospitality eliminates these risks and reduces Payment Card Industry (PCI) digital standards scope by moving the payment process online for both the hotel and the customer – taking away the need to transfer or store any sensitive cardholder information.

Converge Hospitality is simple to use. Here is how it works:

• The customer calls the hotel to arrange payment for an event deposit or an amenity such as a bouquet of flowers for a hotel guest.
• The hotel representative generates an instant, electronic invoicing through the Converge Hospitality system.
• The customer instantly receives an email with a link to the invoice and pays online using a secure, Elavon-hosted payment page.
• The transaction is complete and stored electronically.

Converge Hospitality is an affordable solution and available for hotels of all sizes. And, because it does not require any integration to the property management or point-of-sale systems, it’s simple and quick to implement.