Human history is made up of resilience, reinvention and restlessness, a good restlessness that has led him to transform arid lands into fertile farmland and to develop technology capable of taking information to the other side of the world in a second.
Everything changes and will continue to change as long as human ingenuity is able to leap over barriers and make utopias a tangible reality. Who would have thought that money would risk becoming obsolete with the new digital tools or that we could run a business from our mobile phone? Well, reinvention and dynamism knows no bounds and reaches into all areas of human activity and to Hospitality is no exception.
Long gone are the days when hospitality was synonymous with an activity that only involved renting out rooms to occasional travellers. In the last 15 years in particular, the hospitality sector has established itself as a fundamental pillar of the national economy through an offer that combines different areas and expertise with the most innovative technological developments in terms of payments, security and well-being, thus captivating the attention and enjoyment of millions of tourists.
Despite its avant-gardism, the hotel industry is constantly reinventing itself, a reinvention that has already checked in at reception and will soon take over the entire sector. Sustainability, "Room Office", facial recognition and payment systems adapted to a world that is becoming more and more contactless, cashless and digital, are the faces of a change that we'll get to know a little more in depth from now on.
New working environment
"Room Office" is one such concept. Several hotel chains are transforming some of their rooms into private, comfortable, quiet and safe workspaces. Beds are removed and replaced with tables, chairs, sofas and high-speed internet and "guest-workers" are provided with coffee, tea and water and the possibility of room service. Some specific packages also offer the possibility of renting equipment for online meetings and even some sports equipment.
In addition to the "room office", terms such as the "road office" (rooms prepared as an office for those passing through) or "hotel schooling" (aimed at attracting families and children outside of weekends by preparing the rooms as a remote classroom) are helping to change the face of hospitality.
Sustainability
Another of the changes taking place is the adoption of a philosophy of sustainability and proximity. Several hotels are opting to prioritise local producers, thus offering their customers fresher and more "authentic" products and, at the same time, contributing to the local economy.
Integrated Payment System in Hospitality
The icing on the cake is that payments have a particularly important place in this wave of hotel reinvention. Adding hotel management programmes to a solution TPA with contactless technology to offer customers a better payment experience and faster check-in and check-out processes.
This is the proposal of REDUNIQ with the integrated payment system specially designed for hotels with hotel management systems. This solution allows for more efficient payment management by integrating the automatic payment terminal with the main invoicing software, making the card acceptance process faster and more secure.
How does REDUNIQ's integrated payment solution work?
Check-in
At check-in, the guest presents their card once as a means of payment. The hotel employee enters the customer into the hotel management system, indicates the estimated amount of the customer's final expenditure (including the price of the stay and any bar, restaurant or spa charges) and authorises the amount on the card used. The card is read at the Physical TPA installed on site, which is connected to the management system, and the authorisation is automatically made on the customer's card.
Stay
Throughout the stay, whenever the amount of expenditure exceeds the amount previously authorised, the management system automatically triggers successive authorisation requests (top-up) on the customer's card. This ensures that the customer has sufficient funds to settle the total amount of their expense.
Check-Out
At check-out, the account is closed by the hotel clerk, the debit is automatically made from the customer's account and the system issues a receipt of the debited amounts to give to the customer. Since the system registers the card details at check-in, there is no need for the customer to re-authenticate the transaction, thus making check-out quicker and simpler.
In terms of cards, this integrated payment solution is prepared to accept debit and credit cards from the international Visa, Mastercard, Diners, Discover, JCB and American Express systems. With foreign customers in mind, top-ups are made in euros and the transaction is completed in the card's currency of origin.
Although membership of the service is not compulsory Currency conversion DCC (allows customers to choose pay by card in your home currencyin a transparent, informed and secure manner) made available by the REDUNIQ with the contractualisation of integrated payment solutionThe truth is that the hotel can benefit from adopting both at the same time.
With the DCCThe hotel not only receives a financial incentive for the volume of transactions converted, but it is also an added value for the client, who will be able to pay in your card's home currency.
If this integrated payment solution is proving to be a valuable ally in payment management in hotels of the 21st century, betting on technologically avant-garde terminals that enable contactless payments is becoming the norm. The spread of contactless card and the greater speed and simplicity that this type of payment brings are factors contributing to its growth on a global level.
In this field REDUNIQ provides solutions for Contactless TPA which allow businesses, such as hotels, to accept payments by simply bringing a card, smartphone or wearable closer to the terminal, also guaranteeing them a reduction in cash handling costs (optimised payment process and easier accounting) and higher average transactions.
In this field REDUNIQ provides solutions for Contactless TPA state of the art as the new REDUNIQ Smart. Fully mobile and adaptable, this Contactless Android POS allows customers to consult all available services, confirm bookings and make payments from the same terminal. The hotel will also be able to associate a loyalty programme with the terminal, allowing vouchers to be issued and read, for example.
As well as accepting payments by Contactless card, chip, MB Way and Apple Pay, REDUNIQ Smart gives hotels the chance to develop apps to manage their business from the terminal itself, allowing them to combine management and billing software, ticket printing, invoices or other apps tailored to their needs in the same POS.
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