Hotel payment processing
Hospitality payment processing for hotels, resorts, and rentals.
Merchant accounts underwritten for lodging, gateways certified for your PMS, and interchange-plus pricing with every markup on the statement. Built around how a stay is actually paid.
- 1 business dayto an itemized quote
- 5 to 10 daysfrom approval to live
- $0to request a quote
- Lodging-coded merchant accounts
- Pre-auth and incremental auth
- PMS-certified gateways
- EMV and tap-to-pay
- Chargeback alerts
A hotel charge is not a sale.
- 1It is a hold
- 2It is an adjustment
- 3It is a folio
- 4It is a checkout
Retail processors see 4 strange transactions. We set up your account to treat them as 1 stay.
One stay, start to finish
How a hotel stay gets paid
- 01 · Booking
The card is tokenized at booking.
Your booking engine sends the card to the gateway, which returns a token. No card number is stored in your PMS, and a $0 verification confirms the card is real.
Hotel payment gateway - 02 · Pre-arrival
The deposit charges itself.
Seven days before arrival the PMS charges the 1-night deposit from the token. Nobody types a card number, and the guest gets a receipt automatically.
Hotel deposits - 03 · Check-in
One authorization covers the stay.
The front desk taps or dips the card once. The terminal authorizes the remaining balance plus $50 a night for incidentals, a single hold the guest can see.
Hotel credit card holds - 04 · During the stay
Charges grow the hold, not stack new ones.
Dinner posts from the restaurant POS straight to the folio. When charges pass the estimate, an incremental authorization adds $100 to the same hold instead of creating a second one.
Hotel pre-authorization - 05 · Checkout
Capture the folio. Release the rest.
Checkout captures exactly what the folio says and releases the $29.50 nobody used. The guest leaves with an emailed receipt and no surprise hold.
Hotel credit card processing - 06 · After the stay
Funds settle. Evidence is already filed.
The batch settles to your bank in 1 to 2 business days. The reservation, accepted policy, registration card, and folio stay linked, ready if a dispute ever arrives.
Hotel chargeback protection
- Room, 3 nights at $189.00$567.00
- Occupancy and sales tax, 12%$68.04
- Deposit paid, Visa •• 4242−$189.00
- Minibar$34.00
- Harbor Restaurant, posted from POS$186.50
- Payment at checkout, Visa •• 4242−$666.54
Hospitality payment solutions
Everything a lodging business needs to get paid.
Use one service or the full stack. Every piece is set up around your PMS and your policies, not a retail template.
Pricing
What does hotel payment processing cost?
Hotel payment processing costs between 2.2% and 3.5% of card volume for most properties. The spread comes from 3 things: how many cards are tapped instead of keyed, how many guests use premium rewards cards, and the markup your processor adds on top of interchange.
One percentage on every card. Simple, but a keyed corporate card and a tapped debit card cost the same, so you overpay on cheap cards.
Qualified, mid-qualified, and non-qualified buckets. The processor decides which bucket a lodging transaction falls in, and most fall in the expensive ones.
Visa and Mastercard's published cost, passed through, plus one fixed markup shown on every statement line. You see exactly what we earn.
Property types
Set up for the way your property sells rooms.
What is hotel payment processing?
Hotel payment processing is the system a lodging business uses to accept guest payments under card network lodging rules. It differs from retail processing in 3 ways: the card is stored before the guest arrives, the final amount is unknown at check-in, and the charge often lands days or months after the booking.
What are hospitality merchant services?
Hospitality merchant services are the 4 tools a lodging business uses to get paid, set up to work together on every stay:
- A hotel merchant account that settles card payments under lodging rules.
- A hotel payment gateway that tokenizes cards from the booking engine and PMS.
- Front-desk and outlet terminals from a hotel POS system.
- Hotel chargeback protection with alerts and dispute evidence.
Retail merchant services cover the same 4 pieces but miss lodging features like incremental authorization, so hotels on them pay more and lose more disputes.
Who is involved in a hotel card payment?
5 parties handle every hotel card payment:
- The guest's issuing bank, which approves or declines the authorization.
- The card network, such as Visa or Mastercard, which sets the lodging rules and interchange.
- The acquiring bank and processor, which hold the hotel merchant account.
- The payment gateway, which tokenizes the card and connects to the PMS.
- The hotel's PMS, which holds the folio and triggers each charge.
Why do hotels need lodging-specific processing?
Hotels need lodging-specific processing because only lodging-coded accounts can use estimated authorizations, incremental authorizations, and delayed charges, and send the check-in date and folio number that lower interchange and win disputes. Lodging merchants use merchant category code 7011, explained in our MCC 7011 guide.
What are the biggest hotel payment processing challenges?
- Holds that tie up a guest's available credit or debit balance.
- No-show and cancellation chargebacks.
- Staff keying OTA virtual cards by hand.
- Funds frozen when prepaid bookings spike.
Our guide to hotel payment processing best practices covers the fix for each.
Guides
Hotel payment guides
Hotel Credit Card Authorization Form: Free Template and How to Use It
Free hotel credit card authorization form template, plus how to fill it out, which fields to include, and how to store it under PCI DSS rules.
Read the guide Holds, deposits, and authorizationsHotel Credit Card Holds: How Much Hotels Hold and When It Drops Off
A hotel credit card hold is a temporary authorization for room, tax, and incidentals. Typical hold amounts, debit release times, and how hotels set them.
Read the guide Holds, deposits, and authorizationsHotel Deposits: Advance Deposits, Security Deposits, and Refund Timing
Hotel deposits secure a booking or cover incidentals. Advance vs. security deposits, typical amounts, refund timing on credit and debit, and policy rules.
Read the guide Holds, deposits, and authorizationsHotel No-Show Fees: How to Charge Them and Win the Dispute
Hotel no-show fees charge guests who miss a guaranteed reservation. Typical amounts, card network rules, and the evidence that wins no-show disputes.
Read the guide Holds, deposits, and authorizationsHotel Pre-Authorization: How Estimated and Incremental Authorizations Work
Hotel pre-authorization reserves funds for a stay before the final bill. How estimated, incremental, and delayed-charge authorizations work for lodging.
Read the guideHotel payment processing FAQ
What are hospitality merchant services?
Hospitality merchant services are the merchant account, payment gateway, card terminals, and chargeback tools a hotel, resort, or vacation rental uses to accept cards from booking to checkout. We set up all 4 under one lodging-coded account priced at interchange-plus.
What is hospitality payment processing?
Hospitality payment processing is how hotels, resorts, motels, and vacation rentals accept guest card payments across a stay: tokenizing the card at booking, authorizing at check-in, adjusting during the stay, and capturing at checkout.
How does hotel payment work?
A hotel stores a card token at booking, places a pre-authorization at check-in for the room, tax, and incidentals, adds incremental authorizations if charges grow, and captures the final folio at checkout. The unused part of the hold is released. See how hotel payments work.
How long does it take for a hotel to process payments?
Authorization takes 2 to 3 seconds. The captured charge appears on the guest statement in 1 to 3 business days, and the hotel receives funds 1 to 2 business days after the batch settles.
What does hotel payment processing cost?
Most hotels pay an effective rate between 2.2% and 3.5%, depending on card mix, how many cards are dipped or tapped versus keyed, and the pricing model. Interchange-plus pricing shows the exact markup. See hotel processing pricing.
Will I have to change my PMS?
No. We match you with a gateway that is already certified for your PMS, such as Oracle OPERA Cloud, Mews, Cloudbeds, or Stayntouch, and confirm the integration before you apply.
What are the common payment methods used in hotels?
Hotels accept credit and debit cards, mobile wallets like Apple Pay and Google Pay, OTA virtual cards, bank transfers for groups, and cash. Read hotel payment methods for the full list.
Find out what your property should be paying.
Send your details and, if you process today, 3 recent statements. You get an itemized interchange-plus quote and a PMS compatibility check within one business day.
- Tell us about the property
- Get an itemized quote
- Go live in 5 to 10 business days