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How hotel groups turn transactions into revenue, consistency, and loyalty
Franchise estates are operational puzzles: multiple brands, varied acquirers by market, mixed PMS footprints, and guests who expect the same experience everywhere. Too often, payments sit in the middle as a necessary cost and a source of inconsistency.
Treated properly, they become a system that reduces leakage, standardises operations, and quietly improves revenue and loyalty.
Franchise vs independent: same guest, more complexity
Independent properties can optimise for a Full Stack (single stack).
Franchise operators must deliver a single brand promise across multiple geographies and vendors. “Good” looks like a unified gateway at HQ, standardised terminals and acceptance policies, and enterprise-grade security, while still supporting local preferences such as Alipay or WeChat Pay.
Integration that matches hotel reality
Generic payment add-ons rarely account for hospitality’s edge cases. Front desks live and die by pre-authorisations, top-ups, late charges, cancellations, split folios and partial refunds.
Hospitality-native integrations mirror these flows, reducing manual work and training time, which is critical in high-turnover teams.
When a solution saves minutes at check-in and speeds queues at peak times, adoption follows.
From cost centre to contributor
There’s more to revenue than the MDR (Merchant Discount Rate) line.
Automation helps recover leakage by reliably capturing no-shows, cancellations, and late charges. PYC (Pay in Your Currency), previously known as Dynamic Currency Conversion (DCC), can be effectively applied with the right coaching and controls to offset payment costs and even generate incremental income, while utilising preferred currency and methods at each touchpoint can enhance conversion rates.
Treat payments as a portfolio of micro-levers rather than a fixed expense.
Multi-property, one way of working
Franchise operators require governance and visibility across their entire estate. That starts with a single reporting layer that finance actually uses. Unified processes for reconciliation and disputes, and a central support model to avoid fragmented fixes.
Balance broad acceptance of local APMs (Alternative Payment Methods) with operational simplicity; not every property needs every method, but every property needs a clear playbook.
Make channels pay
Distribution choices ripple into payment costs and guest friction.
OTAs’ virtual cards are secure but often expensive, forcing hoteliers to make conscious trade-offs.
An orchestration layer with universal tokens binds web, app, and in-store payments, eliminating MOTO (Mail Order/Telephone Order) and utilising branded Pay by Link for secure remote collection. It also accepts payments at any stage with the same token. One token, one guest journey, fewer disputes and clearer reconciliation.
Guest experience as a brand system
Payments are part of the promise.
Standardised gateways and terminals deliver the same, fast flow anywhere in the network. Android devices can display branded content, while Pay by Link, gift cards and even loyalty redemptions can be white-labelled so the guest experiences your brand, not your vendor.
Selecting a provider: A buying framework
Focus on what matters in day-to-day operations:
- Integration depth with PMS, e-commerce and CRM (hospitality-native flows, not generic add-ons)
- Flexibility on acquiring, including mixed models where markets demand it
- Breadth of methods with a clear policy for APM rollout by market
- Reporting that finance uses, not just dashboards for show
- Commercial value at group level. Pricing consistency, service SLAs, and potential PYC revenue share
- Insist on references from similar franchises and review the vendor’s go-live playbooks, not just slideware
Measuring ROI beyond fees
Track authorisation and acceptance rates tied to security posture; operational efficiency (minutes saved on check-in/out, reconciliation and dispute handling); and revenue metrics (PYC income, recovered no-shows/cancellations, conversion lift from preferred currency/method).
Review at estate level with property benchmarks and exception reports so action lands where variance is largest.
Implementation without the heartburn
De-risk change with a flagship-first pilot: Define success metrics, measure, then scale regionally.
Protect peak periods with change freezes; dual-run for a week if needed; hold daily stand-ups for the first 14 days. Equip frontline teams with short cheat-sheets and role-based training.
Prioritise intuitive solutions. Think of the iPhone on day one: No manual required to get going, but comprehensive guides are there if teams want to go deeper. Success will look uneventful e.g. No card details on paper, fewer manual entries, secure links and tokenised flows that “just work”.
What’s next (3–5 years)
Expect continued tightening of security and compliance.
Fewer manual entries, link-first and token-first processes. Broader acceptance of alternative methods where guests expect them, selective BNPL use, and payments as a durable, privacy-safe ID that powers personalisation across stays. The winners will see payments not as plumbing, but as an experience layer and a data asset.
If you want a neutral sense-check against multi-brand, multi-market best practice, Planet can share lessons from recent rollouts.
Bottom line:
Treat payments as a system for consistency, revenue recovery and loyalty, not just processing. Start with one flagship, prove the numbers, then scale with a standard playbook.
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