A Report Shows How Payments Impact Guests’ Experience at Hotels

Payments play a bigger role than many might imagine in how hotels interact with guests—and can affect a wide array of hospitality revenue streams, says a report released late Thursday from the processor Adyen NV.

Some 37% of respondents say they have abandoned the booking process because they weren’t able to pay for a reservation using their preferred payment method, according to the report. Other issues also complicate bookings, such as card declines and billing errors. Of the consumers that abandoned a booking, 13% wound up booking with a competitor.

Among respondents that have experienced finance-related issues or grievances at a hotel, 44% did not book a future stay. Other finance-related issues that cause customers to forgo a future stay include card declines or incorrect charges (13%), requests to share card details over the phone (11%), delayed charges or refunds (11%), overpayments due to a billing error (10%), and requests to manually write down credit card information for the hotel (8%).

Adyen in June surveyed more than 31,000 consumers age 18 or older, as well as 7,600 businesses, in 19 countries.

For a hotel stay online, digital wallets and in-app payments are the most popular payment methods, with 15% of respondents citing each option, according to the report. Pay by bank was a close second (14%), followed by buy now, pay later (9%).

One advantage to hotels in offering BNPL is that the option does not require payment in full up front. Among respondents, 40% say they don’t like to pay upfront, a result suggesting consumers are now more conscious about managing their travel budgets, the report says.

Just 22% of hotels offer BNPL as a payment option, leaving an opportunity for BNPL providers to grow their share of payments in the hospitality market, according to the report. 

One major challenge facing the industry is fraud. Over the past year, 50% of hotels surveyed experienced an increase in payment-related fraud attacks. On the consumer side, fully 72% of respondents indicated they are concerned about the risk of fraud when booking.