One thing is for sure: COVID has left no part of the hospitality and travel industry unscathed. The lodging sector has been hit particularly hard, with restrictions on travel for guests and new regulations around cleaning protocols, both which add new levels of complication to hotel stays. While GMs are busy reassuring guests, instituting sanitation protocols, and retraining staff, key touch-points in the guests’ experience fail to meet their new expectations of safety. Case in point: F&B payments.
Nearly half (48%) of respondents to the VisaBack to Business study said they would not shop at a store that only offers payment methods that require contact with a cashier or shared machine like a card reader. That’s the vast majority of hotel F&B outlets today. These on-site bar & restaurant transactions add critical revenue to hotels and without them, key parts of the guest experience (and hotels’ likelihood ofreturning to profitability) are lost.
So how does a hotel assess and adopt the right contactless payment technology to protect staff and guests, enhance the guest experience, and retain the “high touch” service that guests at high-end hotels pay for and expect?
Completely contactless solutions like Outpay take into account the unique challenges faced by hotel F&B and are a great option for these properties because they are built to maximize both guest and operator experience.Contactless payments developed specifically for other sectors, like retail or quick-serve restaurants, simply don’t address the needs of hotels and resorts. Here’s what makes Outpay a superior contactless payments option for the hotel sector.
Unlike other contactless mobile-ordering apps,Outpay keeps guests placing orders directly with their server, allowing servers to guide the ordering process and up-sell, and eliminating the need for guests to execute complicated orders on their phones; like a PatronSilver skinny spicy margarita on the rocks with no salt for example, a true headache to get right in a mobile app with multiple nested modifiers, but effortless when placed with a seasoned server.
When the guest is done, they can simply get up and leave, and their bill is paid. This seamless exit experience mirrors the Amazon GO checkout experience, where consumers can grab whatever they want off a retail shelf and “Just Walk Out” to pay. Unlike other solutions popping up everywhere in reaction to demand for recent,COVID-driven contactless, Outpay was developed over the last 5 years to create a better, faster payment experience than cash or credit card - it just happens to be contactless. Unlike other solutions, it also cuts out an average 12.1minutes of non-revenue-generating dwell time that restaurants can use to seat anew party vs. waiting for servers to march back and forth with the bill.
Another unique benefit of Outpay is that it is the only solution that eliminates all chargebacks and walkouts, which happen in 0.5-2% of all on-site hotel transactions and cost some properties thousands of dollars per month. Unlike other solutions, Outpay uses the same technology used by Uber, so it can verify and secure payment at the beginning of the interaction, meaning every transaction is paid for - guaranteed.
Outpay’s approach works particularly well for “fluid” environments like lobbies, rooftop bars or pool decks, where guests wander around freely and cannot always be associated with a fixed table number and where any hardware-based solutions would look completely out of place. Thanks to the Outpay’s technology that links an ongoing tab to a smartphone, guests can add items from wherever they are in the outlet, all under a single tab, without causing confusion in the back of the house.
There’s got to be a catch, right? Wrong.Outpay’s technology integrates seamlessly with most POS systems hotels already have and use, including Oracle Micros and SImphony. Outpay is also free of charge, with no inflated transaction fees and no monthly hardware rental or maintenance costs. Without any cost or infrastructure changes, hotels can essentially use Outpay to gain modern contactless payment capabilities that give them a leg up on even the hottest cloud-based systems like Toast.
No complicated app set up. No additional steps for staff to complete. No shared surfaces via a card swipe or dip. But the best part is what stays intact: high value guest interaction. Your staff can safely get back to work and focus on what they do best, creating great guest experiences.And all of this happens at no cost. It’s streamlined, secure (EMV-compliant),and there are no hidden transaction fees, no installation costs, and no hardware to rent or maintain. Cancel anytime without penalty.
