Amadeus: Payment Problems Prevalent Among Hotel Guests

Payment problems affect a significant portion of hotel stays, according to a study released by Amadeus on Tuesday.

The survey, conducted by psychological research agency Innovationbubble based on “hundreds” of interviews with recent travelers in the U.S., the U.K. and Brazil, showed that 40 percent of travelers had faced a challenge when trying to pay for a hotel stay. A third said they were unable to use their preferred payment method for their stay, according to Amadeus.

Payment frustrations stem from the fragmented nature of the hotel payment structure, with individual properties or managers handling them more frequently than at the brand level, according to Amadeus. As such, they have been slower to adapt to advances such as digital payments, according to Amadeus head of product management and deliver for payments Jean-Christophe Lacour.

“Our research shows that poor payments are now souring guest perceptions of the overall hotel stay,” Lacour said in a statement.

The fragmentation also has limited hotels’ capability of offering self-service payment options, such as paying for services within a hotel’s app, requiring guests to go to the front desk to pay for incidentals. Lacour encouraged hotel brands to take more ownership of the payment process at the group level.

Michael B. Baker  www.businesstravelnews.com