Tracy-Maree McGrath
Posted in
Product Updates
tags:
Payment Gateway
by Tracy-Maree McGrath
One of our new partners; Travelex has developed an integration to OPERA that can process credit cards (pin and signature), debit/EFTPOS cards and offer Dynamic Currency Conversion for 26 currencies. The Travelex payment gateway is now successfully running at 9 hotels across Australia with OPERA PMS.
The Travelex Integration processes via a VeriFone VX 810 PIN pad which is supplied by Travelex. And, Travelex can switch directly into your bank account (at no additional cost), so you won’t need to change banks prior to integration.
As the connection to Travelex is new, it offers the latest functionality available within OPERA. Here are 3 features that might be of interest:
1. End of Day Settlement
The Travelex interface has an End of Day Settlement flag within OPERA. This means OPERA Night Audit will send a request to all bank terminals to batch, so the reporting in OPERA matches the bank settlement. No need for any extra customised reports to match up with the bank settlement times.
2. Pre-Authorisation Release
One of the biggest problems with banking in hotels is the release of pre-authorisations. All MICROS customers face this problem today, and so a pre-authorisation release option has been built in with the Travelex link. This will allow for the system to send a message upon check-out to release any authorisations held on the guest card. It is not a perfect fix as it still requires the card holder’s bank to acknowledge the pre-authorisation release message. The good news is hotels now live with Travelex are finding this pre-authorisation release option an improvement.
3. Dynamic Currency Conversion (DCC)
DCC is a great piece of functionality which allows the hotel to offer guests payment in their home currency on check-out (the hotel is then paid a commission by the bank). It covers 26 currencies today, and also gives the option to pay in a ‘native’ currency. This means if they have a more obscure currency, the guests can be offered the option to pay in US dollars for example.
With an integrated credit/debit solution available for OPERA, I’m sure your next question relates to point-of-sale (POS). MICROS POS products are currently undergoing certification and will soon be in pilot; so stay tuned!
For more information about Travelex, please contact our team today.
~ Tracy-Maree McGrath, Financial Services Product Manager