The hospitality industry has many special provisions related to payment card acceptance not available to general retail, it’s quite unique in that respect.

Incremental authorisations such as pre-auths/top ups or making amended charges after the guest has departed are just examples.

One of the questions we receive often from customers in the cruise industry relates to the speed of embarkation, this is important when hundreds of passengers are required to board a vessel in a short window of time. Many operators are still just swiping a card and obtaining the authorisation and validation at a later date/time, this can sometimes be days, or even when the cruise has finished.

Performing that validation at time of embarkation is becoming more important to cruise operators where security is such a key factor as in any business operation, not to mention potential cost savings in merchant service fees. Historically cruise operators have ignored these factors for the sake of speed of embarkation because performing an online EMV transaction takes longer than swiping a card which is then read into a Ships Property Management System (SPMS) for use at a later date.

Where PXP Financial can help is a feature called forced Store and Forward (SAF).  

First things first

Real-time authorisations are important. They help protect you against the risk of fraudulent card use onboard. They also confirm that the passenger’s account is valid and within the available spending limit. You would however think that the risk is low as the customer is going nowhere (unless they plan to get wet!) so why bother about the risks?

Store and forward

PXP Financial’s ANYpay for Cruise can operate in an optional offline mode, capturing and validating the EMV card and the customer PIN and returning a pseudo-auth. This feature operates automatically in the event of a lack of communications however it can be forced so as to embark hundreds of passengers onto a vessel as quickly as possible.

To process in SAF mode, you send a slightly different request. Your terminal infrastructure can automatically be set up to accommodate this. 

Behind the scenes

There isn’t any limit to the number of store and forward requests ANYpay can process, however, incremental auths cannot be processed until the original store and forward file has been processed by the ANYpay gateway. The whole process is configured behind the scenes and works seamlessly with the SPMS. 

Conclusion is that cruise operators should no longer shy away from performing a chip and PIN transaction on embarkation. The guest embarkation experience is the same and the operator reduces its risk even further whilst further reducing its costs and not to mention its PCI scope.

How to find out more

To find out more, please just download our free Cruise Ships Guide. Or to request a free 30 minute consultation about your particular needs, contact us either by phone or via the form below.

Telephone: +44(0) 844 209 4370   

PXP Financial

The End-to-end payment platform

PXP Financial provides a single unified payments platform to accept payments online, on mobile and at the point of sale. Powered by inhouse global acquiring, 200+ alternative payment methods & financial services, PXP processes over EUR 16 billion annually through our unified gateway.

Whatever your business needs today or tomorrow, PXP Financials’ innovative payment platform will support your business growth with all the payment services you will ever need from one source, wherever your business takes you.