Introducing Credit Card Analytics – The Latest Feature Available on Total Recon by Evention

Hotel receptionist processing a guest’s credit card payment—leveraging Eventions credit card analytics to streamline reconciliation and financial accuracy.

One often overlooked area that can significantly impact a hotel’s bottom line is credit card transaction optimization. The process of chip swipe vs card on file can have a significant impact on the way your hotel protects its revenue received. By leveraging Evention’s advanced credit card analytics, hotels can gain better visibility processing credit card​ data, uncovering opportunities to reduce costs, mitigate risks, and even increase revenue. Here’s how you can optimize your credit card payments using Evention’s Credit Card Analytics Dashboard, a hotel revenue management software.

Understanding Secure vs. Non-Secure Charges

Credit card transactions can be categorized into secure (card present, chip scanned) and non-secure (card not present, card on file) charges. Non-secure charges typically incur higher fees, which can add up quickly. Additionally, these charges carry additional risk for chargebacks and loss. By analyzing your transaction data, you can identify and reduce nonsecure charges, potentially saving your hotel thousands of dollars each month.

Key Actions:

  • Monitor Non-Secure Charges: Regularly review the ratio of non-secure to secure charges. Although SOPs are often in place for optimal card usage, metrics to ensure that operations are properly handling cards help to align finance and front-end staff so regular monitoring is vital. 
  • Reduce Non-Secure Transactions: Implement strategies to minimize non-secure transactions, such as encouraging guests to use secure payment methods. Work towards less than 50% of charges being non-secure and make sure that non-secure fees paid are lower than secure fees paid.

Mitigating Chargeback Risks

Chargebacks can be a significant source of revenue loss for hotels and the risk can increase for card-not-present or non-secure charges. By closely monitoring chargeback trends and identifying the reasons behind them, you can take proactive steps to reduce their occurrence.

Key Actions:

  • Track Chargeback Reasons: Monitor your chargebacks daily so that you can immediately work to manage and resolve any disputes. Leverage the chargeback reasons to understand the cause of chargeback to look for opportunities to minimize those risks. 
  • Implement Preventive Measures: Address the root causes of chargebacks to minimize future risks. Often the reasons are related to non-secure charges that were processed.

Maximizing Dynamic Currency Conversion (DCC) Revenue

Dynamic Currency Conversion (DCC) allows guests to pay in their local currency, providing a convenient service while generating additional revenue for the hotel. Monitoring DCC revenue can help ensure that this service is being offered consistently. In many cases, there is a direct correlation between decreasing card-not-present transactions (reducing fees) and increased DCC (increasing revenue).

Key Actions:

  • Monitor DCC Trends: Regularly review DCC revenue to ensure it is trending upwards and leverage the metrics to ensure operations is aligned with the financial benefits of offering DCC. 
  • Promote DCC to Guests: Train staff to offer DCC as a value-added service to international guests along with swiping their card upon check in. DCC can increase based on secure charges and asking the guest if they want their charges paid in local currency.

Case Study: Real-World Impact with Hotel Revenue Management Software

One hotel successfully increased its profitability by over $10,000 per month by leveraging Evention’s Credit Card Analytics Dashboard to optimize its operations. By gaining deep insights into credit card transaction data, the hotel identified costly non-secure charges, mitigated chargeback risks, and maximized Dynamic Currency Conversion (DCC) revenue. With real-time analytics and automated reporting, the hotel streamlined financial operations, improved cash flow, and enhanced overall profitability—demonstrating the power of data-driven payment optimization.

Results with Credit Card Analytics

  • Reduced Fees: Lowered interchange fees from 1.38% to 1.08%.
  • Increased DCC Revenue: Achieved a 163.9% increase in DCC revenue within six months.
  • Overall Profit Growth: Increased by 25.2%.

Evention’s Credit Card Analytics and Optimization Dashboard

As part of Total Recon, Evention’s Credit Card Analytics and Optimization Dashboard empowers hotels to reduce non-secure charges, mitigate chargeback risks, and maximize DCC revenue. With real-time insights and automated reporting, hotels can optimize payment processing, lower costs, and drive significant financial improvements. 

Start leveraging your credit card data today to take your hotel’s profitability to the next level with a visualization of your payment data.