Marriott is a leading global lodging company with more than 90 years' experience in the hospitality industry. Operating in 127 countries, with an impressive 6,500 properties spread across 30 different hotel brands, Marriott is considered to be one of the top hospitality companies in the world. We provide payment solutions to more than 150 Marriott hotels across the EMEA region, including the Marriott's Arabella properties. Deploying a fully integrated payments solution at the reception desk, alongside Oracle Opera PMS systems, has transformed the check-out and check-in process for Marriott staff and guests alike.

Back in 2016, Marriott's hotels in the DACH region were operating without an integrated payment solution, using standalone card machines instead. Marriott receptionists had to manually type card details into the Oracle Opera PMS and then re-enter them again via the card machine, which was time-consuming and subject to input errors. By implementing our payment solution, Marriott’s hotels in the DACH region are now able to process EMV transactions with a fully integrated and standardized infrastructure, using their Oracle PMS and leveraging our Oracle Partner status.

"Overall, the setup process and installation went very smoothly,” explains Eyad Skaff, IT Coordinator for Marriott's Arabella hotels across Germany South and Switzerland. “We completed all the questions and requirements requested, after which they preconfigured the terminals with their software and then shipped them to us. We had some initial challenges opening the firewall connection ports on the specific network which is used for the Arabella properties, but with the support and dedication of the Operations team, this was easily rectified.”

Previously, end-of-day settlement was done manually via Opera PMS on the workstation. Marriott worked with us and the Acquiring bank to activate an automated end-of-day settlement once Opera PMS procedures were completed. “Enabling an automated end-of-day settlement means one less task for our front desk staff and so saves them time. They were very happy when this feature was deployed across all of our hotels,” comments Eyad.

With the solution, payments are taken for guest bookings via pre-authorisation to protect against no-shows or insufficient funds, and the hotel staff can reverse these if no longer required. Furthermore, when a guest's card data is captured via online booking or at check-in, a token can be created which will be passed to the Opera PMS and securely stored by in a PCI level 1 environment. Our tokenisation service, therefore, facilitates omni-channel payments and ensures hotel staff can continue to charge the guest throughout their stay without needing to contact them. “The integrated solution has vastly improved the check-out and check-in process,” continues Eyad. “Card security details only need to be entered once, after which hotel guests can be charged automatically via the Oracle Opera PMS for any transactions they make. Our staff are happy as everything operates more efficiently than before and - most importantly - our guests are happy as they now enjoy better customer service."

Our hospitality payments solution has ensured that Marriott's hotels are operating in a PCI-compliant manner, with all card details securely handled. The solution has saved the reception and finance teams a considerable amount of time, both of whom can now make use of the real-time transaction reports available to simplify reconciliation. “Now, our staff only need to use reports to track and reconcile our payments. We are all very happy with the improved security and efficiency which has come from implementing the  solution in our region, and we have no plans to change it in the future," concludes Eyad Skaff.