Seven: Establish professional payment acceptance procedures to increase your revenue by as much as 30%

When was the last time anyone paid for a hotel room or a plane ticket with a check?

It just doesn't happen. Not anymore.

Credit cards are the safest and most commonly used form of payment when it comes to booking vacation accommodations. - And have been for quite some time now.

Actually, one of the biggest reasons that almost a third of vacation rental travellers prefer to book with professional managers is because they feel more comfortable with a real and professional booking/payment process. Which tends to be safer, more convenient, and more familiar.* 

Can you really blame them?

Start Accepting Credit Cards
Credit card payments are instant. The transaction is protected. And not to mention, travellers can earn rewards and pay off the price of their trip whenever is most convenient for them. 

So it should come as no surprise that most vacation rental travellers will completely disregard any property whose owner or manager doesn't accept credit cards. 

Now:

Even once you start accepting credit cards, there are still going to be some people who are reluctant to give you their private payment information. It's completely normal and should absolutely NOT deter you from accepting them.

In the grand scheme of things, it's really just a minor inconvenience with a really simple fix;

Send E-Invoices
Getting travellers to pay you directly is probably the most common obstacle owners have, even once you've established a solid online presence.

Actually, it’s a really common hurdle for most small businesses, not just vacation rental managers. 

But using a professional e-invoicing solution will help to solve that problem pretty quickly.

Sending an e-invoice allows your guest to securely enter their own credit card information and pay without sharing it with you. The best services allow you to customize and brand your invoices, track whether or not the person received them, make reports for your accounting, and even attach documents (like your full rental agreement for example).

E-invoices make the payment process simple, transparent and easy. - Which is exactly what your guest is looking for.

We use FRESHBOOKS to send our e-invoices because they’re super easy to use, you can connect to your favorite payment gateway and start accepting credit cards with the click of a button, and their customer service is almost unmatchable.
Another great tools is RightSignature, which allows you to send full rental agreements in order to get secure & legally binding e-signatures from your guests without going back and forth by fax.

The Bottom Line
Once you've established your independent presence, you need to start accepting credit cards and set up professional payment acceptance procedures.

Not just because it's common sense, but because it's also proven to increase the average business’ revenue as much as 30%.* - A portion of your business you probably don't want to be missing out on.

Looking for credit card processing and e-invoing solutions?
CLICK HERE to learn more about how we can help you start accepting credit cards for your vacation rental business.

 And last, but not least...