Mitigating Credit Card Risk Related to Mobile Check-In
MOBILE GUEST SERVICES ADOPTION CONTINUES
With nearly 4.5 million Mobile Check-Ins and Check-Outs to-date, we are improving adoption and seeing an increase in mobile usage by up to 13% of Marriott Rewards guests. Our hotels are flawlessly executing the mobile guest experience, and mobile guests have about a 2-point higher satisfaction with their arrival experience than non-mobile guests according to guestVoice year-to-date results.
As we evolve to meet our members’ changing needs, travelers agree that Marriott Rewards is the leading loyalty program in the industry, in part because of its commitment to its loyal customers through mobile services. While loyalty is growing among existing members, the new benefits are also encouraging other guests to enroll in the Marriott Rewards program so they can take advantage of these mobile services and other benefits.
IMPACT TO CREDIT CARD OPERATIONS ON-PROPERTY
Credit card fraud incidents have been historically low in our industry; however, the topic has experienced increased coverage in the news in recent months. Fraudulent credit card transactions can occur at check-in/out and other points of sale.
Across the 3,000+ hotels in North America offering Mobile Check-In, a few have recently reported fraudulent activity, generally involving new Marriott Rewards and The Ritz-Carlton Rewards Basic members using this service. If your hotel is experiencing such fraudulent activity, at your discretion, you may choose to swipe credit cards from Marriott Rewards Basic members using Mobile Check-In. The Check-In Brand Standard has been updated to reflect this interim change to be proactive in supporting our hotels’ need to protect their assets and room revenue.
If your hotel decides to swipe credit cards for Basic members, please be sure to do so consistently and also ensure you continue to provide the “we’ve been expecting you” mobile experience to our guests. Remember, fraudulent transactions are a rare occurrence, and we want to continue to build long-term loyalty via a connected service experience with our mobile guests.
Guidelines for Elite members (Silver, Gold and Platinum/Platinum Premier Members) will continue to include the “no credit card swipe” experience.
As a reminder, a liability shift will occur in October for U.S. hotels related to EMV (also known as “Chip and Pin”) processing. Marriott is finalizing a business case to start the upgrade of our systems to accept EMV credit cards in late 2016. However, in preparation for the liability shift, we are encouraging hotels to focus on training and execution of security protocols in order to continue to minimize counterfeit fraud until such time as EMV acceptance is available across all hotels.
Following are some operational recommendations which can help mitigate risk for all guests:
- Verify the guests’ ID, which has always been permissible.
- While you should still prepare the keys, do not hand them over until the authorization of the credit card on file is complete by actually checking the guest into the Property Management System.
- Be watchful for unusual amounts being charged to guest rooms (e.g., gift shop) and investigate if needed.
Marriott’s IT and mobile teams are working on a longer-term roadmap to identify technical solutions to ensure that the credit card used at the time of reservation is valid and working, as well as authentication to ensure it is being used by the card’s rightful owner. In the meantime, we welcome your observations on any such activity you are seeing so we can continue to be proactive about protecting hotels’ assets and room revenue.
If you encounter an incident of credit card fraud, please email alex.roche@marriott.com with that information so that we can monitor the prevalence of this issue. If you have any questions regarding Mobile Guest Services, please email mobileservices@marriott.com.
