The number of chargebacks and other fraudulent refunds has been on the rise in recent years. Every time a refund is administered, it means a loss in revenue. When many refunds are processed fraudulently in the rental property and hotel industries, it could mean the end of a business.
According to a recent research from LexisNexis, the cost of credit card fraud to businesses worldwide rose 1.47% from 2015 to 2016. A large majority of that fraud is the result of chargebacks. In fact, the LexisNexis report found that 49% of revenue loss by online businesses was directly due to chargebacks.
In the rental industry, a chargeback is when a guest calls to cancel a payment after they have already stayed at a property. We’ve discussed before the damaging effects chargebacks have on rental properties, and steps that BookingTeam.com and property managers can take to prevent them from happening. However, there are more payment fraud threats out there. To protect from revenue loss, here are some best payment fraud protection practices for property managers and owners.
1. Clearly display terms and conditions.
When guest book a stay with you, they need to have clear terms and conditions presented to them upfront. There also needs to be a system in place that documents proof that they read, understood and agreed to them.
Make sure that you require guests to click a box to confirm they’ve read your policies and agreed before processing a booking online. Even though, we all know that many simply skip over them anyway--you have to cover your bases. Add an extra layer of protection by sharing a copy with them at check-in and having them initial it there as well. Lastly, make sure you collect the right identification to verify that they were there and signed off.
2. Document everything.
The key to preventing payment fraud is to develop sound policies, procedures, and documentation that make it harder for it to happen. If scammers see a hole in your operations, then they will view it as an opportunity and take advantage.
Documentation is essential for proof. Print policies on all your receipts and confirmations. If guests do have issues, make sure that your contact information is readily available in all communication. The idea is that they come to you first to resolve any issues.
3. Be honest and clear in all your marketing and listings.
Although it is important to have appealing listings with high-quality, professional photos. Don’t oversell your property. Don’t exaggerate the size of rooms, amenities or any other aspect. If your property doesn’t match up to exactly how you represented it in your listings or other communications, guests will request chargebacks. They will likely get them to, because a product or service was not as described.
4. Deliver consistently exceptional guest experiences.
Everything from the online booking process to check-out and follow-up needs to be expertly designed. First, to create the best guest experience possible and secondly, to ensure that it is secure for both you and your guests. When guests stay at your properties, it is important to go above and beyond expectations to deliver quality service.
If there are issues, guests will be more likely to reach out to you then request refunds through a third-party. In some cases, in lieu of a refund, you can offer alternate compensation to appease guests. Give them a free night, discounts to local activities or services. However, make sure that the compensation matches up with the level of the complaint.
To protect against chargebacks and other payment fraud, businesses need to develop the right procedures and have the right tools and team to implement them. When property managers use BookingTeam.com, they have a team of professionals available 24/7 to help them protect and grow their business.
Easy to solve.
Don't take payments from PayPal/Credit Cards. Especially if you are selling bitcoins or ANY other cryptocurrencies. They can charge back up to 6 months!
Just take crypto for payments and no more worrying about potential charge backs!
I've had awful issues with Paypal chargebacks. I agree with what your're saying.
And so do all our customers @abeekuharmony!
And miss out on all the people who cant be bothered to use BTC for whatever reason , unless your biz is selling crypto or virtual items , what you suggest is to miss out on a big chunk of revenue to eliminate a small percent of charge backed txs . Its like burning your house to get rid of some pests
This is a problem begging to be solved. As chargebacks are a reality and must be accounted in your budget as the cost of doing business, it should be possible to offer a lower price to customers who choose to use cryptocurrencies. It's not going to be a great bargain, and it can't drive adoption by itself, but this is the road you want to take if you want things to change one day.
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hi plz explain this that PayPal and credit cards will charge you many months down the line
If you sell items on eBay or own a business and take payments via PayPal or Credit Card etc. these can be charged back many months down the road.
The customer is "always right"type of thing plays out where the user can simply call or open a ticket and let them know that their credit card or PayPal account was stolen or hacked into and that they did not make the payment. 99% of the time, they will side with the customer and refund the user back the money they spent and you the seller will lose out on those funds. They usually have up to 6 months after a purchase to make these disputes so if you sold physical goods or sold bitcoins, you are at risk for up to 6 months.
The reason why most buyers get away with false chargebacks is because the seller is usually too busy to respond to the claim or they don't notice that a buyer made a claim. I had a buyer on eBay who actually had their account hacked so they made a claim and I responded back. PayPal sided with me and I got to keep the money but I still gave him a refund.
@arbitrarykitten That's true. The worst part is there is no seller protection.
You are right , you can get a charge back with PayPal at anytime and your account is limited.
@bookingteam.com .. i agree to all safety measures listed on this blog. i have been a victim of such refund frauds in the past and i had to close my business forever. i was a newbie then and the scammer took all my money with no capital left for further business. :(
This post received a 4.1% upvote from @randowhale thanks to @steem-god! For more information, click here!
How? Cut your fiat cards with scissors and make a full transition into the crypto world. It's sure as fuck what I'm planning. Fuck fiat. I don't give a fuck about it.
For retailers like us, giving up totally on fiat means loss of market share. I just can't wait for crypto to be embraced by most citizens.
Sounds like the towels are throwing out. Ohhh dear.
Fiat must be like ... a suh unu can't wait fi dash me way.
yeah until that car mechanic or the guy who fixes your house says he fixed the problem only to find out a few days later the problem is not fixed. I had a car mechanic say he fixed my check engine light on my mercedes. I paid him 2k for it and was glad to do so as long as he fixed it. Turns out the check engine light came back on the next day. Now he wanted to do something else and wanted another 2k for it. it goes both ways.
I don't have a car and I don't have a house. I'm not going to buy one either, because it constrains me to a location, and I'm not a fan of being stuck in the fucking West.
Nothing is worse than when a customer, who actually purchased something disputes the charge. Then they have your inventory or benefited from your service and you're the one who gets the short end of the stick. I deal with it regularly and it is frustrating!
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Very good advice. This will really help Nigerians too. Thanks. Pls follow back.
Nice information :)
It is a really useful informative post for me to prevent any lose when having online payment.I think that nowadays most of people do not highly aware of cyber security and they may lose information and even misused by other people.It is really a big problem nowadays.So it is good for you to have such post to raise people's awareness of the problem of gateway.The most important things is the attention of the terms and conditions since some of the conditions may be unfair to the customer and also back up the file after each transaction.If there are problems in the future, people can refer the to the documents.
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Recently a Consumer Credit company called Portal has shown up on my banking statement the company charged me 19 pounds and then 1 pound. I looked online and it seems to be a scam but I have no idea where the charge came from. Should I light my debit card on fire?
Hmm , i wonder if you would get your money back if chargebacks werent a thing.
Consumer protections exist for a reason .
You should probably call your bank and find out what the charges are...:)
Call your bank to find out as @wyzz2020 said
Thans for all of this important info
This comment has received a 0.10 % upvote from @booster thanks to: @hamzaoui.
good!
great information...thanks for sharing
Nice post
Introducing cryptocurrencies for global payments is the best option for merchants as well as clients. Many crypto tokens have minimum negligible transaction fees and less time for confirmation through blockchain operators. This would solve any payment-related hassles.
interesting knowledge
nice info
Many years ago I was a very profitable Ebay trader, making a very good living. Then all of a sudden the chargeback craze started. It made it not worth doing, because of the price of the items I was selling, just a couple of chargebacks could eat monthly profits up, and even make me lose money.
Everything I posted required a signature, but it didn't matter. Paypal would just take the money from you if there was a chargeback.
The fault lies with banks and credit card companies, they know that 90% of claims are fraudulent but they don't care, they're just happy to pass the loss onto merchants and keep their customers happy.
Which reflects some poor planning or a fault with the bussines model . I mean every merchant who is serious about his bussiness factors chargeback into the cost . The whole banks are evil , and to blame for all my woes thing is sad
bollocks.
You don't plan for getting ripped off several thousand pounds a month as an independent trader. Yes wallmart can plan for those kind of unexpected losses, not one guy on Ebay.
Yes the banks are at fault for not investigating claims and providing no way to dispute.
A valuable tip I can give is DON'T DO OVER THE PHONE CREDIT CARD/ PRE-PAID CARD TRANSACTIONS! They are one of the top ways that scammers and ripoff artists make there money from unsuspecting victims. My mom and some friends of mine said their phone conversations were taped and used in a retaping sort of recording where the questions were changed and the transaction was made for either more than the amount they asked for and/or they were just completely ripped off. Even saying the word "yes" over the phone can be taped and played after a question they did not originally ask you. For example, "Did you want to buy X number of dollars worth of this product?' and really that wasn't even the question they asked you. They may just asked you if they had your name right, and your answer "yes" got you ripped off. Sounds crazy, but I've heard many stories where phone transactions got people riped off blind and they never got reimbursed. BE CAREFUL AND DO NOT DO OVER THE PHONE MONEY TRANSACTIONS! I hope this post helps as many people as possible, I really do.
wow......great insight
This is reallly a good post. It was my problem nowadays. Now i know wen and how i sort my self. This post is very informative. Thanks for sharing
Nice posting, call your bank and tell them what happen and what to do it
Protection is fundamental. Love what you're saying. Awesome. Interesting. Love photos. Thanks for sharing. Upvoted. Resteemed.
Very good information! Thank you!
Remember watching a movie call "Hacker" that they hire hotel staff to steel customer credit card information and use up their fund online which untraceable. Can we really avoid being robbed?
Great information, thank you for share
@biggy345 nice post same goes for online bitcoin tranfer sites
This is an eye opener thanks for sharing
These are great tips to prevent and protect against payment fraud, @bookingteam.com. Not just for property managers, but for anybody who is offering a service or selling a product.
Often, the payment provider will side with the customer who cancels the payment. As a business, you can challenge that chargeback, but unless you are well-prepared, chances are small that the appeal is granted.
So better safe than sorry!
Applying the tips and strategies you set out should go a long way in avoiding chargebacks.
Jesus, who would've thought to wear that at a gym? LOL
hello guy,
Forget on convencion...use cryptocurrencies and you will be happy in this comming new age!
Nice Informarion. Am new on steemit and I hope to have more knowledge learn more and get as much support from this community.
thank you
Interesting please upvote and follow me back
that won't get you far here
Accurate and reliable information Congratulations on this article is really correct and every word is true !!
i will upvote and resteem
Thanks for sharing this important info buddy :)
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TRUe Enough. We should equip ourself for security. Thanks for the knowledge
nice writeup
This is the part that most people should do!
that's pretty good to know thanks a lot for sharing and keep on posting ;)
Amazing information about Payments, Following you, Keep sharing helpful posts :)
thanks for sharing this, ill take note of it
Great advise/post.
Following you.
All financial sectors dogs doing the same thing with there own way
well, I guess, Bitcoin payment should come in.
Hi @bookingteam.com !
great post !! its really important and informative one,keep it up. see u soon.
i've upvoted you.
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Really good
keep your money safe , today is the best option to ear money to the future
Hi bro. Im @tsteem beginner in steemit. What is a payment gateways?
Please upvote me @tsteem, I will followed you
Thanks
really good post
thank you