The evolution of payments in the Ho.Re.Ca. sector

According to recent estimates, the European tourism sector has almost returned to pre-Covid levels: in 2022, in fact, the total number of nights spent in accommodation facilities in EU Countries amounted to over 2.72 billion nights¹ (compared to 2.88 billion in 2019), while the total spending for food and beverage in Europe's five largest economies (France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom and Spain) exceeded €308 billion between May 2022 and May 2023², in line with 2019 spending.

If, on the one hand, this recovery is strongly linked to the end of the pandemic restrictions; on the other hand, it is interesting to underscore how, over the last few years, many operators within the sector have quickly adapted to new market needs, digitising their activities and improving the overall user experience of end clients. How? For example, by reducing the risk of unsuccessful payments and offering an increasing number of alternative payment methods.

What are the main solutions companies operating in the catering and hospitality sectors can rely on to remain competitive in an increasingly digital and open market?

Fabrick – BeSafe: improving the management of payments in hospitality
A concrete example of a reality that has seized the opportunities offered by Open Finance to innovate the customer experience is represented by BeSafe, a company specialised in the digitisation of hospitality services, which through its collaboration with Fabrick has been able to expand its offering to over 1,300 accommodation facilities (hotels, resorts, villages, campsites, etc.), allowing these latter to more easily reconcile bookings with payments, and offer their respective customers the option of paying by instant bank transfer.

After having developed its own payment gateway (BeSafe Pay), directly integrated with the leading booking systems and PSD2 compliant, thanks to Fabrick's AISP licence, BeSafe is able to automatically link the reservations made by hotel guests to the receipts received on current accounts of the accommodation facilities themselves. This automatic reconciliation process minimises human error, streamlining back-office activities and showing the payments made in real time.

At the same time, by using the Fabrick's PISP license in "affiliation" mode, any accommodation facility connected to BeSafe Pay can collect quickly and easily all the reservations received by sending a simple link to customers who have a booking, with all the necessary information to complete the payment by instant bank transfer.

End-to-end payment solutions and fraud prevention
Open Finance also offers the Ho.Re.Ca. players other possibilities for improving the user experience: for example, through Digital Customer Onboarding solutions, which help sector Ecommerce companies to simplify customers' engagement procedures, making identity verification and anti-fraud controls more fluid and secure.

In addition, businesses which need to accept recurring payments can seamlessly integrate them into their experience without the need for a banking license, benefiting from API-based solutions for signing digital mandates and managing SEPA direct debits. This option guarantees:

• reduced times for credit transfers
• greater transparency on payment's status
• competitive costs eliminating intermediaries with other providers.

Finally, for Ho.Re.Ca. players operating internationally, the role played by payment orchestration platforms is essential to guarantee:

• the widest choice of payment methods to end customers
• the maximisation of conversion rates during the check-out phase
• the reduction of costs
• the management of organisational complexity.

Are you a Ho.Re.Ca. operator? Discover the Fabrick solutions designed for the sector.