Oh my! Credit cards.

[jmj]

Currently, the business takes no CC's, just cash. If this was the US, I would absolutely sign up for credit card payments.
But what do you think, is that a huge turn off for you when you go abroad? Their rates are pretty low right now, so that may be part of it. And a few places we have stayed at take paypal.
But in small business in Mexico, lack of CC still is pretty common. But I know the tide is changing on the economy and those who have big money.
So, if we do decide to take CC's (after learning the business first!), do you have any suggestions on how to get started with that?

 

[Highlands John]

There are card readers you can plug into mobiles and tablets, might be agood place to start but others here are better qualified to comment on that.
If you go for a machine the lesson I learnt the hard way was make sure you sign up with a merchant who does everything. The company we got our first machine from turned out to be just an agent and they sublet everything else out to different companies, so we ended up with the machine leased from one company, the maintenance of the machine was handled by the machine manufacturer and another processed the transactions. Unraveling all this when we came to leave was a nightmare, because the agent had been bought out, as had the machine manufacturer and the record keeping at the leasing company and their customer service was atrocious.

 

[JBloggs]

Travelling well over 15 years ago they places I stayed required a cc, and they all either had an american bank or canadian bank.
The fees way back then were super high to use a cc there however. But we were required to pay it to reserve a room.

 

[Arks]

Currently, the business takes no CC's, just cash...is that a huge turn off for you when you go abroad?

Yes, it can be a huge problem for foreign travelers.
Several years ago I ran into the same thing at our hotel in Rome. Cash only, meaning we arrived at the airport, worn out, with a $350/day limit on our ATM card, and we had to raise Euros amounting to $900 cash, up front, for our hotel.
You can sure bet this is a big deal for foreign travelers. Luckily, I'd read the hotel's policy online and knew to have the Euros with me when I arrived. My local bank in the USA got them for me before I left home, at a HORRIBLE exchange rate.
But I'm sure a lot of people don't read the cash only policy, or they might read it but don't realize their card has a daily cash limit so they can't withdraw all the cash they need when they arrive.
And, of course, we discovered that our hotel DID have a CC machine. They just asked for cash to discourage use of CCs because they didn't want to pay the 3% processing fee!

 

[JBloggs]

Currently, the business takes no CC's, just cash...is that a huge turn off for you when you go abroad?

Yes, it can be a huge problem for foreign travelers.
Several years ago I ran into the same thing at our hotel in Rome. Cash only, meaning we arrived at the airport, worn out, with a $350/day limit on our ATM card, and we had to raise Euros amounting to $900 cash, up front, for our hotel.
You can sure bet this is a big deal for foreign travelers. Luckily, I'd read the hotel's policy online and knew to have the Euros with me when I arrived. My local bank in the USA got them for me before I left home, at a HORRIBLE exchange rate.
But I'm sure a lot of people don't read the cash only policy, or they might read it but don't realize their card has a daily cash limit so they can't withdraw all the cash they need when they arrive.
And, of course, we discovered that our hotel DID have a CC machine. They just asked for cash to discourage use of CCs because they didn't want to pay the 3% processing fee!.

The VAT return is via your cc as well, when I was in the UK early on you had to send in all your rcpts to get that back, now it is all via your cc, and the best exchange rate (last time I was there) was also via the credit card.
Diff country. I am sure Mexico is a whole ball of wax being an overtly corruptly run country. I would be careful no matter what i did. Sorry, stating the facts here.

 

[TheBeachHouse]

With CC, you can take reservations over the phone or on line. No waiting for a check in the mail.

 

[Generic]

There are a few companies in Mexico that might be able to get your CC processing. And you can charge more for it and then discount for cash. iZettle does Mexico and so does Clip. You may find that having that ability, even if you ask that they settle in cash will help your bottom line. People feel reassured that the option is there.

 

[jmj]

Sounds like credit cards are the way to go. Pretty easy way to increase business (as I think not taking them might have been a negative.
This all started when I looked at the website Reservation Key- which I am really impressed with. On one page they mention authorize.net. Not really sure what that this or how they would help us. Seemed like it would be international, but didn't really say.

 

[Generic]

Sounds like credit cards are the way to go. Pretty easy way to increase business (as I think not taking them might have been a negative.
This all started when I looked at the website Reservation Key- which I am really impressed with. On one page they mention authorize.net. Not really sure what that this or how they would help us. Seemed like it would be international, but didn't really say..

Authorize.net is a gateway, not a processor. My processor offers their own Gateway that doesn't cost me extra, authorize charges fees above what my processor charges. Two different animals.

 

[Arks]

It does get a bit confusing. Authorize.net is a middle man between ResKey and the processor (bank) that actually charges the card, takes the money and routes it to your account.
When a customer enters their CC info in ResKey, ResKey passes the info to Authorize, which tells ResKey if the account number, security code, and address of the card holder all match. Authorize then securely stores the CC info (ResKey does not store it all). The customer's charge then goes into the daily Authorize "batch" of charges that come in. At the end of the day all the day's charges are passed on to the processor and the money begins it's route through the system and into your account.
Authorize also has a "virtual terminal" where you can manually enter credit card info and run a charge just like you had a real terminal at your place of business.
There are ways to accept credit cards in ResKey without using Authorize, but using Authorize helps make sure you are compliant with all the security rules.
I pay Authorize $41.15/month for their service. I also pay $7.95/month to take American Express Cards through ResKey. And of course a small percent of each charge goes to the processor, and there's the $14.25/month I pay ResKey.
It adds up, but not too bad considering how smoothly it all works, and how easy it is for guests to make a confirmed reservation immediately, day or night, from anywhere in the world with no interaction required by me.