Part 1: The Hidden Complexity of Hotel Payments - and Why It Matters

‍For large hotel chains, managing payment data is a growing operational and compliance challenge. From fragmented booking channels to legacy systems and manual staff access, the complexity of hotel payments is often underestimated and increasingly risky.
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In this three-part blog series, we’ll unpack the hidden challenges hotels face in handling payment data across global operations. You’ll learn:

• Why payment data is so fragmented and the key pain points hotels face.
• How tokenization, especially through universal token vaults, can simplify compliance and reduce vendor lock-in.
• What operational benefits tokenization brings, from secure staff access to flexible integrations.
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Whether you're a hotel IT leader, compliance officer, or operations manager, this series will help you rethink how payment data flows through your systems and explore modern strategies for securing and simplifying those flows - starting with tokenization.

The Hidden Complexity of Payment Data in Large Hotel Chains

‍For major hotel chains, handling payments isn’t just about swiping a card at the front desk. Behind every booking, check-in, and incidental charge lies a complex web of systems, vendors, and regulations. The result? A fragmented payment landscape that creates both operational headaches and compliance challenges.
Here are five of the biggest complexities we see large hotel groups face when managing payment data - and why they matter for security, compliance, and guest trust.

Direct and Indirect Booking Channels

‍Hotel payments originate from many different sources, and the larger or more global the chain, the more fragmented these sources become. Broadly, booking channels fall into two categories: direct and indirect.
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Direct booking channels typically include the hotel’s own website, call center, or front desk. Indirect booking channels involve third parties or intermediaries that facilitate bookings and/or payments on behalf of the hotel. These typically include online travel agencies (OTAs) such as Booking.com or Expedia, global distribution systems (GDS) like Amadeus or Sabre, or channel managers and aggregators like SiteMinder or DIRS21.
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The distinction matters because indirect channels sometimes process payments themselves (acting as the merchant of record) before sending the booking to the hotel. In these cases, the hotel may never see the full card number but is still impacted when handling chargebacks, refunds, or guest disputes.
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Depending on the hotel’s strategy and provider landscape, both direct and indirect channels can be managed entirely in-house via a central reservation system (CRS) or through third parties. Either way, for large hotel chains payment data is often fragmented across multiple platforms-each with its own processes-driving operational complexity.

Integration Landscape

‍Every hotel relies on a property management system (PMS)-the operational nerve center that handles bookings, payments, and guest services. But in practice, most large hotel groups run multiple PMS solutions across regions, layered with integrations into payment gateways, fraud detection tools, orchestration platforms, and even loyalty or CRM systems.
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The challenge? Each integration speaks a slightly different “language.” Some PSPs require raw card data, others demand tokenized transactions, and many insist on their own proprietary tokens that can’t be shared across systems. This leads to operational inefficiency, data silos, and in the worst cases, vendor lock-in.
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Legacy systems add to the complexity. Many PMS deployments were never designed with modern PCI DSS standards in mind, yet they still hold or pass payment data. When combined with regional differences in acquirers, regulations (e.g., PSD2 in Europe), and payment preferences, the integration landscape for large hotel chains becomes a labyrinth.

Manual Access for Agents

‍Even with automation, many hotel processes still require staff to touch payment information. Front-desk agents may need to adjust a booking, charge no-shows, apply late charges, or process incidental costs like minibar or spa services. In theory, this should happen with tokenized card-on-file data. In reality, staff in many hotels still have access to raw cardholder information through PMS screens, back-office tools, or even printed reports.
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For large hotel chains with thousands of seasonal and rotating employees, this manual access represents a significant compliance gap. Every touchpoint must be logged, audited, and controlled under PCI DSS-a tall order in an industry with high staff turnover. Weak authentication (shared logins, poor access controls) only makes matters worse, leaving hotels exposed to insider threats as well as accidental mishandling.

High Volume of Transactions and Breach Risk

‍Large hotel groups process millions of transactions annually. That scale makes them a prime target for cybercriminals-and history has shown just how costly breaches can be. Beyond financial loss, data exposure severely impacts customer trust and brand reputation.
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The stakes go beyond payment card data. Hotels hold vast amounts of personally identifiable information (PII)-guest names, addresses, passport details, loyalty program records. For attackers, this data is as valuable as the card numbers themselves.
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With sprawling third-party ecosystems and high staff numbers, large hotel chains face a dual threat: external cyberattacks and internal misuse. Both can erode guest trust and cause lasting reputational damage.

Complex PCI Compliance Landscape

‍At its core, PCI DSS was created to safeguard cardholder data, covering every system, network, process, or person that stores, processes, transmits, or could in any way impact the security of cardholder data or sensitive authentication data. This last point is often misunderstood. PCI DSS is not only about where the data is stored, but also about anything that touches or influences its protection.
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In practice, that could include:
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• Reservation systems (direct and indirect)
• Payment gateways and acquirers
• Fraud and tokenization providers
• Property management systems (PMS)
• Point-of-sale (POS) systems for restaurants, bars, and spas
• Vendor integrations (loyalty, key cards, CRMs)
• Front-line staff accessing guest payments
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For global hotel chains, PCI compliance is further complicated by franchise models. Corporates may enforce centralized standards, but individual franchisees often run their own tech stacks, multiplying compliance risk.
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And compliance isn’t one-and-done. PCI DSS requires continuous monitoring, vendor due diligence, and regular reassessments. Many hotels treat it as a checkbox exercise - but attackers exploit those blind spots.

Want to learn how leading hotels are tackling these challenges?

‍Stay tuned for part 2. We'll explore how a strategic approach to payment data, starting with tokenization at the source, can simplify compliance, reduce risk, and unlock operational flexibility. Contact us to understand how PCI Proxy can support global hotel chains implement these solutions securely and efficiently.

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