Merchant Accounts For Travel & Timeshares
An Overview
Travel and Timeshare Merchant Accounts
The travel and timeshare industries combine to be one of the largest markets in the world, with over $1.6 Trillion in yearly spend. These businesses help millions of consumers see the world, pursue leisure activities, and more.
Unfortunately, many banks and credit card processors consider travel and timeshare businesses to be “high risk”, and are unwilling to provide them with merchant services.
Soar Payments, by contrast, has consistently offered merchant services to travel and timeshare businesses since our company founding. We value the services provided by all types of companies within the industry, including companies which airfare, hotel accommodations, timeshare services, cruises, excursions, and beyond.
Frequently Asked Questions
Here are common questions specific to travel and timeshare merchant accounts:
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What types of travel and timeshare businesses do you accept?
Soar Payments accepts a wide range of US-based, US-operating travel and timeshare businesses. These include, but are not limited to, travel package sellers, excursion companies, hotel and lodging companies, airlines, timeshare issuers, and timeshare brokers and listing companies. It is important to remember that each merchant account is individually underwritten and approved, therefore your companies timeshare or travel merchant account approval may have unique terms.
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Is Soar Payments compatible with my travel or timeshare company’s existing CRM or shopping cart software?
Established travel or timeshare businesses typically have a preferred eCommerce, shopping cart or CRM software platform they use, and we’re happy to support them.
Because Soar Payments works with most major payment gateways (including Authorize.net, USAePay and NMI), our travel merchant accounts integrate with most popular software suites used by businesses in the industry.
These include shopping cart platforms like Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, and Magento, as well as CRM suites like Zoho CRM and Salesforce. If you’re unsure if yours would qualify, please feel free to contact us.
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What criteria does my travel or timeshare business need to meet, to be approved for a merchant account by Soar Payments?
To be approved, travel and timeshare businesses must meet the the following criteria:
- Must have an ARC bond if selling airfare
- Must not make outbound calls to obtain customers (inbound marketing only)
- Must be able to supply reseller agreements.
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Why is my travel or timeshare business considered “high risk” by banks and credit card processors?
Many credit card processors do not accept travel and timeshare businesses for four main reasons:
- Travel and timeshare businesses tend to sell high ticket items. That is, their average product or service is often over $100.00 and in some cases well into the thousands of dollars. That’s important, because large transactions are charged back more frequently, and the risk to the credit card processor is higher because of the size of those potential chargebacks.
- The nature of the goods or services that are provided by travel or timeshare related businesses are prone to chargebacks. Customers often have a change of plans, whether it’s about their upcoming vacation purchase or their timeshare purchase or resale listing. Contrast that, for example, with a restaurant, which rarely encounters chargebacks due to a “change of heart”.
- Many businesses in this industry accept payment well prior to providing a service. For example, a vacation package provider might accept payment a full year before the vacation takes place. This business model, inherently, is vulnerable to increased chargeback rates.
- Travel and timeshare businesses often rely on third parties for service fulfillment. For example, a travel provider is relying on an airline to fly the customer, or a timeshare broker is relying on the timeshare owner to fulfill their end of the transaction. In either case, the introduction of third parties into the transaction create increased opportunities for customer dissatisfaction and potentially larger chargeback exposure. As a result of these four risks, many merchant account providers decline to accept travel and timeshare related businesses.
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Types Of Travel And Timeshare Merchant Accounts
Soar Payments offer a full-array of merchant accounts to timeshare and vacation brokers, and other businesses in the travel and timeshare industries. These include:
Retail Payments
A retail merchant account for timeshare or travel enables businesses to accept in-person credit card payments via a traditional credit card terminal or point of sale system.
Best suited to retail businesses with reliable wired internet access, retail travel and timeshare merchant accounts typically have the lowest chargeback risk and receive the lowest merchant account pricing.
Mobile Payments
A mobile merchant account for timeshare or travel, enables businesses to accept payments via a swiper that plugs into a mobile phone or iPad.
Ideal for tour providers or other travel or timeshare businesses that conduct in-person sales outside of a traditional storefront, these merchant accounts have lower chargeback risk, and are priced as retail.
Virtual Terminal Payments
Also called a payment gateway merchant account, companies can accept payments over the phone, via mail, or typed into a computer (without outside equipment).
Our timeshare and travel payment gateway merchant accounts integrate with most major CRM and software platforms. Due to increased fraud risk, Soar Payments offers integrated chargeback protection with these merchant accounts.
eCommerce Payments
eCommerce timeshare and travel merchant accounts allow your company to accept debit and credit cards via your website’s checkout page.
Our eCommerce credit card processing accounts integrate with most major CMS and shopping carts, making setup simple. Due to increased fraud and chargeback risks, however, we offer integrated chargeback protection software.
Evaluating Payments Options for Startups with Cynthia Del’Aria
Payments options are a crucial to any business, but for startups, including those in the world of travel and timeshare, the payments stack can have a direct hand in their success or failure.
Our guest on this episode is Cynthia Del’Aria, who is a startup ninja/junkie, largely working with entrepreneurs who are just picking up the habit in technology. Cynthia has a tremendous amount of experience in the startup world and has seen companies have successes as well as struggles in many areas... including payments.
Listen in as Cynthia breaks down the keys to evaluating payments options from a startup perspective.
Our podcast explores the fast-changing world of payments and fintech through interviews with thought leaders around the world. From credit card processing to bitcoin, and digital banks to finance software… we cover it all!