The chip and PIN rollout in the UK has seen a delayed take-up from the hospitality industry, primarily due to the specific needs for the acceptance of payments. These needs include the ability to manage both mobile and fixed PIN pad payment devices and bespoke functionality such as allowing users to split bills at the table and accepting different forms of payment, for example, cash, cheque, voucher or card. These factors, combined with a lack of integrated payment solutions for this market, have hindered wide scale deployment of successful solutions in the market.
The market is starting to see a slow adoption of chip and PIN technology in this sector. However there is a definite lack of true integrated applications suitable for larger retailers with large scale Point-Of-Sale systems.
Hardware devices from the major manufacturers have been released to support this growing demand from the hospitality market. These devices, amongst others, include:
· VeriFone VX610 & 670
· Ingenico i7700
· Fujitsu BPad
· BOM Pinpos
Smart Technology Solutions Limited continues to position its partners with the greatest opportunity of successfully growing their share of the market with support for all of the hardware in the list above.
In addition to this supported hardware, STS has recently released Hostlink, a fully integrated payment solution specifically for the hospitality market. Part of the industry leading STS SmartNS framework, Hostlink is a smart card enablement layer that supports and integrates any smart card application through any point of interface to any business system. Hostlink provides a full range of features appropriate to the hospitality industry, such as total pay-at-the-table functionality. With Hostlink the device can also handle tips and cash-back, and receipts can be printed through the payment terminal whilst the user is still at the table.
Hostlink's unique functionality means that it can fully integrate the mobile payment devices into the bar or restaurant's business systems, whilst other solutions available on the market today are pure standalone offerings. Such integration means that once bill details have been entered into the mobile device, they do not have to be retyped into the business's internal systems, leading to efficiency savings and a reduction in 'cash shrinkage'.
STS developed Hostlink as the needs of the hospitality industry were not being served by traditional retail devices available on the market. Hostlink has the unique ability to 'pull' the transaction details from the bar or restaurant's business systems to the mobile payment device. The customer then has the option to split the bill, choose their method(s) of payment (cash, card, voucher or cheque), and decide whether they want to add a gratuity or even ask for cash-back on a card transaction. If required, a full chip and PIN transaction is performed to verify the card details. The transaction is then complete and the data is simultaneously integrated into the company's own systems. Hostlink can also perform the standard 'push' payment transactions whereby the bill is pushed to a fixed payment device by the store system.
Hostlink has full EMV support, the global payment standard for smart cards, using STS' Emvelink and supports either IP or serial connection to the mobile payment device base station. The mobile device will typically run over Bluetooth or WiFi.
STS believes that in the longer term other industries aside from the hospitality sector will be able to take advantage of Hostlink's functionality. For example, Hostlink can be used for queue busting, car park or care hire payment and conferences and venues payment. Iin fact, the solution can be operated anywhere that a mobile payment device is in use.