Helpful Articles - Vacation Rental Management Resource Center

The Guide to Accepting Credit Cards for Vacation Rental Owners - Part 5

Copyright 2012 VacationRentalDesk.com

Part 5: How VacationRentalDesk.com Makes Accepting Credit Cards Simple

Through the first four parts of this guide, we've learned:

• Why it's important for vacation owners to accept credit cards
• The benefits of providing card services to your guests
• The requirements for establishing a merchant account
• How to avoid hidden costs, service fees, and contracts
• How to choose the best card program

In this last part of our credit card guide for vacation owners, we'll take a look at our own credit card solutions at VacationRentalDesk.com, and how show you how we've made accepting credit cards fair, ethical, and easy for rental owners. We'll also introduce Vacation Rental Desk™ and explain how credit cards are accepted and charged with it.

You may be asking yourself, what is an online reservation system and how does it relate to accepting credit cards?

First, let's take a moment to learn about reservation systems.

A reservation system is a powerful tool that assists you in managing a vacation home.

At VacationRentalDesk.com, we've spent a lot of time working with individual vacation rental owners and finding common problems and limitations they face when compared to professional property management companies.

Property management companies, often with a large inventory of vacation homes, use special reservation systems which act as rental agents, allowing them to track reservations, process credit card payments, organize bookkeeping and guest correspondence, and much more.

The do-it-yourself vacation owner doesn't have access to, or the time to learn, such complicated software. Until recently, there was no other option for vacation owners except to invent their own paper-based systems, and, if they're savvy enough, apply for a credit card program so they can key-in their guest's credit cards by hand.

By working directly with vacation owners, we've designed our own time-saving reservation system called Vacation Rental Desk™. There's no hardware or software to install because you do everything over the web. Simply log into our website to manage reservations, charge credit cards, and manage your reservation calendar. (Learn more about on our Online Reservation System and how it works).

Now that we know what a reservation system is, we can ask "Where do credit cards fit in, and why would I want to use credit cards with a reservation system?"

When you sign up with VacationRentalDesk.com, the ability to accept credit cards is included with your account, and you'll receive all the benefits of accepting credit cards we've talked about in this guide.

We have no monthly minimum, long term contract, or annual fee. You can cancel your account at any time without any hidden deactivation or closing fees. We also do not charge a statement fee, gateway fee, or virtual terminal fee, and there's no equipment to purchase because transactions are processed through your account online.

For our current discount rates and per-transaction fees, please see Credit Card Merchant Rates and Fees.

Each guest's credit card information is collected online when they make a reservation. You can also key in credit cards by hand for payments or to refund security deposits. Best of all, each time you do a credit card transaction, it's assigned to a reservation so you can stay organized and simplify your bookkeeping. Plus you can generate transaction reports, send payment reminders and past due notices, and generate and email payment receipts to guests.

Conclusion

I hope you've found this informational guide to be helpful in your journey to improve your vacation services by accepting credit cards.

If you'd like to learn more about our online reservation system for vacation owners, please contact us.

We invite you to learn about Vacation Rental Desk™ for details, pricing, frequently asked questions, and watch a video tutorial about how the reservation system works.