What Does the EMV Liability Shift Mean For Your Property?

Everywhere we go we see EMV chip readers; the grocery store, big box retailers, gas stations even our favorite hotels. EMV which stands for Europay, MasterCard and Visa, is a solution that relies on a consumer having a special chip in their credit or debit card that makes credit card transactions more secure. However, for real protection from credit card fraud, you need to also have point-to-point encryption (P2PE) and tokenization which removes all credit card data from your network, computers and server.What are you waiting for?EMV provides your property with protection from fraudulent credit card transactions where the guests physically present their credit or debit cards. In fact, once your property implements EMV you will not be liable for card-present fraudulent transactions. Effective October 1, 2015, card present counterfeit fraud liability shifted to the merchant if they have not adopted EMV chip technology. Why risk your property’s reputation and hurt your bottom line when you could easily implement EMV?What are the next steps in implementing EMV?There is obviously no “one size fits all” way to implement EMV at your property. But a great place to start would be with your Merchant Service Provider (MSP) to see what information they can provide. MSPs are required to stay up-to-date on EMV technology and would also be able to provide you with rates for processing via EMV. Your next step is to be sure that your Payment Application is PA-DSS certified. roommaster PMS is a PA-DSS certified payment application. The last step prior to migrating to EMV is to ensure that your property’s payment processing gateway encrypts and tokenizes credit card data.Should you move forward with EMV?If your property hasn’t yet upgraded to EMV technology, you should consider doing so as quickly as possible. While it can be expensive to migrate to EMV technology, the risk your property is facing from the liability shift is far greater if you’re potentially stuck with outrageous credit card charge-backs. Although EMV technology can’t protect your property from all credit card fraud, it is still a strong deterrent to would be fraudsters. Regardless of the upfront challenges you may face when implementing EMV, it is still the credit card processing technology used around the world and the only way to manage the liability shift to the merchant.What’s on the horizon for EMV?Like all advances in technology, EMV challenges will improve over time. As more merchants continue to implement EMV it will ease guests’ mindset about using chip readers. In addition, MSPs are attempting to notify their merchants on best practices surrounding EMV. Of course, as EMV technology continues to advance, we can expect to see faster authorizations, mobile payment platforms, and perhaps biometric EMV chip cards.Finishing up: As hotels follow suit and adopt EMV there are a few benefits that can be seen right away. Of course, there is the financial impact from reduced card present fraud but maybe even more important is the security and good will you are providing your guests. Considering the move to EMV? Contact our Sales Department to review your options.___roommaster Software is a leading technology provider for the hospitality industry. For over 25 years, roommaster has combined hotelier experience with innovative technology to deliver an all-in-one solution that empowers hotels to attract guests, drive customer loyalty, and increase profits. Our flagship property management software, roommaster, helps manage over 5,500 properties across 100 countries. roommaster develops scalable solutions ranging from a Hotel PMS, Cloud PMS, Channel Manager, Hotel CRM and helps properties enable guests to Book Direct. We believe that everyone deserves a great guest experience, whether they’re staying at a small B&B, a thousand-room resort, or anywhere in between.Call us today at 1.813.288.4900. We will be happy to walk you through roommaster's solutions.