When guests check-in, security shouldn’t be on their minds. However, as the industry has become an attractive target for fraudsters, hotels and resorts should make security a high priority. It’s necessary to evaluate security programs regularly, and today we share a few tips to consider:

1. Monitor Loyalty Account Use

Loyalty account takeover is a growing challenge as fraudsters know reward redemptions typically aren’t scrutinized as rigorously as traditional payment transactions. Your most loyal guests often accumulate high reward balances, making their accounts vulnerable to exploits.

Preventative Actions: Keep an eye out for account misuse. Train staff to recognize out-of-character guest behaviors. You can also adjust your loyalty program redemption strategy to align with that of your payment transactions. Using consistent strategies can help minimize upsetting your most loyal customers.

2. Safeguard Against Data Breaches

Any breach of data is unfavorable and can impact your business in terms of revenue loss and brand discrediting.  In some property management, point-of-sale and other systems that process credit cards, CVC numbers may be logged, making them accessible with minimal access controls.

Preventative Actions: Work with reliable property management providers and a payment transaction system that allows you to collect payments securely. Look for technologies that employ – or integrate to those with tokenization and confirm that your technology partners are PA-DSS, PCI-validated providers where applicable. Vulnerability scanning is another important measure that will help protect your brand. If you have recently implemented or updated your PMS, accounting system or sales and catering system, it’s time to perform a vulnerability scan.

3. Breakdown the Departmental Walls

IT and Security should work hand-in-hand when it comes to protecting your business. Without a collaborative approach, it’s difficult to know where you might have security gaps. While the IT team is focused on delivering a scalable, flexible solution architecture to ensure you can run your business effectively, the Security team oversees cyber and network protocols, and controls access to physical property areas.

Preventative Actions: Each department is equally critical for effectively deploying and maintaining the most advanced secure business protocols.  Foster interdepartmental relationships by placing the two departments under the same reporting structure. Alternatively, you can conduct regular interdepartmental security meetings.

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