Secure Online Payments in AU/NZ Accommodation: Why 3D Secure (3DS) Matters
Whether you manage a holiday park, motel, boutique hotel, or multi-site accommodation business, taking secure online payments is essential. At Seekom, we’ve integrated 3D Secure (3DS) into our payment system to help protect you and your guests from fraud.
What is 3D Secure (3DS)?
3D Secure is an additional layer of authentication for online card payments. It helps confirm that the person making the payment is the actual cardholder.
When a guest books online, their bank might ask them to verify the transaction - usually by sending a one-time code via text message (SMS) or prompting them to approve the payment in their banking app. It only takes a few seconds and adds a strong layer of fraud protection.
Why is This Important for Australasia Accommodation Providers?
The accommodation sector relies heavily on online bookings - and with that comes an increased risk of fraud. Whether your guests are local or international, 3DS helps reduce this risk.
Here’s how 3DS supports your business:
Reduces fraudulent transactions and chargebacks
Improves guest confidence in your payment system
Helps future-proof your operation as global payment standards evolve
What Will Guests Experience?
When paying online, guests may:
Get a text message with a one-time code
Be prompted to approve the transaction in their banking app
Use Face ID, fingerprint, or a bank-issued password for confirmation
This step may not happen every time - it depends on the guest’s bank and card provider.
Built-In Security with SeekomPay:
We’ve built 3DS requests directly into our SeekomPay payment gateway, ensuring secure transactions without requiring complex setups. While the system works seamlessly out of the box, you also have the flexibility to configure the 3DS challenge indicator to suit your business needs.
A step-by-step user guide is available to help you adjust these settings, allowing you to tailor the security preferences for your property. This ensures that your payment process remains secure and optimised for a smooth guest experience.
Safe Payments Mean Secure Bookings
With 3D Secure, you're protecting your revenue, your guests, and your reputation. Seekom ensures that your payment gateway is not only secure but also future-proofed for evolving industry standards.
Ready to Enhance Your Payment Security?
Contact us today to learn more about SeekomPay and how 3D Secure (3DS) can help protect your business.
Note: Something you may not know is that we also build websites. Many of our customers have Seekom-built, self managed websites with full control, backed by our expert setup and support. If you’re interested in finding out more, please get in touch.
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Seekom provides ‘freedom from the office’ for family-run holiday park
Owner and manager: Debbie and Repi
Guests make the trip to Levin TOP 10 Holiday Park to get away from it all, so it’s perhaps no surprise ‘freedom’ is also one of first words that comes to mind for owner Debbie Wright when describing the difference Seekom makes for the business.
“It’s freedom from the office,” she says. “Seekom is easy for me to access on mobile, which is great if I’m out around the park doing recycling or other tasks and need to manage things on the go.”
Debbie and husband Repi have owned the park for 13 years, nurturing it into an idyllic holiday hotspot that’s popular with people looking for a relaxed small-town stay a short drive from the beach, rivers and the best of the New Zealand outdoors.
Debbie says the lifestyle and being close to family living in the area are big reasons Repi and her made the move to Levin back in April of 2012, calling time on a teaching career to try their hand at hospitality.
Finding a way to manage the business in a way that balances work and time with family has always been a priority, so they switched the park’s property management system to Seekom after finding their old system didn’t have the flexibility they needed. They were receiving more bookings and they needed a way to manage everything in one place, all while juggling three kids and the demands of a growing business.
“Our old system was working well enough, until we needed more. Seekom can do everything we need.”
The park office closes for a few hours in the middle of the day, so being able to manage things on a mobile means Debbie, Repi and their team member Tania can still keep an eye on bookings and look after other tasks without being stuck at their desks.
Debbie says the system is “intuitive, and easy to learn”, and if she or her team ever need help, customer support is readily available.
“That customer service has improved hugely in the last couple of years. We’re a smaller business, but Seekom still goes out of its way to help.”
With summer approaching, her team is crossing its fingers for sunny weather and a steady flow of holidaymakers, including the many Wellingtonians who have so often made the short trip north for weekend escapes at the park in the past.
“It’s a great place to get away to for the weekend if you live in a city,” Debbie says.
“Levin is nice and cruisy and you can drive 20 minutes down to the beach to watch the sun go down. There are rivers to dip your toes into, and for little kids, there are lots of playgrounds. Our produce sector is huge too, with lots of berries and fresh veges.”
Their children are now on their teens and Debbie and Repi now live off site, but they have no plans to change industry again or retire any time soon.
“We enjoyed teaching, enjoyed working overseas and the corporate thing in Auckland, but we really love it here. The guests, our team, the community and the park are great”.
Note: Something you may not know is that we also build websites. Many of our customers have Seekom-built, self managed websites with full control, backed by our expert setup and support. If you’re interested in finding out more, please get in touch.
SeekomPay ‘brilliant’ for business at boutique South Island motel
Owner and manager: Fizz Hunter-Weston
After using Seekom to run unique Central Otago motel Clyde Central for over four-and-a-half years, owner and manager Fizz Hunter-Weston says she can’t believe she only started using SeekomPay six weeks ago.
“It’s absolutely brilliant – we just wish we started using it earlier.”
Before upgrading to SeekomPay, Fizz and her team had to manage all their payment card transactions manually using Seekom’s vault.
“It’s all done instantly now,” she says.
SeekomPay saves Fizz more than 50 hours a year and links seamlessly into the Seekom booking system embedded in Clyde Central’s website, with Xero integration also making the financial management of her accommodation easier.
Fizz enjoys the freedom of not having to be on-site to handle her business.
“SeekomPay allows me to run my accommodation from anywhere – I don’t need anyone to be on-site to take payments.”
She says SeekomPay fits right in with her innovative approach to business, with Clyde Central excelling at catering for two niche demographics – dog lovers and cycling enthusiasts – in addition to travellers who are just looking for an outstanding place to stay.
The motel offers popular "dog retreats" and a “Gravel Riders Bash” plus bike hire and e-bike charging. It also contains a mini bike shop as well as bike storage and a bike cleaning and maintenance station.
“It’s not like a traditional hotel or motel, it’s a cool little boutique place.”
Clyde Central is located an hour’s drive from Wanaka and Queenstown and two-and-a-half hours’ drive from Invercargill and Dunedin, attracting cycling enthusiasts looking for a change of scene and the prospect of cruising some of New Zealand’s most epic cycle trails.
Nestling at the start of four of New Zealand’s Great Rides – Otago Central Rail Trail, Lake Dunstan Trail, Roxburgh Gorge Trail and Clutha Gold Trail – Fizz’s establishment lives up to its name of being central in more ways than one, she says.
“Lots of guests come to do the rail trails, and the river and lake are right next door too. We have a nice outdoor area with a fire that guests like to sit around to roast marshmallows or just chat and enjoy a drink in the evening.”
Clyde Central’s eight units range from one to three bedrooms and are like small apartments with cooking facilities, designed to allow guests to be self-sufficient if they want to be, she says.
Fizz says when she bought Clyde Central in 2020 it was easy to decide on Seekom’s property management software.
“I looked at just about every system available and I chose Seekom because it ticked the most boxes.”
Fizz says she loves Seekom’s automated SMS and email guest-messaging functionality that she uses to keep guests informed about key details, especially as the communication options support the self-check-in process and offer her the flexibility to operate off-site.
After a quiet winter period Fizz says summer at Clyde Central is hotting up with strong booking numbers and a waiting list for the next dog retreat, after the last one sold out.
Now she’s got all her financial ducks in a row with SeekomPay, Fizz is ready to get all the dogs and bikes in a row and take care of business for the peak season.
Note: Something you may not know is that we also build websites. Many of our customers have Seekom-built, self managed websites with full control, backed by our expert setup and support. If you’re interested in finding out more, please get in touch.
One of our amazing business development managers will be in touch to showcase our product to you and talk you through how we can help grow your business.
Our fully scalable Property Management System can provide you the tools and integrations you need to scale and grow your business year round. With the added functionality of a fully integrated channel manager, connect your property or properties to as many channels as you'd like.
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Smarts to help you operate more effectively and efficiently. From guides of our systems and integrations to tips and tricks you can use every day - we've got you covered.
Simplify your accounting with our Xero integration for Seekom
The start of a new financial year is the ideal time to streamline your accounting processes.
If you’re one of our Seekom users who also harnesses Xero accounting software, you can set yourself up for a smooth-sailing tax ride by using our time-saving Xero integration.
This integration can reduce double-handling of invoices at the end of the tax year and simplify accounting reconciliation processes.
Match payments with invoices automatically
One of the beauties of our Xero integration is its ability to take the hassle out of matching payments with invoices.
With the click of a few buttons you can match all reconciled payments in Xero with the relevant invoices in Seekom iBex, giving you a clear idea about which invoices have outstanding fees associated with them.
This will give you full visibility of which invoices have been paid and reconciled in either system – less cross-referencing required.
Invoice and credit note consistency
Want to ensure all your invoices and credit notes display with the same key information in both Seekom and Xero?
When Seekom is synced with Xero you can rapidly create invoices and credit notes and link them to Xero from their Seekom invoice number, pulling across the invoice number, invoice date, due date and booking reference number from Seekom all in one go.
Financial hygiene: confirm your invoices and credit notes are linked
Our Xero integration includes an ‘Invoices report’ to help you ensure all your Seekom invoices have been replicated and linked in Xero. This report highlights the invoices that have not been linked to Xero, giving you a handy to-do list to follow up on.
Smarts to help you operate more effectively and efficiently. From guides of our systems and integrations to tips and tricks you can use every day - we've got you covered.
Manage guest payments better with all new SeekomPay
We’re thrilled to announce the launch of SeekomPay – our brand-new payment solution designed to save you money and provide a seamless experience for guests booking accommodation at your property.
To celebrate the launch, we’re offering a special deal that will see sign-up fees waived for any Seekom users who sign up for SeekomPay before the end of September 2023. Created for users of our Seekom iBex property management software, SeekomPay provides a secure and fully integrated gateway for customer payments and lower rates than many third-party options.
Provide an exceptional payments solution for guests, save time and money, and manage all your guests’ bookings end-to-end within the Seekom ecosystem. What’s not to like?
Key benefits
Improve cash flow: Customer payments are automatically deposited into your nominated bank account the next business day
Flexible ways to pay: You can request credit card details via SMS or email for phone bookings, keeping payments secure and simplifying the payment process.
Secure and compliant: You’ll benefit from full PCI compliance, safe credit card storage and 3DSecure 2 technology embedded into SeekomPay payment links, keeping you and your guests safe from potential security breaches.
Transparency and trust: Your SeekomPay merchant portal provides you with complete transparency over your online transactions and detailed reporting, acting as a source of truth for your business.
Save time: Your SeekomPay merchant portal allows you to track and reconcile all transactions with ease and automate repetitive tasks.
Save money: Our competitive rates will add to your bottom line.
Smarts to help you operate more effectively and efficiently. From guides of our systems and integrations to tips and tricks you can use every day – we’ve got you covered.
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