The hotel management industry processes payments on many different fronts. From the front desk or concierge to the lobby bar, guests at hotels face many different locations and platforms to purchase goods, services and amenities. A Wells Fargo report called "Understanding the impact of a data breach on your hotel or resort" provides a log of high-profile and damaging attacks perpetrated by members of the public and hospitality employees to compromise customer payment data. 

Those entities range from high-end luxury resorts to travel agencies and motel chains, indicating that hackers don't discriminate when it comes to stealing data. Moreover, it shows all participants in the hospitality industry can be susceptible to attacks if their payment processing systems aren't up-to-date, continuously monitored and compliant. 

"Data risk may seem insignificant compared to other threats such as accidents on your property or severe weather," explains Wells Fargo. "However, data privacy is breached at a much higher frequency and impacts an organization's most valued assets: their employees and customers."

Mandarin Oriental Hotels. Earlier this year, the company acknowledged a breach but didn't provide details about the size and magnitude of the compromise. However, it's been reported that the breach, which likely occurred right before the 2014 holidays, targeted most of the chain's properties in the United States. 

White Lodging Services. This Marriott franchise operator confirmed a breach first detected earlier this year, marking the second time in fourteen months that the business was targeted. In total, 10 hotels were involved in the breach, which illustrates how critical it is for franchise operators to remain vigilant about payment data security. 

Contact Vantage today to learn more about our suite of services to help your business implement merchant credit card processing.