Virtual Cards, How Secure is Secure?

Security is a priority for every business. As a rental property manager or owner, it is critical to establish secure processes and take the proper safeguards. If you don’t, it will not only cause revenue losses, but it could irreparably damage your business results.

That being said, the online rental and real estate industries are often primary targets for scammers and hackers. Rental businesses and hosts have to be vigilant in their security practices, and sometimes it means that you are constantly battling against new threats.

Luckily, you don’t have to do it on your own. At BookingTeam.com, we have noticed an uptick in the number of fraudulent credit card charges that are made from one-day pre-arrival bookings. As a safeguard, BookingTeam.com has stopped allowing last-minute bookings, particularly from sites with the virtual card system such as Agoda.

Why We Will No Longer Accept Last-Minute Bookings
In some cases, last-minute bookings might sound great. You may have filled a room that would have otherwise been empty and earned revenue instead of losing it. Yet, last-minute bookings are often too risky.

For instance, Agoda accepts last-minute bookings and processes the payment to the properties as a virtual card. This is a one-time use card that some rental sites emit as a security measure. However, because they use virtual cards, the time it takes to process payment is longer than other sites since they are opened up only after check-out.

In addition, if the original card used to book is stolen, property managers don’t find out about it until it's too late. Often, they are notified after a guest has already checked out, and the card charges are refunded. This means that the scammers essentially get a free stay, and the property suffers lost revenue as a result.

To protect our clients and their properties from fraudulent charges and revenue loss, BookingTeam.com has decided to stop accepting last-minute bookings within 2 days of a guests arrival and within 3 days pre-arrival if a virtual card system is used. We expect this to lower the risk of fraudulent charges significantly.