Express Checkout Best Practices

Hotels participating in the Express Checkout service for credit and debit cards must follow a set of procedures to ensure that transactions are processed in a way that will guarantee that cardholders understand and accept the charges.

The following steps should be followed in all Express Checkout transactions:

1. At the time of check-in, the hotel’s representative should inquire whether the cardholder would like to use the Express Checkout service. Alternatively, the merchant should provide the necessary form (Express Checkout Authorization Form) in its “welcome package.”
2. The hotel’s representative must obtain from the cardholder a completed and signed Express Checkout Authorization Form which should include, at a minimum, the name, address, and phone number of the hotel, and provide space for the cardholder’s name, address, room number, signature, and account number that may optionally be imprinted. The form should state clearly that the cardholder permits the hotel to charge his or her card account number for his or her bill and process the sale without a cardholder signature.
3. The hotel’s representative should print out a sales receipt with the cardholder’s card account number, and follow its normal authorization procedures. The “pre-authorized order” floor limit of $50 does not apply.
4. When the cardholder checks out the hotel’s representative must complete the sales ticket, indicating the total amount of the bill, and print legibly in the space allotted for the customer’s signature the words “signature on file – express checkout.”
5. The hotel’s representative should then process the sales ticket in the usual manner. There are no special deposit requirements imposed on the merchant.
6. The hotel should mail a copy of the itemized bill, sales ticket, and the Express Checkout Authorization Form to the cardholder at the address noted on the authorization form within three business days after the cardholder checks out.
7. All records pertaining to the itemized bill and authorization requests should be kept and made available to the card issuer in the event of a dispute.

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