The trick to cutting credit card fraud: combine process with people | Machefert Group

The Machefert Group is one of the leading independent hotel groups in France. Paris is their hub, with 19 hotels, seven bars and five restaurants, as well as a 5* property in Saint-Tropez and a resort in Marrakech.

Their eclectic, boutique style and personal touch – they’re still a family-run business – makes them one of the industry’s leading lights. Having begun their own journey in 1992, Machefert joined the Mews family in 2017. 

We spent some time catching up with Kevin Machefert, Director of Sales, Marketing and Technology, who talked to us about how Mews Payments has changed the way the group manages transactions.

A streamlined payment and purchasing process

"Payments – it’s truly one of the strengths of Mews. We’re always talking about marketing, about user experience and online sales marketing, but we don’t talk enough about payments. I find that their approach, which at least in my analysis, involves looking at what the main e-commerce websites such as Amazon are doing: trying to have as few clicks as possible between the moment of interest and the moment of payment – I just love it!

Mews Payments is really good at it: I enter three or four bits of data and ‘puf’, the reservation is made – I find it very good."

Mews Payments is fully PCI compliant and can connect to Stripe

"They also have a way of using Stripe’s technology – at least that’s what we’re using – with the Mews Payments white labelled with Stripe behind. The way we can encrypt transnational data and data from a guest’s payment card is ideal. The way we can store and record it in our Mews cloud, it’s great, and everything PCI compliant, so it’s awesome."

Payment automation improves security

"For us, there are some stages after [automatic payment processes] where it’s still important to use humans, for example for credit card verification of the card holder and the person who has purchased the room. In our properties, at the moment of check-in, we always ask guests to show their credit card, or a confirmation that they are the credit card holder, because we deal with a lot of fraud. 

For anything that involves potential fraud for online purchases ahead of the guest stay, Stripe’s KYC system works really well. But anything concerning bookings made the day before or the day before yesterday, can still be fraudulent. So we ask our receptionists, although it’s not that pleasant, to ask during the check-in – even if it’s sometimes a bit late and 9 or 10pm – to verify the name found on the credit card with the passport name. It always seems logical and that’s the reason we have a relatively low fraud rate. 

It’s all about the combination of the Mews Payments, that works well, along with a process that also works well."