When the bank fees for accepting contactless payments started piling up, Ahaura Hotel owner Suzie realised there was room for more savings at her business.
Dating back to the 1800s, Ahaura Hotel is one of NZ's oldest pubs. It offers a taste of history and hospitality with accommodation, a restaurant and a bar.
Learn how Suzie and her husband Rocky made reservations for success by EFTPOS surcharging to slice fees for their tourism and hospitality business.
When Ahaura changed hands, Smartpay made it simple with an easy set-up and around the clock support. Here’s what Suzie said when we asked her how the EFTPOS solution handover went with Smartpay.
“The previous owners were already using Smartpay’s EFTPOS solution when we took over the business from them,” explained Suzie. “The switchover was fairly simple from Smartpay and some hiccups we faced with the bank were soon resolved.”
With Smartpay, payments can begin to look like a piece of cake!
Suzie loves the user-friendly EFTPOS solution Smartpay serves. Customers can easily tap or swipe using their preferred payment method, and Suzie can wave goodbye to payment mishaps.
“We find the EFTPOS machine very easy to use at our hotel. We can accept all payment methods and it works quickly to process the payments,” said Suzie.
“We also recently started to use the surcharging feature on the EFTPOS machine for payments made with payWave and credit cards.”
Surcharging is an optional (and free) feature on Smartpay EFTPOS machines. Businesses can reduce merchant bank fees by automatically adding a fee (called a surcharge) to transactions to cover the cost of accepting that form of payment.
The bill from the bank for the merchant service fees was the eye-opener for Suzie to consider surcharging.
“We received our monthly bill from the bank and found the fees for accepting contactless payments was totalling up to a significant amount. We were paying in excess of $300 monthly to the bank!”
“But everyone loves contactless and wants to pay by tapping their card and we needed to provide this option.”
She knew she had to slice costs while still giving her customers a first-class payment experience.
Suzie discovered Smartpay's surcharging feature in our newsletter. She reached out, and one of our team members gave her a hand. She now charges a 1.5% fee on contactless and credit card transactions, allowing her to save on bank fees, one tap at a time.
With Smartpay, hospo businesses like Ahaura are turning the tide on costs, making every transaction a ticket to savings.
“It has made such a big difference. We were thrilled to see the reduction in bank fees and will be re-investing some of the savings in the upkeep of the property,” said Suzie.
She thinks other businesses should save bucks while serving smiles too:
“You would be doing your business a favour by surcharging. As a small business owner, you need to be able to save your money wherever possible and use it for other things to run the business.”
Surcharging is quite the norm in New Zealand, and there are rules about informing customers of any surcharges on contactless payments. We checked in with Suzie to see how her customers are taking it.
Suzie said, “We have signage behind the bar to let customers know about the surcharge, and not a soul has questioned it to date.”
She has noticed that most of her customers don’t mind the surcharge and are happy to tap and pay. “If anyone doesn’t want to pay the surcharge, they just insert or swipe their cards.”
For tourism and hospitality businesses handling plenty of international and credit card payments, surcharging transactions can be a savvy way to serve up savings!
“I love that the EFTPOS terminal is very easy to use for myself, my staff and my customers which is the most important thing to me. I also found the phone support to be very helpful and friendly. My requests were always answered quickly and I was able to get the help I needed.”
“I would definitely recommend Smartpay to all other business owners – it is just so easy to use! They have great customer service too. I have worked in hotels for years and I love being able to collect customer payments so easily using the EFTPOS terminal.”
Thanks to Smartpay, business owners across NZ and Australia are snatching savings by surcharging, boosting cash flow, increasing profitability and having the dough to reinvest in their businesses. Whether it's upgrading gear, expanding teams or better marketing efforts to reel in more customers, it's a win-win!
