Cashless Payment for Private Accommodation to Be Implemented

In order to solve the problem of suspicious and fake accommodation bookings, but also increase the competitiveness, cashless payments will be enabled for the owners of facilities for rent. This new financial service was presented this weekend at the Belgrade Tourism Fair and it will enable for natural persons cashless payments for accommodation in categorized facilities advertised through platforms such as Booking.

This new service will enable natural persons to offer to their guests payment by cards, which has not been the case so far. The condition is that these are registered accommodation lease facilities.

– A single dissatisfied customer in Serbia as a new destination can send a bad message, and we don’t need that now that tourism is recording such good results – said Danijel Nikolic, the secretary general of the Government of Serbia.

Dunja Djenic, the deputy minister for the tourism sector and tourist inspections, said that digitization in tourism was important, as shown by the e-tourist system, which started working in 2020 and unified all the data about the hospitality owners in Serbia. She added that there were 16,000 registered hospitality owners operating legally and that the new service and payment instrument was something that would enable them to make their offer more complete, to promote themselves better and to become more competitive in the market.

What accommodation owners lack is the possibility of cashless payments, because, as the competition grows, so does the number of fake bookings. It’s enough for somebody to book accommodation from a fake profile and then not show up at the destination, and neither the owner or the mediator, such as Booking, have the possibility of charging penalties. The only thing the owners can do is file private lawsuits, and even that depends on whether the owner of the reservation has left valid data in the first place.

As representatives of the National Bank of Serbia explained, 10.5 million payment cards were issued, and in the first three months of 2022, 315 million transactions were recorded. In the same period, 32 million transactions by cards issued abroad were registered.

As they explained, Serbia has a developed card system and infrastructure, which enable the service to be provided to all those who need cashless payments in their business operations. Talking about the advantages of this type of payment, the NBS says that it is safe and that it makes the guests more trustful regarding whether the facility is registered and reliable.

Vlada Republike Srbije

Narodna banka Srbije Beograd

NBS

Danijel Nikolić

Dunja Đenić

Belgrade Tourism Fair

cashless payment for accommodation

paying for private accommodation by card

e tourist system

fake bookings