Hotels Are Replacing Call Centres. The Payment Moment Is the Gap.
Over 70% of hotel executives are now prioritising AI investment. Voice agents are leading the charge — deployed across major hotel chains, handling reservations, billing inquiries, concierge requests, and guest services. Some properties report 80% fewer missed calls. Others are handling 50% or more of inbound volume without a human agent.
The automation story is real. But it has a hole in it.
The moment a guest says "yes, I'd like to book that" or "go ahead and upgrade me," the AI agent hits a wall. It can quote the price. It can check availability. It can confirm dates and room types. But when it's time to capture a card payment, most deployments do one of three things:
Transfer to a human agent. The guest waits on hold. Conversion drops. The human agent re-establishes context. The upsell moment — where the guest was ready to pay — has cooled.
Send a follow-up email or link. "I'll send you a payment link by email." The guest hangs up, intending to pay later. Some do. Many don't. The hotel has converted an intent into a maybe.
Skip the payment entirely. The reservation is confirmed without a deposit. The no-show rate climbs. The revenue isn't secured.
Each of these is revenue leakage. The guest was on the phone, ready to pay, and the system couldn't close.
AI voice payment infrastructure solves this. The AI agent handles the conversation. A PCI-certified payment layer captures the card details via the guest's phone keypad — mid-call, mid-conversation, without a human ever touching card data. The booking is confirmed and paid in a single interaction.
This is already working in production across regulated industries. Hotels and travel are the next vertical where it scales.
What AI Voice Payments Look Like in Hospitality
A guest calls a hotel. The AI voice agent answers.
Guest: "I have a reservation for next weekend. I'd like to upgrade to a suite if one's available."
AI Agent: "I can see your reservation for March 7th to 9th. We have a deluxe suite available at an additional £85 per night — that's £170 for your stay. Would you like to upgrade?"
Guest: "Yes, go ahead."
AI Agent: "I can take your payment now. Please enter your 16-digit card number using your phone keypad."
The guest types their card number. The DTMF tones are intercepted by a PCI DSS Level 1 certified payment environment — stripped from the audio stream before they reach the AI model, any recording system, or the hotel's infrastructure. The agent prompts for expiry and CVV. Each entry is captured securely.
AI Agent: "Thank you. I'm processing the upgrade payment of £170 now."
The payment layer validates the card, routes the transaction to the hotel chain's configured PSP, and processes the charge. A result is returned to the AI agent.
AI Agent: "Your upgrade is confirmed. You're now in the Deluxe Suite for March 7th to 9th. You'll receive a confirmation by email. Is there anything else I can help with?"
Total call duration: under 2 minutes. Human involvement: none. Card data in the hotel's systems: none. Revenue captured at the moment of intent.
Now compare that to the current state: "I'll transfer you to the front desk to handle the payment." Guest waits. Context is lost. Half the time, the upgrade doesn't happen.
Why Hospitality Needs This Now
Revenue Leakage on Upsells Is Massive
Hotels generate a significant share of revenue from ancillary sales — room upgrades, late checkout, early check-in, spa bookings, dining reservations, experience packages, airport transfers. These are high-margin, time-sensitive transactions.
The conversion window is narrow. A guest calls to confirm their reservation. They're engaged, thinking about their trip, open to suggestions. If the AI agent can offer an upgrade and capture payment in the same breath, conversion rates are dramatically higher than any follow-up email or portal prompt.
Every "I'll transfer you" or "I'll send you a link" is a lost upsell. Multiply that across thousands of calls per week across a hotel chain, and the revenue impact is material.
Hotels using AI voice agents for guest interactions report up to 25% higher ancillary revenue — but only when the agent can close. An AI agent that can describe the offer but can't take the money is half a solution.
Call Volumes Are Not Decreasing
Despite the shift to online booking, hotels handle enormous call volumes. Reservations. Modifications. Billing questions. Concierge requests. Group bookings. Corporate travel arrangements. Loyalty programme inquiries.
A mid-size hotel chain handles thousands of calls daily. A large chain handles tens of thousands. AI voice agents reduce missed calls by up to 80% and handle the majority of routine inquiries without human intervention. But payment-related calls — the ones that actually generate revenue — still require a human in most deployments.
Add the multi-language requirement. International hotels serve guests in 15+ languages. Staffing human payment agents across that many languages, across time zones, is prohibitively expensive. An AI voice agent with payment capture handles any language, any time, at consistent quality.
PCI Compliance Across Hotel Voice Channels Is a Liability
Every time a front desk agent or call centre agent takes a card number over the phone, the hotel's PCI scope expands. The telephony system, call recordings, agent workstations, the property management system, and the network infrastructure all enter PCI scope.
For a single hotel, this is manageable. For a chain with hundreds of properties — each with their own telephony, their own front desk, their own call handling — PCI compliance becomes a multi-million-pound liability. SAQ-D compliance (the full 300+ requirement assessment) applies to any environment where card data is spoken, heard, or recorded.
AI voice payments with DTMF capture change the equation entirely. Card data is entered via the guest's keypad and captured in a PCI-certified environment. It never enters the hotel's audio stream, recordings, or systems. PCI scope for voice payments drops from SAQ-D to SAQ-A — roughly 20 requirements instead of 300+.
For hotel chains operating across jurisdictions, this isn't just a cost saving. It's a compliance architecture that actually scales.
Hotel Chains Mandate Specific PSPs Per Region
This is where hospitality payment complexity mirrors the broader travel industry.
Global hotel groups negotiate enterprise-level PSP agreements that vary by region, by brand, and sometimes by property. European properties settle through Adyen. North American properties use Worldpay or Chase. APAC properties use regional acquirers with local payment method coverage.
These aren't preferences. They're corporate treasury mandates. A hotel chain's CFO has negotiated rates and settlement terms with specific acquirers per region. Any payment infrastructure — including AI voice payment infrastructure — must route to the right PSP per property.
Single-PSP payment solutions break the moment the chain operates across geographies. An AI voice agent that can only process payments through Stripe can't serve a hotel chain that requires Adyen in Europe and Worldpay in the US.
The payment layer must be PSP-neutral. Route to whatever gateway the hotel mandates. Add new PSPs through configuration, not code. This is the same multi-PSP challenge that travel platforms face at the infrastructure level — now applied to the AI voice agent layer.
Hotel & Travel Payment Scenarios
Reservation Deposits and Prepayment
A guest calls to book a room. The AI agent checks availability, quotes the rate, and when the guest confirms, captures a deposit or full prepayment mid-call.
For flexible-rate bookings: pre-authorisation at booking, full capture at check-in. For non-refundable rates: full capture at the point of booking. For peak-season or high-demand dates: deposit captures that secure the reservation.
Multi-currency applies immediately. A Japanese guest calling a London hotel pays in yen. The hotel settles in pounds. The chain reports in dollars. Three currencies in a single phone call — handled by the payment layer, transparent to the AI agent.
Room Upgrades and Upsells
The highest-converting moment in hospitality: the guest is already on the phone, already thinking about their stay, already open to spending more.
The AI agent checks availability, quotes the upgrade price, and captures the difference. Suite upgrade. Ocean view. Club floor access. Early check-in. Late checkout. Each is a revenue opportunity that dies the moment the guest hangs up.
DTMF payment capture makes this instant. No transfer to a human. No "check your email for a payment link." The guest says yes, types their card, and the upgrade is confirmed before the call ends.
Ancillary Services
AI concierge agents handle bookings for hotel services — spa appointments, restaurant reservations, experience packages, airport transfers, event tickets. Each is a payment moment.
A guest calls the concierge line: "Can you book me a couples' massage for Saturday?" The AI agent checks availability, quotes the price, captures payment, and confirms the booking. One call. One interaction. Revenue secured.
This extends to experience packages sold by OTAs and travel platforms. A post-booking call offering a guided tour, a wine tasting, a cooking class — with payment captured inline — turns every guest interaction into a revenue opportunity.
Booking Modifications and Change Fees
Guest calls to change dates. The AI agent calculates the fare difference — additional charges for peak dates, refunds for off-peak shifts, change fees where applicable — and captures or processes the adjustment mid-call.
For OTAs handling multi-leg itineraries, this gets complex. Flight date changes that trigger airline change fees. Hotel rebooking at a different rate. Transfer rescheduling. Each component may involve a different supplier and a different PSP. The payment layer handles the routing; the AI agent handles the conversation.
Group Bookings and Corporate Travel
High-value transactions that traditionally require dedicated sales staff. A corporate travel manager calls to book 30 rooms for a conference. An event planner arranges accommodation for a wedding party.
AI voice agents handle the initial booking and deposit capture. For transactions where DTMF isn't practical — the caller is on a conference phone, or company policy requires invoice-based payment — the AI agent sends a branded payment link via SMS or email. The caller completes payment on their device while the conversation continues.
Split payments across multiple cost centres, purchase order references, and corporate billing requirements are handled through the payment layer's configuration.
Late Checkout, Early Check-In, and Incidentals
Operational payments that happen post-booking — during the stay or at departure.
A guest calls the front desk AI: "Can I get a late checkout until 2pm?" The AI agent checks availability, quotes the fee, captures payment, and confirms. No queue at reception. No "please come to the front desk." The guest's checkout is extended before they've finished their coffee.
Minibar settlements, room service charges, parking fees — each can be captured by the AI agent when the guest calls to inquire. Incremental authorisations handle the variable nature of these charges: an initial hold at check-in, with additional captures as services are used.
AI Voice Payments for Online Travel Agencies
OTAs face a different version of the same problem — but at platform scale, with multi-supplier complexity layered on top.
A hotel chain deploys AI agents across its own properties. An OTA deploys AI agents across thousands of suppliers it doesn't control — airlines, hotels, car rentals, transfers, experience providers — each with their own PSP requirements, settlement terms, and cancellation policies.
The payment moment is even more critical for OTAs. They're intermediaries. They don't own the inventory. Every failed payment, every dropped conversion, every "I'll email you a link" is revenue that walks to a competitor who can close faster.
The OTA Payment Problem Is Multi-Supplier by Default
A customer calls an OTA to modify a trip. The AI agent needs to:
Rebook a flight — the airline mandates payment through its designated acquirer (this isn't optional; IATA BSP/ARC requirements dictate which processors handle ticket sales)
Adjust the hotel reservation — the hotel chain requires processing through its corporate PSP
Reschedule a transfer — the local transfer operator settles through a regional payment provider
Recalculate the package price — the customer owes an additional £340 across three suppliers in two currencies
Without AI voice payment infrastructure, the agent says: "I've updated your itinerary. You'll receive an email with a payment link for the additional charges." The customer hangs up. Maybe they pay. Maybe they abandon the modification. Maybe they call back to a competitor.
With AI voice payment infrastructure, the agent captures the £340 mid-call. The payment layer splits and routes: airline portion to the airline's mandated acquirer, hotel portion to the hotel's PSP, transfer portion to the local provider. One DTMF entry from the customer. Three transactions behind the scenes. Booking confirmed before the call ends.
Cancellations and Refund Processing
OTAs handle enormous volumes of cancellations and modifications — weather disruptions, schedule changes, personal emergencies, flexible booking policies.
An AI voice agent can handle the entire cancellation flow: confirm the booking, explain the cancellation policy, process the refund (full or partial depending on the policy), and confirm the refund timeline. For modifications that result in a fare difference, the agent captures the additional payment or confirms the refund amount — all in a single call.
The payment layer handles refunds back through the original PSP, manages partial refunds across multi-supplier bookings, and ensures the reconciliation is clean. No manual intervention. No back-office queue.
For mass disruption events — an airline cancels 200 flights, a hotel closes for emergency renovation — AI agents handle the inbound call surge. Each call: confirm the affected booking, explain the options (refund, rebook, credit), process the customer's choice, capture any fare differences if rebooking. Human agents focus on complex cases and escalations.
High-Value Phone Bookings
Despite the dominance of online booking, a significant percentage of OTA revenue comes from phone bookings — particularly for complex itineraries.
Multi-city trips. Round-the-world tickets. Honeymoon packages with multiple hotels and experiences. Corporate travel with specific airline and hotel requirements. Group bookings for conferences and events.
These are high-value transactions — often £5,000 to £50,000+ — where the customer wants to talk through options. AI voice agents handle the availability checks, pricing, and itinerary assembly. When the customer is ready, payment is captured mid-call: deposit for the package, with balance payments scheduled via tokenised card.
The alternative — "I'll send you an invoice" — introduces days of delay on a high-value booking that a competitor could close in minutes.
Multi-Currency at OTA Scale
An OTA serves customers globally. A German customer books a Bali resort through a UK-based OTA. The customer pays in euros. The OTA takes commission in pounds. The resort settles in Indonesian rupiah.
Now multiply that across thousands of bookings per day, dozens of currencies, and hundreds of suppliers. Each currency conversion is either a cost centre or a margin opportunity. A 50-basis-point difference on FX across £100M in annual bookings is £500K in margin.
AI voice payment infrastructure must handle dynamic currency conversion at the point of capture — the customer hears the price in their home currency, the payment layer converts and routes to the supplier's PSP in the supplier's currency, and the OTA's commission is calculated and settled in the OTA's reporting currency.
OTA-Specific Architecture Requirements
Beyond the core architecture (DTMF capture, multi-PSP routing, payment link fallback), OTAs need:
Split payments across suppliers — a single customer payment distributed to multiple parties (airline, hotel, transfer, insurance provider) with different settlement terms and currencies
Airline acquirer mandates — IATA BSP/ARC compliance requires specific acquirers for ticket sales; the payment layer must route airline ticket payments to the mandated processor regardless of the OTA's preferred PSP
Supplier-level PSP configuration — each hotel chain, airline, and supplier may require a different gateway; configuration at the supplier level, not just the region level
Tokenisation for instalment payments — deposit now, balance later; the card captured during the AI voice call produces a token used for scheduled balance payments without the customer calling again
Chargeback management across PSPs — travel has among the highest chargeback rates in e-commerce; the payment layer must support dispute evidence submission and representment across whichever PSP processed the original transaction
For the complete picture of OTA and travel platform payment infrastructure beyond AI voice, see Payments for Travel Platforms: Multi-PSP, Multi-Currency Infrastructure.
The Architecture
Hotel and travel AI voice payments require a specific architecture. Generic payment APIs — designed for web checkout — don't work in a voice context.
DTMF Capture with Tone Masking
Card data is entered via the guest's phone keypad during the AI conversation. DTMF tones are captured within a PCI DSS Level 1 certified environment and stripped from the audio stream in real time.
The AI model never sees card data. Call recordings are clean. The hotel's property management system, CRM, and telephony infrastructure remain completely outside PCI scope.
Tone masking must happen at the telephony layer — real-time, before the audio reaches any other system. Post-processing approaches (stripping tones from recordings after the fact) don't satisfy PCI requirements. The tones must never be in the stream in the first place.
For the guest, the experience is seamless. They hear the AI agent's voice throughout. They type on their keypad. The conversation continues without interruption.
Multi-PSP Routing Per Property and Region
The payment layer routes each transaction to the correct PSP based on the hotel chain's configuration:
By region: European properties route to Adyen, US to Worldpay, APAC to a regional acquirer
By brand: A hotel group's luxury brand may use a different acquirer than its economy brand
By payment method: Card transactions to one PSP, local payment methods (Alipay, iDEAL, PIX) to another
By supplier: OTAs routing airline payments to the airline's mandated acquirer, hotel payments to the hotel's PSP
New PSPs are added through configuration, not code. The AI agent doesn't know which PSP is processing a given payment — and doesn't need to. It calls the payment API; the layer handles the routing.
This is what it means to be PSP-neutral at the AI agent layer. The hotel keeps its existing PSP relationships. The AI agent works with all of them.
Multi-Currency Handling
Travel is inherently cross-border. A French guest booking a Thai hotel through a UK OTA involves three currencies. The payment layer handles:
Guest-facing: Dynamic currency conversion — the guest pays in their home currency
Property-level: Settlement in the property's local currency
Chain/OTA level: Reporting in the group's reporting currency
Each conversion is transparent. FX rates are visible in the merchant portal. Competitive rates matter — a 50-basis-point difference on currency conversion across millions of bookings directly impacts margin.
Pre-Authorisation, Delayed Capture, and Incremental Auth
Hotels don't work like e-commerce. Payment flows are multi-step:
Pre-auth at booking: Hold funds for the room deposit without capturing
Capture at check-in: Charge the confirmed amount when the guest arrives
Incremental auth during stay: Additional holds for incidentals (minibar, room service, damage deposit)
Partial capture at checkout: Final charge may differ from the original hold
Auto-release: Unused holds expire based on configurable timeouts
Any payment infrastructure that only supports simple charge-and-capture is fundamentally incomplete for hospitality. Pre-auth, delayed capture, incremental auth, and partial capture are the default flow — not edge cases.
SMS Payment Link Fallback
When DTMF isn't practical — guest on a landline without a keypad, poor international line quality, guest preference for visual checkout — the AI agent sends a branded payment link via SMS during the call.
"I've just sent a payment link to your mobile. You can complete the payment there while we're on the line."
The guest taps the link, sees a branded checkout page (hotel's brand, not a third-party page), and pays using cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay, or local payment methods. The result is returned to the AI agent. The conversation continues.
This covers the full range of voice-to-payment scenarios without any card data entering the hotel's environment. For more on this approach, see PCI-Compliant Payments for Contact Centres.
PMS and Booking System Integration
Payment events — authorisation, capture, refund, chargeback — are pushed to the hotel's property management system via webhooks. Real-time folio updates when a deposit is captured. Automatic reconciliation across properties, brands, and PSPs through a single dashboard.
The AI agent's booking system knows that a payment was successful before the call ends. The guest's folio is updated before they hang up. No manual reconciliation. No overnight batch processing.
For OTAs and travel platforms, webhook integration connects to the booking engine — payment status drives booking confirmation, ticket issuance, and supplier notification automatically.
How It Works in Practice
AI voice agent platforms integrate Shuttle's Voice Checkout via a single API. The voice agent handles the conversation. Shuttle handles the payment capture. The architecture is vendor-neutral on both sides:
Any AI voice agent platform. Shuttle works with whatever voice AI the hotel or travel platform deploys — the same way it works with any telephony provider. Single API integration. No vendor lock-in on the AI side.
Any PSP. 40+ payment gateways supported through one integration. The hotel's treasury team keeps their existing PSP relationships. Regional routing, brand-level configuration, supplier mandates — all handled through configuration.
This is already proven in production across AI voice agent deployments in regulated industries — where PCI compliance, multi-PSP routing, and audit requirements are at least as demanding as hospitality.
The integration typically takes a single developer one to two weeks. PSP configuration and testing add another week. Compare that to building DTMF capture, PCI-certified infrastructure, and multi-PSP routing from scratch.
What Hotels and Travel Platforms Should Evaluate
If you're a hotel chain, OTA, or travel platform evaluating AI voice payment infrastructure:
PCI DSS Level 1 certification — the payment capture environment must be certified at the highest level. Not Level 2. Not "PCI compliant" without specifying the level. Level 1 — the same standard that applies to Visa and Mastercard themselves. Hotel chains processing card data across hundreds of properties need this.
PSP flexibility — can your properties keep their existing PSP relationships? Can you route to different gateways per region, brand, or supplier? 40+ gateway support through a single integration prevents lock-in and satisfies corporate treasury mandates.
DTMF capture quality — tone suppression must happen in real time at the telephony layer. Not post-processing. Real-time masking ensures card data never enters the audio stream, recordings, or any hotel system.
Multi-currency — does it handle guest-pays-in-home-currency, property-settles-in-local-currency, chain-reports-in-reporting-currency? Travel payments are inherently multi-currency. Competitive FX rates that don't eat margin on every booking.
Pre-authorisation and delayed capture — can it handle hotel payment flows? Deposit at booking, capture at check-in, incremental auth during stay, partial capture at checkout. If the payment infrastructure only supports simple charge-and-capture, it doesn't work for hotels.
SMS payment link fallback — can the AI agent send a branded payment link during the call for guests who prefer visual checkout? This bridges voice and digital channels.
PMS integration — real-time webhook notifications to the property management system. Automatic folio updates. Cross-property reconciliation.
White-label checkout — guests see the hotel's brand throughout the payment experience. No redirects to third-party pages. Consistent with the booking flow.
Scale — can it deploy across hundreds of properties without per-property integration? Chain-level configuration that applies to all properties, with overrides where needed.
Compliance documentation — audit-ready data flows showing exactly where card data was captured and processed. ISO 27001 and SOC 2 alongside PCI DSS Level 1.
FAQ
How do AI voice agents capture hotel payments securely? The guest enters card details via their phone keypad (DTMF) during the AI conversation. The tones are intercepted by a PCI DSS Level 1 certified payment environment and stripped from the audio stream in real time. The AI model, call recordings, and hotel systems never see card data. The hotel's PCI scope for voice payments drops from SAQ-D (300+ requirements) to SAQ-A (roughly 20).
What happens if the guest can't use DTMF? The AI agent sends a branded payment link via SMS. The guest completes payment on their device — using cards, digital wallets, or local payment methods — while the conversation continues. This handles guests on landlines without keypads, poor line quality situations, and guests who simply prefer a visual checkout.
Can AI voice payments work with our existing hotel PSP? Yes. The payment layer supports 40+ PSPs through a single integration. Your existing PSP relationships stay intact. Different properties, regions, and brands can use different gateways — all configured centrally, not coded per property.
How does multi-currency work for international hotel guests? The guest pays in their preferred currency. The property settles in local currency. The chain reports in its reporting currency. Currency conversion is handled by the payment layer with transparent, competitive FX rates visible in the merchant portal.
What PCI compliance level is needed for AI voice payments in hotels? PCI DSS Level 1 — the highest certification tier. This is the standard for service providers handling card data. It ensures the DTMF capture environment meets the strictest security requirements. Hotels using a Level 1 certified payment layer for voice payments keep their own PCI scope at SAQ-A.
How long does it take to deploy AI voice payments across a hotel chain? The payment layer integration takes one to two weeks for a single developer. PSP configuration and testing add another week. This is a single integration that works across all properties — not a per-property deployment. Compare that to 12+ months and $2M+ for building PCI-certified voice payment infrastructure in-house.
Does this work with our existing AI voice agent? Yes. The payment layer integrates with any AI voice agent platform via API. It's vendor-neutral — the same way it's PSP-neutral. Whatever voice AI you've deployed (or plan to deploy), the payment capture infrastructure works alongside it.
How do OTAs handle multi-supplier payment splitting with AI voice agents? The customer makes a single DTMF payment entry. The payment layer splits and routes the transaction behind the scenes — airline portion to the airline's mandated acquirer, hotel portion to the hotel's PSP, transfer portion to the local provider. Each supplier's PSP requirements, settlement terms, and currency are handled through configuration. The AI agent and the customer see one payment; the payment layer handles the complexity.
Can AI voice agents handle airline acquirer mandates for OTAs? Yes. Airlines operating through IATA require ticket payments to be processed through specific acquirers (BSP/ARC). The payment layer routes airline ticket payments to the mandated processor — regardless of the OTA's preferred PSP for other transactions. This is configured at the supplier level, so each airline's requirements are met automatically.
Capture payments in AI voice conversations — across any hotel, any PSP, any currency. See how Shuttle connects AI voice agents to 40+ payment gateways with PCI DSS Level 1 compliance, DTMF capture, multi-currency, and pre-authorisation support. Live in weeks.
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