InterContinental Buckhead Atlanta Cuts Down Chargebacks by 86%

Opportunity

Before Sertifi, the IHG hotel property collected authorization forms for third-party reservations, amenity requests, and sales via printing and faxing. This required collecting copies of the cardholder’s ID, which the manager on duty had to carefully review, plus physical storage of forms.

“It was quite an unfriendly administrative journey," said Jennifer Lombard Knight, director of front office operations.

The Sertifi Solution

By implementing Sertifi's credit card authorization solution, the property:

✅ Increased security and PCI compliance.

The hotel now sends all authorization forms to guests via email to complete securely online in a PCI-compliant manner. Each form includes an e-signature from the cardholder to further help reduce the amount of disputes, strengthen protection from scams, and prevent revenue loss.

✅ Reduced fraud and chargebacks.

Since implementing Sertifi, the property has radically reduced the number of monthly chargebacks and non-refundable chargeback fees from their acquiring bank. Aside from better control over fraudulent activity, the team's also spending less manual time filing and following up on fraud-related cases.

✅ Increased turnaround times by 18x.

Since implementing Sertifi, the total working time required of a guest is 18x quicker. They're no longer hassled with locating a functioning printer and fax machine and can sign anywhere, anytime.

This led to an overall turnaround time taking minutes instead of days, letting staff focus on what matters most: creating extraordinary guest experiences.

✅ Guaranteed complete forms.

Sertifi also helps combat incomplete forms, like forms missing address information, erroneous forms containing mistakes, and illegible forms. These issues used to occur 40% of the time, created prolonged delays and forcing employees to spend countless hours on follow-ups.