Overview
No property can eliminate chargebacks entirely, but following these practices significantly reduces your exposure — particularly for fraud-related disputes.
Top 10 best practices
- Do not accept reservations made within 24–48 hours of check-in without additional verification of the cardholder's identity.
- Do not accept a credit card if the billing address provided and the address on the authorization are drastically different.
- Do not automatically accept credit cards with a partial AVS match — review these reservations manually before processing.
- Do not accept bookings from third-party vendors combined with a same-day reservation without additional verification.
- Always collect a signed credit card authorization form before the guest's arrival. A completed Sertifi eAuthorization is your strongest evidence in a dispute.
- Enable AVS checking on your portal so address mismatches are flagged automatically.
- Use Sertifi's fraud score tools to flag high-risk transactions for manual review before accepting them.
- Keep records of all guest communications — confirmation emails, pre-arrival messages, and any policy acknowledgments.
- Ensure your cancellation policy is clearly stated in your authorization form and that guests acknowledge it before signing.
- If a dispute is received, respond immediately with your full evidence package — signed forms, timestamps, IP addresses, and any communication logs.
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