Do I need a card machine from my bank to use Tap to Pay?

No. With Tap to Pay the phone itself is the reader: you need a Stripe account connected to your property management system and a compatible phone (an iPhone or an NFC-enabled Android phone). There is no terminal to rent. If you would rather have a dedicated device, you can pair a Bluetooth reader that works with Stripe Terminal.

How much does it cost to take payments with Tap to Pay?

The feature is included in your Vezpa subscription. On every transaction taken through Vezpa and Stripe, card payments in person included, Vezpa keeps 0.5%. Stripe's own fees depend on your country and the type of card: you will find them, always up to date, at stripe.com/pricing.

Are card details stored on my phone?

No. Reading the card and processing the payment are handled by Stripe, which takes care of PCI compliance. Neither your phone nor your PMS keeps the full card number: the receipt only shows the card brand and the last four digits.

Is the payment receipt a VAT invoice?

No. It is a payment receipt that confirms the card payment to your guest. If your guest needs an invoice, or you have other tax obligations, you issue and handle those separately.

Can I take a payment from a guest who is not at the property?

Yes, but not with Tap to Pay, which needs the card physically close to the phone. For guests who are elsewhere you send a payment link: copy it, email it, or open it ready-written in WhatsApp, and the guest pays from their own device.

Tap to Pay for B&Bs, guest houses and holiday lets: take cards on your phone

Paolo Vezzola

Founder · Vezpa PMS · Profile →

It is ten to seven, your guests have a ferry to catch and they still owe the balance for their stay. The card machine is in a drawer, flat, and the terminal rental contract still costs you every month whether you use it or not. With Tap to Pay the card machine is the phone already in your pocket: the guest taps their card, phone or watch, and the payment lands on their booking. This guide covers what you can take, when a separate reader still makes sense, how security works and what to set up before your first payment.

1. What Tap to Pay is (and what it is not)

Tap to Pay turns a phone with an NFC chip into a terminal for contactless card payments. On iPhone it is called Tap to Pay on iPhone, on Android Tap to Pay on Android. Either way, your property management app opens a payment screen, the guest holds their card (or the wallet on their phone or watch) near yours, and the payment is authorised just as it would be on a traditional card machine.

What it is not:

Not a rented card machine: no monthly terminal fee, no till roll, no extra device to keep charged.
Not a remote payment: the card has to be physically next to the phone. For guests who are not on site you need a payment link (more on that below).
Not an accounting system: the receipt you give your guest confirms the payment, but it does not replace your VAT records or your accountant.

2. What you can take on your phone

Front-desk payments at a small property come in a handful of shapes, and Tap to Pay suits all of them:

The balance at check-out: the most common case, especially for direct bookings and pay-at-property reservations.
A deposit on arrival: for guests who turn up without having paid anything, take part of the stay now and the rest when they leave.
A visitor levy, where one applies to your area: together with the balance or on its own.
Extras: breakfast, drinks from the honesty bar, a taxi transfer, late check-out, bike hire, a treatment in the spa.
One-off amounts: a sale at the desk that does not belong to any stay, with its own description.

3. Three everyday scenarios

The 7 a.m. check-out

Reception opens at eight, your guests leave before that. Whoever is on duty opens the booking on their phone, sees the balance already worked out (room, extras and, if you have set it up, the visitor levy), confirms the amount and asks the guest to tap. Thirty seconds, no hunting for the card machine, and the booking balance goes to zero on its own.

The extra at the bar or in the garden

A glass of wine on the terrace, a bottle for the room, a last-minute airport transfer. You have two options: take it straight away on your phone as a one-off amount, or charge it to the room and let the guest pay everything together at check-out with a single tap.

The guest with no cash

More and more guests, especially from abroad, travel with nothing but a card or a phone. If you used to ask for cash for extras or for the levy, that is exactly where the awkward conversations and the trips to the nearest cash machine started. With Tap to Pay you accept contactless cards and digital wallets without having to explain anything.

4. Phone, reader or link: which one when

Tap to Pay covers most situations, but not all of them. A Bluetooth card reader that works with Stripe Terminal is still handy in some cases, and a payment link solves the ones where the guest is not standing in front of you.

Situation	Tap to Pay on the phone	Bluetooth reader (Stripe Terminal)	Payment link
Small property, a few payments a day	Ideal: no hardware	Not needed	For guests paying before arrival
Busy desk, several check-outs at once	Fine, one phone per member of staff	Useful as a fixed station	Useful for guests who have already left
Chip-only card with no contactless	Cannot read it	Reads chip and contactless	The guest pays on their own device
Phone or country not covered by Tap to Pay	Not available	An alternative that does not depend on Apple's list	Always available once Stripe is connected
Guest far away or already gone	Not possible	Not possible	The right tool

In practice: start with the phone and only buy a reader if you find you need one, for example because you often see cards without contactless or you want a dedicated station at the desk.

5. Security: what happens to your guest's card

Every host asks whether it is safe to let a guest tap their card on your personal phone. The short answer is yes, for three reasons:

Card details never go through your PMS. Reading and processing are handled by Stripe, which takes care of PCI DSS compliance. Neither the phone nor Vezpa keeps the full card number.
Contactless is encrypted. The payment uses the same EMV standards as a traditional card machine, with a one-time code for every transaction. When a PIN is required, the guest enters it on the phone screen.
Only the right people can take money. In Vezpa the card terminal is reserved for roles that handle money: housekeeping and read-only observer accounts do not see the payment button.

A detail that surprises people: on iPhone the PIN pad moves to a different position for every transaction. It is not a bug: it is an Apple anti-fraud measure, so nobody can work out a PIN by watching where the guest taps.

6. The payment receipt for your guest

After paying by card, guests expect something in their hand or their inbox. In Vezpa, once the payment goes through, you choose Print receipt or Send receipt:

A5 format for an ordinary printer, or an 80 mm slip for a thermal roll printer;
By email with the PDF attached and the guest's address already filled in, or shared as a PDF straight from the phone;
What it shows: property name, sequential number, date and time, booking reference, amounts (total, deposit, paid, balance) and the transaction details, with the card shown only by its last four digits.

The receipt stays attached to the payment in the booking, so you can reprint or resend it when a guest asks weeks later. Keep in mind that it is a payment receipt, not a VAT invoice: if one is needed, you issue it separately.

7. Payments linked to the booking and the guest bill

The real advantage of taking payments from your PMS rather than a stand-alone card machine is that there is nothing to reconcile. With a bank terminal, at the end of the day you are left with a list of amounts and have to work out which room each one belongs to. With a built-in card terminal:

you pick the booking (today's departures, arrivals and in-house guests are already listed, the rest you find with search);
the app suggests the balance due, which you can change before confirming, for instance to take only a deposit;
once paid, the payment is recorded on the booking and the balance updates on its own.

With the Vezpa till, the room bill and the extras bill stay separate on the booking: drinks from the bar or items from the property's shop can be charged to the room and settled at check-out, and the end-of-day till summary tells you how much came in by cash, by card or as room charges.

8. Payment links for guests who are not there

Tap to Pay is no use when the guest is not around: the group that has to pay a deposit a week ahead, the guest who left without paying for an extra, the one who would rather pay from the sofa. For them there is a payment link tied to the booking, with the balance already calculated:

Copy link, to paste wherever you like;
WhatsApp, which opens the chat with that guest with the link already written in the message, ready to send from your own device;
Email, sent there and then to the guest's address.

On a computer (the Windows or macOS app) this is exactly what the card terminal does: it does not read cards, it lets you send the link. Card reading is only available in the phone and tablet app.

9. What it costs

The card terminal is included in your Vezpa subscription: no terminal to rent, no extra monthly fee. On every transaction taken through Vezpa and Stripe (booking engine, payment links, card payments in person) Vezpa keeps 0.5%. On top of that comes Stripe's fee, which varies by country and card type and which Stripe updates from time to time: you can always check the current figures at stripe.com/pricing. Funds go to your property's Stripe account and then to your bank account on Stripe's payout schedule.

10. Checklist before your first payment

Connect Stripe to your PMS and complete the account verification: without a verified account you cannot take payments.
Complete your property address: it is one of the details needed to switch on Tap to Pay.
Turn on the card terminal module on the Property page of the app.
Check the phone: a recent iPhone on an up-to-date version of iOS, or an Android phone with NFC and an up-to-date system. On iPhone, activation is done by the manager or the assistant, who accepts Apple's terms.
Turn on location services on the phone: Stripe requires them every time it looks for a reader, Tap to Pay included.
Check that Tap to Pay is available in your country. If it is not, a Bluetooth reader is the alternative.
Decide whether the balance includes the visitor levy: the same setting as for online payments applies.
Run a test with a small amount and try printing and sending the receipt before your first real check-out.
Brief your staff on what to do if the app cannot confirm the outcome: do not take the payment again, check the booking's bill first.

If your phone or country is not supported you are not left without a way to get paid: the Bluetooth reader does not depend on the list of countries for Tap to Pay on iPhone, and the payment link works wherever Stripe is connected.

Tap to Pay on iPhone — Terms and conditions apply. Tap to Pay on iPhone requires a supported payment app and the latest version of iOS. Some contactless cards may not be accepted. The Contactless Symbol is a trademark owned by and used with permission of EMVCo, LLC.

Vezpa: the card terminal is already in the booking

Tap to Pay on iPhone and Android or a Bluetooth reader, balances that update themselves, payment receipts in A5 or 80 mm, and payment links by email or WhatsApp for guests who are not there.

Try the live demo →

Frequently asked questions

Do I need a card machine from my bank to use Tap to Pay?: No. With Tap to Pay the phone itself is the reader: you need a Stripe account connected to your property management system and a compatible phone (an iPhone or an NFC-enabled Android phone). There is no terminal to rent. If you would rather have a dedicated device, you can pair a Bluetooth reader that works with Stripe Terminal.
How much does it cost to take payments with Tap to Pay?: The feature is included in your Vezpa subscription. On every transaction taken through Vezpa and Stripe, card payments in person included, Vezpa keeps 0.5%. Stripe's own fees depend on your country and the type of card: you will find them, always up to date, at stripe.com/pricing.
Are card details stored on my phone?: No. Reading the card and processing the payment are handled by Stripe, which takes care of PCI compliance. Neither your phone nor your PMS keeps the full card number: the receipt only shows the card brand and the last four digits.
Is the payment receipt a VAT invoice?: No. It is a payment receipt that confirms the card payment to your guest. If your guest needs an invoice, or you have other tax obligations, you issue and handle those separately.
Can I take a payment from a guest who is not at the property?: Yes, but not with Tap to Pay, which needs the card physically close to the phone. For guests who are elsewhere you send a payment link: copy it, email it, or open it ready-written in WhatsApp, and the guest pays from their own device.