Your guests want to be sure that the data they give you is secure. If it isn't, it reflects poorly on your business and is liable to not only lose individual bookings, but cause a negative word-of-mouth campaign to occur. "Can you believe so-and-so was taking credit cards without SSL security?"

If you are asking for information from your guests, make sure it is secure. Many properties out there are using request forms to collect guests' requested dates, and are asking for a credit card. Some of them aren't secure. This allows nasty people on the Internet to peep in at the data as it is being sent from the guests' computer to yours. This leads to stolen cards. It could also lead to an even worse rap about your property.

SSL stands for Secure Socket Layer, which doesn't mean much to normal people, but is the name of the encryption that is used to send data between computers. Normally businesses ask their webmasters or hosting company to provide a secure page for forms that are taking guest data.

To find out if your pages that capture client data are secure, go to the page and look for this lock image at the bottom right of your web browser:

If the page doesn't show this lock, the guest is going to assume you aren't securing the data and go away.

Contact your web master and tell them to secure the page right away or take out the credit card capture fields until such time as the page is secure. You can get the credit cards from the guest yet by other means. There are weird situations where the page might be secure, but the lock isn't showing. Tell your webmaster that without the lock showing, people will go away.

Better yet, switch to the Quokka Online Booking System, which is fully secured on every page. We decided that none of the transmissions between the guest and our system were anyone's business except the property's.

You need to tell your guests loudly and clearly that the security of their data is of huge importance to you. Much of a sale is based on trust. You will build trust with your guests if you secure their data.

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