Sheraton Lake Como

The Sheraton Lake Como was looking for a payments provider which could transform its business by offering additional card processing services and features to specifically meet the needs of its international customer base.

“It was a payments strategy decision,” says Elena De Santis, Director of Finance at the Sheraton.

“We wanted to work with a top, global player so Marriott introduced us to Elavon, its preferred European payments processor, and we took advantage of that opportunity.”

As a franchisee of the Marriott group, the hotel also benefited from Marriott’s existing relationship with Elavon, allowing it to secure the best possible commercial deal, security and stability and an on-boarding experience which understood the complexities of a multi-national franchise.

“We had access to a dedicated Elavon relationship manager, and we could take advantage of the global economics negotiating with Marriott,” says Andrea Caniggia, Financial Controller at the Sheraton. “We trusted that if there were any issues, Marriott and Elavon’s partnership could support us.”

As well as leaning on Marriott’s existing relationship with Elavon, Elena says Elavon’s partnership with FreedomPay  was an attractive proposition when considering its payments in the Passalacqua.

Elavon has been partnering in Europe on a first-class hospitality solution with FreedomPay.

The solution doesn’t require businesses to replace their current infrastructure. Instead, it uses APIs and application toolkits to knit together data from existing Point-of-Sale (POS) terminals, apps and web systems, CRM and ERP platforms. As a result, hospitality companies can provide seamless payments processing and simplified reporting without the cost or disruption of moving to a new system.

“We prefer Elavon because it’s global, and Elavon works with FreedomPay, which is one of the most advanced commerce platforms for payments, which local providers cannot offer,” says Elena. “Our business is in Italy but 90% of our revenue comes from international clients so we prefer to work with a global player like Elavon.”
Andrea agrees the partnership held sway.