Germain Hotels turns payments into a foundation for the guest experience

"For the longest time, it felt like payment processing was an afterthought in hospitality," Bureau says. "Payments felt like a cost to doing business, where the provider that qualified with the necessary integrations at the lowest cost is the one that won."

As Germain Hotels expanded its Canadian portfolio, it took the opportunity to reevaluate its payments ecosystem. The goal was to make better use of its payments data, simplify terminal management, and automate manual processes like reconciliation, all while supporting continued growth.

“Our point-of-sale systems weren’t integrated with our terminals,” Bureau explains. “That created more room for human error and made consolidation more time-consuming. We wanted a payments setup that could connect our operations more effectively, improve visibility, and help our teams automate more of the work behind the scenes.”

The strain landed hardest on IT and finance, where teams spent significant time manually reconciling data across the property's management, point-of-sale, and central reservation systems.

When Germain Hotels began evaluating solutions, one requirement kept rising to the top: the need for a single platform.

"For our technology team, having a single environment to manage, automated reconciliation, and real-time visibility across all business lines has been a true strategic advantage.”

Charles Bureau

VP of Information Technology

As Germain Hotels enhanced its direct booking experience, payments became more than just the final step in the guest journey. Offering a broader range of payment methods would better position the company to serve international travelers and meet changing guest expectations.

At the same time, the team wanted the ability to validate payment cards at the time of reservation, helping reduce invalid bookings and giving staff greater confidence before guests arrived. 

Because it operates several lines of business, the guest experience doesn’t stop at booking. Germain Hotels also needed terminals that could adapt to different contexts within the same property:

• A branded countertop device at the front desk

• A handheld for servers taking tableside orders

• A discreet option for concierge staff

Adyen provides hardware tailored to each of these touchpoints, bringing everything under a single network and management system so the team doesn't have to juggle separate vendors.

Consolidating onto Adyen produced tangible changes across how technology, finance, and operations work day to day for the hotelier.

1. Simplified infrastructure for the technology team Previously, terminals ran on different networks with limited visibility into their status, and troubleshooting required significant IT involvement at every turn. "We had multiple potential points of failure and network rules to implement, which meant there was no flexibility to move fast," Bureau explains. Now, the technology team manages one environment. Terminal status is visible across all properties, and developers can integrate Adyen directly into custom-built tools.

2. Automated reconciliation for finance Manual reconciliation across three separate systems had been one of the most time-consuming parts of the finance team's work. With the help of Adyen, that process will be automated and transactional data flows will be into a single consolidated source. "A key component in our deployment was automating reconciliation," Bureau says. "Being guided through our first steps to access the data is a meaningful part of how Adyen supported the migration."

3. Broader payment coverage for guests With a single platform connecting online booking, front desk, and food and beverage, Germain Hotels can now support a wider range of payment methods across every touchpoint, narrowing the gap with online travel agencies and giving international guests more ways to book directly.

Streamlining day-to-day operations is great, but Germain Hotels is looking at a much bigger picture. The real payoff lies in using unified payment data to build a stronger foundation for its loyalty strategy and create more connected guest experiences.

"Payments are no longer just about processing transactions," Bureau says. "They're becoming a strategic part of how we automate operations, unlock better data, and make smarter decisions across the business."

With a unified data layer underneath every touchpoint, whether a guest books online, checks in at the front desk, or dines in the restaurant that evening, Germain Hotels can start connecting those moments and build personalized experiences in a way that couldn’t be done before.

Looking back on Germain's payments journey, Bureau encourages peers across the industry to treat payments as a strategic decision rather than a procurement exercise.

"When evaluating a payments partner, analyze the needs of all business lines holistically. Now more than ever, payments are deeply rooted not only in accounting, but in guest experience, technology infrastructure, business intelligence, distribution, sales and marketing."

Charles Bureau

VP of Information Technology at Germain Hotels

"The right payments partner should do more than process transactions. They should help you understand your guests better, operate more efficiently, and build toward the experience you actually want to deliver," Bureau says.