Credit card payments (article)

Susana Moleón
Susana Moleón
  • Updated

Where do I find it?

CONFIGURATION > SYSTEM & SETUP > Credit card payments

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What does it mean?

The challenge

Taking credit card payments from your customers is not trivial. There are several players involved and they all need to be compatible with each other.

The payment gateway providers listed on this page are integrated within TourCMS to varying degrees. Where fully integrated, it means you can get started with minimal hassle (though never completely “no hassle”).

The basics – the 4 layers

There are 4 layers within a typical credit card payment setup:

  1. Bank account

  2. Internet-permitted merchant account

    • Usually provided by your bank (but not always).

  3. Payment gateway

  4. TourCMS booking software

Key checks:

  • Your merchant account must be compatible with your payment gateway.

  • Your payment gateway must be compatible with TourCMS.

If any one of the links in this chain is not compatible, payments will fail.

Choosing a merchant account

Your choice of merchant account may be constrained by:

  • Your bank

  • Your trade association or regulatory requirements

Why banks can be reluctant
For travel companies, there is often a long delay between payment and service delivery (6–12 months, sometimes up to 18 months). This exposes banks to more risk than a typical e‑commerce transaction, where purchase and delivery are close in time.

Choosing your payment gateway

Your choice of payment gateway should be based mainly on:

  1. Compatibility with TourCMS

    • TourCMS supports the following gateways: Palisis Marketpay, Nets, Spreedly, Trust My Travel, Worldpay.

    • Among these, Palisis Marketpay is our recommended and primary solution. It is fully integrated with all TourCMS channels – your website, online booking engine, and B2B/agent channels – ensuring a consistent and streamlined payment experience across your entire setup.

    • For new or standard TourCMS implementations, you should treat Palisis Marketpay as your default/first choice for taking credit card payments.

PCI compliance

The https://www.pcisecuritystandards.org/ define how you must handle and protect credit card data.
If you have a merchant account, you have agreed to comply with these standards.

TourCMS and PCI compliance:

  • TourCMS never stores your customers’ credit card data.

  • We only work with hosted payment page solutions provided by the gateway.

Non-compliant behaviors (examples):

  • Asking customers to send card details via email.

  • Taking credit card details and sending them insecurely to suppliers for direct charging.

  • Storing full credit card details to reuse later (e.g. charging a balance).

  • Storing credit card details inside notes in TourCMS.

Please seek your own legal/PCI advice for your specific country and situation.

 

What should I do?

1. Decide on your primary payment approach

For most Palisis / TourCMS customers:

  • Choose Palisis Marketpay as your primary gateway.

    • It is fully integrated with TourCMS.

    • It works across website, booking engine and B2B channels.

    • It simplifies onboarding, operations, and support.

If you already work with Nets, Spreedly, Trust My Travel, or Worldpay, you can continue to use them where needed, but for new setups or standard Palisis deployments, Palisis Marketpay should be your default choice.

2. Ensure you have a compatible merchant account (if applicable)

If you are not using a solution that bundles the merchant account (e.g. some Trust My Travel setups):

  • Check with your bank or payment provider about:

    • Internet-permitted merchant account

    • Supported currencies

    • Allowed regions / card schemes

If you operate in the UK and struggle to get a merchant account, consider the trade bodies/insurance schemes listed above or Partners like Trust My Travel.

3. Create a payment gateway in TourCMS

In TourCMS:

  1. Go to CONFIGURATION > SYSTEM & SETUP > Credit card payments.fcc646b2-2ee5-4fba-8c8c-1af5566849ee.pngaa3f9e41-50c0-4064-bf62-a07b80859208.png

  2. Scroll down to “Create a new Payment Gateway”.a6773e30-7585-4255-aeef-26e802d0ef82.png

  3. Enter:

    1. A name for the payment gateway (e.g. “Palisis Marketpay – Online”, “Palisis Marketpay – POS”).

    2. Select your preferred payment gateway from the list (recommended: Palisis Marketpay).

  4. Click “Create”.

  5. Complete any additional configuration fields required for that gateway (API keys, merchant IDs, etc.).

Repeat this process as needed for multiple channels or for separate web and POS configurations.

4. Configure PCI-safe payment flows

Avoid storing or transmitting card data in insecure ways (email, notes, spreadsheets).

Use hosted payment pages provided by your gateway.

If supported by your gateway, enable and use token-based billing in TourCMS for balance and repeat payments.

5. Test your setup

Before going live:

Make a test booking through your website / booking engine.

Verify:

The payment page loads correctly (languages, branding, HTTPS).

The booking is confirmed in TourCMS.

The transaction appears correctly in the gateway’s backend.

If you use B2B / agent channels, test a booking via those channels too.

 

Specific technical questions for you to investigate

Languages for hosted pages

Customers will be adding their card details using a payment page hosted by the payment gateway. Not all gateways support all languages.

Does the payment gateway give you a virtual terminal facility?

e.g. If you have the customer's card, can you charge it directly?

Can it handle multi currency?

e.g. For Barclaycard, you have to have a second merchant account to handle a second currency. A non-primary currency merchant account may have significantly higher fees (although this can be got around by using a second bank account in your non-primary currency)

How are refunds handled?

Can you do them? What are the rules etc? Can you do a partial refund or can you only refund the entire original transaction?

AUTH transactions

An AUTH transaction is when you check a card for validity and that there are available funds on the credit card. For example, you may want to take (then store) a customers card details during the upfront online booking process - but charge the card subsequently. This can be very helpful for tailor-made tours where the final price isn't known at the point of initial booking. Some systems only permit the original authorized value to be charged subsequently. Others, like Payment Express, permit you to charge any value subsequently (on a stored card).