Kovena

Kovena: Embedded Payments Built For Hotels And Hospitality

Kovena positions itself as the world’s first hotel-only payment solution. That industry focus shows up in the feature set, implementation approach, and content across its site. For accommodation providers, the value is being able to handle deposits, prepayments, and in-stay charges directly in the PMS interface without jumping to a separate terminal or browser tab. For software platforms, the value is a white-label embedded payments layer that unlocks new revenue.

Kovena operates as an embedded gateway that replaces a traditional merchant facility. Out of the box, it supports acceptance for Visa, Mastercard, and American Express and adds customizable 3-D Secure tools to help manage fraud. Availability is currently by request.

Who Kovena Is For

Accommodation providers and hotel groups

Kovena is built for hotels, resorts, lodges, serviced apartments, and other accommodation brands that want to collect payments in a secure, consistent, and guest-friendly way. Providers can trigger payment requests, collect deposits before arrival, and centralize transaction activity in their PMS. The company highlights that managing payments directly in the PMS removes manual card entry and toggling between windows.

Hospitality software companies

If you build PMS or booking engine software, Kovena offers a white-label model so you can embed payments, negotiate competitive base rates, and share in the mark-up. Kovena frames this as a way to add meaningful ARR while delivering a specialized hospitality payments experience to your customer base.

Travel and tourism partners

Kovena also promotes tailored solutions for TMCs and tourism technology providers, indicating a payment stack that fits complex booking flows and back-office requirements in travel. In Australia and New Zealand, Secure Travel Payments cites Kovena as the platform powering its integrated gateway for leading tourism tech platforms.

Key Capabilities

Embedded payments in your PMS or booking engine

Kovena focuses on embedding payments where hospitality teams already manage inventory and reservations. The goal is to reduce friction for staff and guests while consolidating payment operations into a single pane of glass. Kovena’s materials emphasize eliminating manual card entry and processing transactions straight from the PMS dashboard.

Major card acceptance with flexible authentication

As an embedded gateway, Kovena supports Visa, Mastercard, and Amex. It also includes free, configurable 3-D Secure controls so hotels can tailor authentication to risk and region while protecting conversion.

Online payment requests and pre-arrival collection

Hotels can send secure payment requests that allow guests to pay deposits or balances before arrival. This streamlines check-in and helps reduce in-person transactions at the front desk. Kovena’s guidance highlights convenience for guests and operational benefits for the property.

Focus on reducing no-shows and improving cash flow

Kovena’s content links embedded payments and pre-arrival collection to fewer no-shows and stronger cash flow. Its blog references research on the cost of no-shows in Pacific markets and points to online check-in with payments as a mitigation strategy.

Compliance and security at scale

Kovena states that it operates to PCI DSS Level 1 standards and supports organizations in maintaining SOC 1, SOC 2, PCI Level 1, and GDPR requirements, which is critical for global hotel brands and their technology partners.

How Kovena Works In Practice

For properties

Teams manage bookings and payments inside the PMS, collect deposits via online requests, and apply 3-D Secure when needed. The intent is to centralize workflows: fewer devices at the front desk, fewer browser tabs, and less re-keying of sensitive card data. Staff interact with a single dashboard rather than switching to a separate gateway portal for everyday tasks.

Kovena also maintains a merchant portal for account access and reporting, indicating a conventional gateway back office alongside the embedded experience. This provides finance and reservations teams with visibility into settlement activity and transaction history.

For software platforms

PMS and booking engine providers can embed the Kovena stack as a white-label offering. Kovena underscores the ability to negotiate competitive base rates and share in the mark-up, positioning payments as a new line of recurring revenue. Customer testimonials highlight time savings and stickier relationships with hotel clients once payments are integrated.

For travel and tourism ecosystems

In markets like Australia and New Zealand, Kovena powers solutions such as Secure Travel Payments, which serve a broad network of tourism technology platforms. This signals that Kovena’s architecture can support multi-party integrations and regional partnerships where industry-specific features matter.

Business Impact For Hotels

Better guest experience

Pre-arrival payments remove friction at check-in and let guests settle balances from their device of choice. Hotels can also handle split payments for groups when needed, helping teams avoid manual reconciliation.

Operational efficiency

Front-office teams avoid copying card numbers into terminals or switching between systems. That saves time, reduces errors, and limits exposure to sensitive data. Finance teams gain a central source of truth for reconciliation and reporting.

Revenue protection

With configurable 3-D Secure and a push toward taking deposits earlier, properties can reduce chargeback exposure and no-shows, while improving cash predictability across seasons.

Where Kovena Fits In Your Stack

Ideal scenarios

• You run a hotel or accommodation brand and want payments to live inside your PMS without extra terminals.

• You plan to increase pre-arrival collections to cut no-shows and remove friction at check-in.

• You build or sell PMS or booking engines and want a white-label payments layer that can add ARR with competitive base rates.

Conclusion

If your business is in hospitality, Kovena is worth shortlisting when you want an embedded, card-first gateway that lives inside your PMS, helps you take more payments before arrival, and supports advanced authentication without compromising conversion. For hospitality software providers, Kovena’s white-label model can turn payments into an additional revenue stream while giving hotels a solution designed around their day-to-day reality.