Feb 21st, 2007
Online Secure Reservations
It appears there are still hotel/hostels/tour operators who do not care about security on the Internet… or ignore the importance of it.
Los Amigos Hostel in Madrid ask people to fill their credit card information in a non-secure form while making their reservation. You can see it by yourself at: http://www.losamigoshostel.com/b/english/reservations_sol.htm. I don’t know where goes the credit card information but it doesn’t make me feel safe about it.
What should they do? They should either:
- Stop asking credit card numbers in this form.
- Buy a security certificate (SSL certificate) from Thawte, Verisign or from another provider. Install it on the server. And change the URL from http:// to https://.
- Ask people to reserve via GOMIO.com, hostelbookers.com, hostels.com or another online booking services company.
- Use PayPal Website Payments Standard to do the transaction for you.
You would not let the waiter in a restaurant tell everyone your credit card number, your online customers neither…