In this article, we will discuss in detail why coffee shops, restaurants, bars, hotels, inns, and catering companies need PCI DSS certification.

This market segment is called NoReCa, which includes all kinds of hospitality services — hotels, restaurants and catering.
Our company experts believe that the information below is important for everyone who already has or is planning to start a NoReCa business.

Today, people pay for their morning coffee, business lunch and hotel room with payment cards. It is fast and very convenient.
The average person uses a payment card two to ten times a day. Many people are so used to paying with their cards that they don’t think about the safety of their funds at all. People trust and believe that card payments are safe.

We owe this high level of trust to VISA, MasterCard and other payment systems. These payment systems take care of cardholder fund safety and strictly control all participants in the e-payments market.
To secure clients’ money, VISA, MasterCard and other payment systems have developed a security standard — PCI DSS.

PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) is a set of requirements to ensure the security of cardholder data that is stored, transmitted and processed in company information infrastructures.

The key task of PCI DSS is to ensure network infrastructure security and protect stored data on payment cardholders, as these are the most vulnerable areas that directly threaten the loss of confidentiality and funds.

But what does PCI DSS have to do with restaurants, hotels, and other members of the NoReCa business segment?

Any company that accepts payment cards must comply with PCI DSS. Even if the company performs only one transaction per year, it must be certified.

All members of the NoReCa business segment actively accept card payments for their services and products. This is very convenient for clients. For example, using a payment card, you can book a hotel room without leaving your home or office, pay for lunch in a restaurant, or order a food delivery to your home via a website.

There is only one conclusion: coffee shops, restaurants, hotels, inns, and other participants in the NoReCa business segment who wish to satisfy their clients must be certified and meet all the requirements of the PCI DSS.


PCI DSS requires constant monitoring of POS terminals. All personnel must strictly follow the instructions and be able to detect the replacement of the РОS terminal, as well as not leave terminals unattended.
РОS terminals can be subject to a virus attack.

However, if a company has been certified and meets all PCI DSS requirements, it means that the appropriate protection mechanisms against viruses and card data leakage have been implemented.

PCI DSS also requires that websites offering food delivery or hotel booking online should be designed in a secure manner and protected from hacking and data substitution.

PCI DSS requirements not only apply to large restaurants and hotels. If you have a small, two-table, uniquely designed coffee shop, or you bake pies and cakes and sell them via your website while accepting payment cards, you definitely need to be PCI DSS certified.

The same is true for small hotel owners. If you have a family-run hotel with only four rooms, you also need to be certified according to PCI DSS.

It’s also worth noting that certification is very important for small hotels and restaurants, as it is more difficult for them to survive a serious hacker attack or group fraud. Client discredit can be fatal for a business.

We offer fast certification for both small and large NoReCa businesses. Certification lasts at least 2 weeks and is mostly carried out remotely. All communication with our auditors is conducted via a secure portal.

We invite you to obtain a PCI DSS certification.