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Technological Revolution

Pain of checkin & solving digitally

Nikhil Agarwal
  2021-09-12  4 min

Guest checkin pain points: Resolving with technology


Today’s hospitality industry revolves around customer experience rather than the brand name. Guest experience is becoming the determining factor for guest satisfaction, guest loyalty, and revenues. Let’s admit it. Guests hate it when they have to wait in the queue while your hotel receptionist keeps staring at the computer screen for what seems like an eternity. Understand that wait can make people cranky, especially after long hours of travel when they just want to get in their room, freshen up, and relax. And this has clear implications for guest satisfaction. When every hotel strives to build impeccable guest satisfaction, you cannot afford to do it the other way.



Some of the major checkin pain points include:


1. Waiting at the reception counter: Research from Cornell’s School of Hotel Administration studies how a long wait can reduce customer satisfaction by 50 points on a scale of 100. The study revealed that it took just 5 minutes to reduce the satisfaction by 50 points for the Americans as compared to the other travellers from the world.


2. Late-night checkin: Late-night checkin is a real pain for travellers. If your hotel has a front desk open only until a specific time, your guests might not have a pleasant experience if they want to do a late checkin. That means they either need to change their flight time or change their hotel that offers a more convenient checkin facility, which means a loss of revenue for you and a dissatisfied guest.


3. The hassle of paperwork: For every guest who checks into your hotel, your front desk staff needs to verify, scan, and upload documents for records. Apart from being a tedious task, it forces the guests to wait at the reception. The technical glitches that the front desk staff may experience at that moment, can lead to further delay, and wait time, which results in further guest dissatisfaction.


4. More exposure and touchpoints can increase the risk of COVID-19: In the time of the COVID-19 pandemic, maintaining social distancing and minimizing touchpoints are crucial to keep the virus at bay. Waiting in the hotel lobby, dealing with physical documents only imposes a risk to the guests, hotel staff, and everyone involved.




Resolving guest checkin pain points with technology


1. Remote checkin facility: One of the best ways to address long waits in the hotel reception is offering a remote checkin facility that can obliterate the waiting period. Remote check- in facility is safe, convenient, and easy to use. Whether your guest is a Baby boomer, Gen Xers, or Millennials, they will find it seamlessly easy to check in from anywhere anytime. Go a step extra by pairing remote checkin with a mobile door key for a complete wait-free checkin experience. You can also consider sending a web link in an email that guests can use to click and check in. Remote checkin is safe, especially in times of a global pandemic.


2. Install kiosks: For a straightforward checkin facility, consider installing checkin kiosks. This comes especially handy when there is a large group of guests. Kiosk checkin also appeals to millennial guests who prefer self-checkin. Kiosks can also reduce the wait time significantly.


3. Easy paperwork: Digital technology can save your staff from gathering all the physical documents, scanning them, and uploading them in the system when guests arrive at the hotel reception. It can save your guests too from long wait hours at the lobby. For example, hotels that have partnered with Swyftin can let their guests upload all their documents online before arriving at the property.


4. QR code-based checkin: You may also want to offer QR code-based checkin facilities. For example, your returning guests can have a single guest profile so that they do not need to reupload their documents every time they check in. They can simply scan a QR code, and the hotel can have access to the documents required for the checkin.



Digital technology can help you ease the pain of checkin for your guests, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic. If you have not done it already, now is the right time to invest in technologies to upgrade your property and offer digital services like remote checkin facilities. To explore how you can implement a smooth checkin facility for your guests, request a product demo today.


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