Choose a check-in solution by testing the full path end to end: the guest completes it on a phone, the data lands in the PMS without retyping, and reception sees who has finished. Confirm it handles your country's identity and police reporting rules, and check what happens when the guest does not complete it, because a meaningful share will not.
A guest filling a form on their phone saves nothing if reception has to retype the passport number. Check that completed check-ins write back into your PMS automatically, that the arrivals list shows who has finished, and that a completed guest can be checked in with a single action at the desk.
Ask what happens to a guest who completes online and then changes something, like adding a night or swapping the lead name. If that forces reception to redo the whole record, the saving disappears on exactly the reservations that need attention.
Many countries require identity capture and reporting to the authorities within a fixed window, with specific fields and formats. Ask the vendor which countries they support natively, and get the answer for yours by name rather than as a region. A tool that captures a passport photo but does not file the report has moved the work, not removed it.
Data protection applies with equal force. Identity documents are sensitive data, so ask where images are stored, for how long, and how they are deleted. The answer should be a policy with a retention period, not a reassurance.
Skip the research, talk to someone who has done it 45 minutes with an independent specialist. Free for hotels, no pitch, no commissions. Book a free session →Completion rates vary widely by segment and by how hard you push. Business travellers who receive a clear message the day before complete far more often than a leisure group booking made by one person for six. Plan reception staffing for the share that will still arrive with nothing done.
That also means the desk process must not degrade. If the team gets used to pre completed arrivals, the manual path needs to stay quick, which usually means keeping the old workflow available rather than removing it on day one.
Measure your current check-in before you buy: how long a standard arrival takes, and how long a difficult one takes. Most of the time is in the payment, the identity capture and the explanation, not in the greeting. A tool that only moves the greeting online will not change the queue at four in the afternoon.
Capturing the card and the deposit during online check-in is usually the biggest single saving, so verify how it connects to your payment provider and what happens when that authorisation fails before arrival.
Rarely, and that is not usually the goal. It removes the administrative part of the arrival so the desk can spend the time on the guest. Hotels that also add kiosks or keyless entry can operate with reduced desk coverage at certain hours, but that is a separate decision.
It varies enough by segment and by communication that any single figure would be misleading. What is consistent is that a clear, well timed message the day before performs far better than a link buried in the confirmation email. Measure your own rate for a season before setting a target.
They solve different problems. A phone moves work before arrival, which helps the queue. A kiosk handles the guest who arrives with nothing done, which helps at night. Hotels with heavy late arrivals often need both, and the phone flow should come first.
Technically yes, and legally it depends on your rate conditions and local rules. Charging early improves cash flow and reduces no-show losses, but it also increases refund handling. Make the policy visible at booking rather than surprising the guest the day before arrival.
Send one clear message the day before with a direct link and a specific reason, such as skipping the queue. Completion is driven far more by the timing and wording of that message than by anything in the software itself.
Groups often have one booker and many guests, which most online check-in flows handle poorly. Ask specifically how the system collects details for every guest on a group reservation, because otherwise reception does that work manually anyway.