Contactless and Paperless Front Desk Software for Hotels

The hotel check-in process should be simple, hassle-free, and quick. A guest, after long hours of flight and travel, would not look forward to standing in queues at the front desk and presenting documents. He/she would seek a comfortable, personal space to take a rest or start with their planned itinerary. 

Guest satisfaction scores go down by 50% when there’s a 5-minute or longer wait at the check-in.  

Hence, the check-in process should be as narrowed down and as quick as it can be. This can be done in two ways: 

Offering an automated, contactless, remote check-in:  

Automating the check-in process helps the hotel streamline its check-in process and allows the guest to check in pre-arrival, at their own time and place of choice.  

This also facilitates the submission and verification of the required documents including the reg cards, digitally. As a result, the guests do not have to go through the hassles of carrying important documents while traveling and taking care of them throughout the trip.  

Additionally, this also saves hotels time, costs, and efforts to maintain the guest records physically on the hotel premises. Moreover, the digital submission of the documents also facilitates the digital verification and storage of all the guest documents in one place.  

Recent reports pointed out that a contactless check-in and a touchless journey help guests feel more comfortable staying in a hotel. Furthermore, 26% of consumers said they want digital room keys, and 35% asked for contactless payment options. 

All this is done through BOTSHOT’s automated front desk solution, eFront Desk. It allows guests to check in remotely, at their convivence, pre-arrival. Further, with zero contact with the front desk staff, the guest can complete all his/her check-in formalities, from documents to reg cards to payments, with a few clicks.  

Installation of kiosks 

Hotels can also install digital self-check-in kiosks on the property to facilitate quick and easy check-in for guests who perhaps are there in large groups, by avoiding long queues and chaos at the front desk. This way people feel independent and in control of the process.  

The interface of such kiosks should be kept simple and easy to navigate through. It should be built according to the needs of diversity and should thus have features and functionalities that cater to different types of guests.  

Contactless check-in systems are built keeping guest security and safety in mind. The data is encrypted and measures for data security and compliance are undertaken while building such software.  

Ensure that the software development company that is being consulted for the contactless check-in system development has data security and compliance provisions in place.  

BOTSHOT, for example, uses data encryption, uses multiple levels of internal system logs, enforces the strong password policy of Hashing User passwords, etc. It is GDPR Data Protection and ISO/IEC 27001 and PII (Personal Identifiable Information) compliant hotel automation solutions company. 

Mobile check-in technology in hotels allows guests to check in through their mobile phones, without any contact with the front desk staff, pre-arrival. 

Done typically through a mobile app, guests can select their room and complete the entire check-in process before they arrive at the hotel. They are also able to get into the chosen room using their mobile device as the key to their room. 

Mobile check-in/self-check-in is beneficial for both hotels and guests. Some of the reasons to adopt mobile check-in for your hotel are as follows: 

Enhanced guest experience 

Guests can skip long front desk queues upon arrival and get a hassle-free check-in experience through mobile check-in. They can further choose a room that caters to their needs before even arriving. All this elevates the guest experience.  

Interestingly, according to a recent survey, 46% of travelers said that a mobile key solution is an important on-property feature for them.  

No long queues and chaos at the front desk 

Along with the guests, the elimination of long queues at the front desk, especially during the peak season is a plus for the hotel as well. The front desk hotel staff could use the saved time and effort to forge connections with the guest during some of the most crucial guest touchpoints, check-in/out.  

Drive additional revenues through the app 

Mobile check-in through the hotel’s app would promote the application. Additionally, it would allow the hotel to upsell services and offer attractive discounts and promotional deals on add-on services, thus driving sales and revenue.  

Saves time, effort, and operational costs 

Along with saving time and effort on all the check-in formalities, mobile check-in also saves operational costs incurred on paper for all the paperwork and its storage and maintenance.  

Safe and secure process  

Mobile check-in is a process that ensures the physical safety of the guests as no contact with the front desk hotel staff is involved, it is a contactless process. Moreover, the security of personal information and payment details is ensured through multiple security features.  

Therefore, while mobile check-in/ self-check-in has a lot of benefits for both guests and hotels, there are not so cost-efficient for small hotels, inns, beds, and breakfast or motels in the small run. They might be able to give benefits to small properties in the long run.  

Contactless check-in for hotels is an automated process that allows guests to check in pre-arrival, through their mobile phones or tablets, eliminating the need to touch surfaces or come in contact with the hotel staff. 

In this case, the documents including the reg cards, are collected, verified, and stored digitally in one place. Contactless check-in sometimes is also done upon arrival through kiosks installed at the hotel property.  

Introduced during the pandemic, contactless check-in has been rapidly adopted especially after the pandemic, to avoid contact and maintain social distancing. It helps hotels to avoid long queues at the front desk and smoothen the guest journey.  

Additionally, it saves the time and effort of the hotel front desk staff that now could be used to forge hotel-guest connections and reduces the operational costs of the paperwork and their maintenance.  

Similarly, contactless check-in allows guests to skip long front desk queues, especially during the peak seasons, and check in at their convenience pre-arrival. 

This technology might or might not include keyless or digital check-in for the rooms. This largely depends upon the extent to which the particular hotel has adopted contactless check-in technology.