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The importance of check-in in hotels (from your guests' point of view)
Does their stay really start from the check-in? How many minutes of waiting time are they willing to tolerate? What elements do they care about? Discover it in the article and bring your check-ins to excellence!
For you, the check-in marks the beginning of every stay. It is like a blank sheet that is rewritten from scratch each time: except for the information derived from the booking, you know nothing else about your guests, nor do you have high expectations of them. Your main concern, rightly so, is to make them feel welcomed in the best possible way and make their stay unforgettable.
But for your guests? For them, check-in is much more than just a beginning: it is the decisive moment when the expectations built up during the trip planning, reading reviews, and looking at photos of your facility, meet reality. It is the moment when they expect, right from you, the very first confirmation that they made the right choice.
And it is precisely the first impression that influences – often definitively – the general perception one has of something or someone, even if further information or experiences accumulated later might change it.
This is why check-in, although it is only a micro-moment in the overall stay experience, is crucial and can make a difference for the guest experience and the reputation of your accommodation facility.
5 fundamental elements of check-in from the guest's perspective
To intercept the different load of emotions and expectations that each guest brings to the check-in counter, it is necessary to know how to read body language and empathize with the customer. However, there are some elements to which all guests attribute great importance.
By working on these five elements, you can be sure to lay the best foundation for a check-in that always meets expectations.
1) Welcome and courtesy
Who wouldn't want to be welcomed with a smile and a friendly greeting? This is the first way to make a guest feel appreciated and, above all, seen. This is always true, but especially when arrivals are crowded and there is a queue at the reception: it will be your duty to greet guests as soon as they enter, inform them of any waiting times, and of the spaces dedicated to them.
2) Speed and precision
Waiting has never been an appreciated activity, but today - where speed is a must in every sector - it can become a source of true dissatisfaction. The challenge will therefore be to offer a check-in experience that is both quick and complete with all the information. An example? Your guests should never have to come back looking for you after check-in because they couldn't find the Wi-fi credentials anywhere!
3) Personalization and flexibility
If the customer sees right from check-in your ability and willingness to solve any problems or meet needs (even those not previously indicated), the rest will be smooth sailing. To achieve this, make the most of previous experiences and prepare in advance for the most frequent scenarios. And, fundamentally, always remember to call them by name. This will increase their gratification and their trust in you.
4) Aesthetics and cleanliness
The appearance of your hotel is an important business card. Make sure the reality matches the pictures provided on your booking channels, take care of the cleanliness and order of the reception area, ensure good air quality and the olfactory impact upon entering, as well as the lighting.
5) Additional services and gifts
Your guests will be positively impressed by receiving small unexpected attentions, such as a welcome drink or a little gift that can entertain the children while they wait. Even briefly illustrating your extra services offer will convince them that, in your establishment, guests are truly at the center of every attention and that they have infinite possibilities to make their stay unforgettable.
4 fundamental check-in tools for the hotelier
In the mission to offer a high-level check-in experience consistent with the expectations just reviewed, it is essential to leave nothing to chance. To do this, it is necessary to use all available resources and tools synergistically:
1) Property Management System (PMS)
Implementing management software is crucial to automate and simplify different aspects of check-in. The software helps in managing reservations, registering guests, assigning rooms, and adjusting invoices, ensuring that each step is executed efficiently and accurately. Use it to perform a daily review of the reservations arriving the next day, in order to anticipate and prepare what will be necessary. Only in this way will you be able to organize a tailor-made check-in for each guest.
2) Pre-stay communication
A few days before the expected arrival, it is useful to send a booking summary to remind the essential details (check-in time, check-out time, location, and contacts), ask the customer for useful information (expected arrival time, specific dietary requirements), and notify them of the availability of extra services. This will serve, on the one hand, to reassure the customer and, on the other, to allow you to better organize the arrival and stay.
3) Room Assignment
Early room assignment, based on bookings and guest preferences, is essential, especially for specific accommodations like suites, which should be blocked as soon as the reservation is made to prevent unavailability upon arrival. This step is crucial not only to avoid misunderstandings with guests but also to provide the housekeeping department with the necessary instructions. Careful planning and having an exact picture of the situation will also help you be flexible, promptly resolving any issues.
4) Staff Training
The staff must not only be adequately trained in using tools and knowledge of the facility but also equipped with communication, complaint management, and problem-solving skills. Providing training that covers both technical and relational aspects is essential to ensure high-quality customer service.
It will be crucial to establish and clearly document the procedures to follow during check-in.
The Time Factor and the Role of Technology in Check-In
We have already mentioned the importance of check-in speed in guest perception. But exactly how long are guests willing to wait for their turn at reception?
According to research by Cornell’s Center for Hospitality Research, this varies based on the geographical origin of your guests:
- USA: tolerance of 5 minutes
- Canada: tolerance of 7 minutes
- France, Germany, Italy, and Spain: tolerance of 15 minutes
- United Kingdom: tolerance of 17 minutes
- Japan: tolerance of 30 minutes
What are the consequences of exceeding this tolerance? For example, for guests from the United States, the research estimates that exceeding 5 minutes of waiting results in a 47% decrease in their satisfaction.
This is precisely why in other sectors, such as airlines, self-service check-in has completely overshadowed assisted check-in.
In the hospitality sector, there are reasonable resistances to making this change because check-in is traditionally conceived as an important moment of service and welcome.
The problem arises when this modality goes to the detriment of efficiency and when dealing with guests who, having known the convenience of digital solutions during the pandemic, now do not want to give them up.
This is precisely what emerges from the survey in which Oracle and Skift asked travelers, 'Which technologies or services made popular during the pandemic would you like to see adopted permanently?'
- 53.6% of them answered 'contactless check-in and check-out'
- 49.1% answered 'digital payments'
To meet these new needs, which will become increasingly widespread, the optimal solution would be to offer the customer the possibility to choose between traditional and digitalized check-in, for example by introducing self-service registration terminals on-site for maximum autonomy or giving the possibility to perform web check-in in the days preceding arrival.
A high-level, smooth, and satisfying check-in experience is crucial not only for guest satisfaction but also because it can enhance the perceived value added that your establishment is capable of offering.
However, if this excellence is not backed by a pricing strategy that adequately reflects it, you risk devaluing your property. It would be like preparing a gourmet dish... and then selling it at fast food prices!
The best way to set better prices while you work on reception is to choose a tool like Smartpricing's dynamic pricing and Revenue management software, capable of cross-referencing every internal and external variable of your property to help you find the most profitable prices for each room at any given time.
If you want to know more about how it works, book a personalized demonstration with a Smartpricing consultant now.
The Smartpricing team