Express Checkin

Introduction

The express check in enhancement is designed to allow your customers to provide additional information between the time of their booking’s creation and them arriving at your property.
The intention is to speed up busy reception areas by reducing the complexity around checking in a guest.

This enhancement is split into two halves, pre and post arrival.

• Pre arrival deals with the guest registering themselves with the property before they’ve arrived.
• Post deals with actually checking in to the property.

Only confirmed & instant confirmed bookings are eligible for the pre-arrival process.

PMS Option Required
Access to this feature will be controlled through a new PMS option. The option is labelled “Express Checkin” if you need help accessing it please contact Seekom support.

Express Check In Setup Screen

Under Settings Email you will now see Express Check In Configuration as a menu option.
This will take you to the Express Check In Configuration overview and setup screen.

Select the “New Config” button j to start setting up your pre-arrival form: 

Pre Arrival

Name: The name of the pre-arrival form, customers will not see this name

Property Mapping: Select which properties the form will be available on

Email Template: Select which email you want this form to be sent out with

Send Interval: Enter in how many days prior to arrival you want the pre-arrival email sent out to the customer

Edit Interval: Enter in how many days prior to arrival the customer can fill out the pre-arrival page

Completion Interval: Enter in how many days prior to arrival the pre-arrival form can be completed before it becomes uneditable

Description: The description will appear on both the pre-arrival form and also the post arrival screen

Guest Fields

Select which radio button is required for each field
This is an easy way to gather details and more accurate information which may of been missed at the time of booking eg vehicle registration if a hired vehicle or a more realistic ETA

On the pre-arrival form the customer is able to print their booking voucher. Here you have the option on whether or not to display the vehicle registration and unit number with the voucher.
Tick to include on voucher, leaving unticked will mean they are not displayed.

Note: Displaying the unit name on the voucher will also ‘pin’ the unit

 

Pre Arrival Email

Now that you have set up the pre-arrival form we need to make sure the email template you have chosen will send out the form correctly.
You will need to go to Settings Email Email Templates
Select the email you have previously set in the express check in configuration page.
In the body of the email add in the Pre Arrival Link tag*, this is found under the booking section
*Instructions on how to create an email template and how to add in ‘Tags’ can be found here

Email template example:

Pre Arrival Screen

Here is an example of the Pre-Arrival form sent to the customer:

This form functions a lot like the front booking lead guest screen, where it shows both the lead guest details and the room information
This includes any customer-level custom fields visible on the front booking screen

It can only be accessed through a secure URL that is emailed to customers when they’re allowed to check in (based on the settings above).
When accessed after a booking has checked in, it will show the details but no longer be editable.
The customer is able to update any of their details, add in any missed fields etc. 

• The logo, property title and blurb both show at the top of the screen.
• The first section is the standard lead-guest address details.
• The second section contains the room details & custom fields.
• The third section contains the terms & conditions, as defined by the property.
• The last section will contain a save/update button

Only when the booking is fully paid (and if full payment is required) will an option to download PDF room vouchers show up.

Printable Voucher

This printable voucher will have enough information on it so it can be used to check in a guest by a staff member
The second page can optionally be used as a vehicle label (if enabled in the settings)
It can be saved as a PDF on a mobile device so it doesn’t need printing
Example of the “Open Vouchers” displaying the vehicle label:

On the voucher there will also be a QR code with a secure link. When scanned it will:

• Mark the user as checked in
• Display the unit details
• Display the gate pin (if enabled)

The display page will be a very simple mobile-designed page with limited access and no menu
Specific permissions will be required to access this page
Please note some iPhone users currently can not access this screen, instead they will be displayed the standard booking receipt

The user will be required to be logged into iBex for this link to work.
Example:

Self Check In (Post-Arrival)

Alternatively instead of scanning the QR code the customer is able to self check in instead.
The Self Check In will help speed up the process on those busy check in days when you have a queue of customers waiting to check in

A new tablet-friendly screen has been created: https://ibexres.com/front-booking/post-arrival
Enter your iBex login details which will then take you to the self check in bookings search screen.
The session will remain valid for a full day.
The customer is able to enter their booking or OTA reference (sales channel booking number) and last name to search for the booking
If their details are wrong, they’ll receive a validation error and cannot proceed.

Once the correct booking number and last name have been entered the customer is then showin the pre-arrival screen, except they can now choose which rooms to mark as checked in.
To complete the checkin, a payment maybe required, dependant on what payment options were set in the initial setup on the post-arrival screen.

Now that the customer has checked in they will be presented with the confirmation screen.
Which displays specific information about the booking, this includes the unit booked and any gate codes (if applicable)

From here they will be able to

• Print Booking Receipt
  This depends purely on the property setting up printers correctly. As a website iBex cannot control printers.
• Print Vehicle Labels
  This depends purely on the property setting up printers correctly. As a website iBex cannot control printers.
• Return to Booking Search
  Restarts the check in screen ready for the next guest

Arrival / Departure Screen

On the arrivals screen a new icon has been added. If the pre-arrival form has been filled out the “Pre-Arrival Form Complete” icon will be added into the status column

Example:

Booking Search

On the bookings search screen a filter has been added allowing bookings to be filtered on their pre-arrival status.