Reinvent the welcome experience
Š Robert Kneschke - stock.adobe.com
with self-check-in
It is time to reinvent the self-check-in process, and that does not mean only cutting back frontdesk employees.
hospitality training, I recall many times observing long queues for traditional guest registration while the machines stood idle.
For decades, hotel brands have been attempting to launch various versions of self-check-in. In the 1990s, I remember much talk but little adoption beyond beta tests. In the early 2000s, brands like Embassy Suites and other Hilton brands rolled out kiosk-style check-in machines with great fanfare but little utilisation, other than a few guests who used the machine to print airline boarding passes. In the 2010s, more brands jumped in,
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AccomNews - Spring 2020
Doug Kennedy President, Kennedy Training Network
including Marriott International, Hyatt Hotels Corporation, and large Las Vegas properties such as the MGM Grand. Yet as I travelled to these and other hotels to conduct
More recently, brands like Hilton finally got a bit of traction when they launched self-check-in via smartphone, and soon thereafter digital room keys. PMS companies introduced self-check-in via iPad or tablet stations, where guests activate their own traditional key. Still, the overall adoption by hotels, along with utilisation by guests, remained low relative to traditional registration procedures. Then came the COVID-19 pandemic which, as it has done in so many other aspects
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of our business and personal lives, accelerated the pace of changes already underway. As it has quickly advanced the pace of migration from retail to online shopping, the move to distance learning and the transition to work-from-home models, so has it advanced the adoption of self-check-in. Now, as we move forward as an industry, I hope visionary leaders will recognise what a major crossroads this seemingly inconsequential change brings our industry to. My fear is that too many lodging leaders will see this only as an opportunity to reduce payroll and cut costs. In doing so, they will be eliminating the last major ‘touchpoint’ in the guest www.accomnews.com.au
