Hotel Self Check-In Kiosk

Self-service kiosks were invented in the year 1977 by Murray Lappe, a pre-med student at the University of Illinois. Students and campus visitors used the kiosk to find movies, maps, directories, and bus schedules. Over the years, new innovations like touch screens, the internet, and embedded computing have helped bring kiosks to the mass market. It's now being used in shopping malls as an interactive directory, government offices as a 24/7 counter service, etc. Now, the COVID-19 pandemic has fostered the adoption of kiosks in the hospitality business. 

I found that, after interviewing my friends and family, most of them wanted a contactless hotel experience post-COVID. On the other hand, hoteliers prefer to reduce close contact with their guests to reduce the risk. Now, there are many things a hotel needs to consider before buying a kiosk. I listed below some of the things that you need to consider before deciding on buying a hotel kiosk.

What you will need to consider before buying a hotel kiosk:

1. The location where you plan to install the kiosk. Single locations or multiple locations?
2. Space available. The kiosk comes in different dimensions. Find out the types of Kiosks available.
3. Ability to serve walk-in guests (for reservation and payment purposes)
4. Ability to serve in-house guests (for room extension and check-out)
5. Integration with your current hotel PMS. Find out the types of PMS available.
6. Integration with your current hotel door lock. Find out the types of hotel door locks available.
7. Fallback service. In the event of hardware failure, will the kiosk provide fallback services like emergency contact and system notifications?
8. Service and support to perform maintenance on the hardware.
   
   

What kind of integrations are needed between the self-check-in kiosk with your hotel PMS:

1. Room availability integration. The kiosk will get the room availability and room rates from your hotel PMS.
2. Transaction recordings. The kiosk will need to push payment as the transaction to the guest folio (in your hotel PMS)
3. Guest check-in / out integration. Allowing guest check-in /out using the hotel self-service kiosk.
4. Room status. The kiosk will need to get the room status and the room status also need to be updated on the hotel PMS upon guest check-in / out.
   
   

Why a hotel should consider adopting a hotel self-check-in kiosk now?

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, most hotels are not operating at full capacity, so this is the best time to upgrade your technology. It's hard to replace your PMS, and train your team while your hotel is operating at full capacity, or at least it's not easy. Kiosks are proven to be effective in reducing costs while providing a consistent experience to your hotel guest. It's not a COVID pandemic solution, the kiosk will be useful (if not more) after COVID to serve your hotel guest when travel rebounds. 

I believe more technologies like robotics and IoT will be used in the hospitality business moving forward. A hotel self-check-in kiosk plays a vital role as it could later be upgraded to work as the key interface between your hotel and your guests.

Read also: 4 Reasons Why Your Hotels Should Use Self Check-In Kiosk

Check out Softinn Hotel Kiosk 

Softinn Hotel Kiosk made it possible for guests to do the self-check-in and check-out regardless if they have made the bookings in advance (online) or if they are walk-in guests. All the bookings and payments will be recorded automatically in Softinn Hotel PMS. 

The hotel also will be able to create a specific Rate Plan for the booking over the kiosk. The kiosk system will automatically push the Rate Plan and availability from PMS to a kiosk. Based on Softinn findings, on average, the hotels will set a 13% lower for Hotel Kiosks compared to the rate that they offer through OTAs. This is good for implementing a direct booking strategy hence saving commission paid to OTAs. 

Interested in Softinn Hotel Kiosk? Feel free to book an online demo session with us. See you!