Among many things that have become a new reality with COVID-19 is the need for vacation rental management companies to offer their guests convenient and safe contact less check in and check out for their guests.
In speaking with
our clients, we determined that there are five elements to the ability to offer this to their guests:
1) Triggered emails or texts to communicate steps of the process to your guests
2) Functionality in your guest portal that allows the guest to check in and check out
3) In some instances, you may wish to have the guest complete and sign an additional document that will confirm that they are the person checking in.
4) You may request that they upload an identification document prior to checking in.
5) If you have a keyless entry program, tying in sending the lock code in this process is important.
In Barefoot, we've built a process for our clients who want to implement contact less check ins and check outs. It works like this:.
- The guest gets an triggered email or a text with easy instructions to log into the guest portal to check in.
- Once they log in, instructions are provided (based on the client's process) to indicate that they want to check in by clicking a button. They may also choose to communicate to the office at that point.
- This creates a status on the reservation that can trigger an email or text with the key code for the guest.
- Some clients may add additional steps to the check in process. You may want to have the guest provide additional information, like # of vehicles or names and ages of the other guests who will be staying with them. You can create another eSignature document to gather this information and a signature. This will be attached to the reservation in the Barefoot solution for easy access.
- You may also choose to have the guest securely upload a photo of their identification through the guest portal which will also be attached to the reservation.
Clients can set this up based on the best process that works for their office.
Tell us here about how your office is dealing with check ins and outs in the era of COVID-19. We want to here about your solutions and your challenges.
