Stayntouch PMS Completing A Guest Check-In
To check in a guest, we'll first navigate to our dashboard, where we can select our ARRIVALS tile, which will take us to the list of our pending arrivals.
In our arrivals list, we are shown some useful information. We can see our guests names on the left.
Any guests with a blue bubble on their avatar are guests who have stayed previously at this location. The number will indicate how many previous stays they've had. For James, this means today's arrival would be his fourth stay at this hotel. This allows you to immediately welcome the guest back.
We can also see any entities associated with this reservation, such as company, group, or travel agent. In this case, we see James is associated with the company Stayntouch.
We will work through each example arrival in turn, starting now with our first entry.
We can see on the stay card for this guest that there is no room yet assigned. We also have no notes or actions to be concerned about. While we can assign a room prior to check-in, it can be done as part of the check-in process, which we will show here.
To the left, we have a list of rooms that are clean and ready for check-in. We can assign a room from this list by selecting it. Should we need to choose a room of a different room type, we can toggle through the options at the top of the list.
Click on the filter icon to see more options for this assignment.
Please note, rooms may be hidden from view in this screen if they are not yet clean for check-in, or are still occupied. By selecting options from this list we can include these options and more.
Select a room by clicking on it in the room list.
For locations using registration cards, you can find the option to print a card for the guest here.
Now all that remains is to select COMPLETE CHECK-IN. At this point, we are ready to ask the guest for a credit card to authorize.
Select USE CARD READER to prompt the credit card terminal to capture the card. As this guest is paying on their own, the system will capture the full amount for the stay plus the amount configured for incidentals. These amounts, and rules, can be configured on a property-by-property basis.
It looks like this guest's card declined. Some users may have the permission to see the CONTINUE WITHOUT CC option. This should not be used when we need to capture a valid authorization. In this case, we will click CANCEL to return to the Registration screen and ask the guest for an alternative credit card.
Press the COMPLETE CHECK-IN button to attempt this again with the guest's new card.
Select USE CARD READER once more.
Now, we see a success message and can proceed to finalize the check in with CONTINUE.
Back on the stay card, we can see the following areas are updated, indicating the guest is in-house.
Additionally, the color of our room number has changed, and our reservation status icon now shows as occupied.
Guests we have just checked in will still display on our arrival list. This makes it easier to immediately access the record again, if needed. This will only show to the user who completed the check-in, and will disappear when the list is refreshed.
Now let's check in our next guest!
The first thing we should do in this reservation is review any notes or actions.
We can click the X button to return to the stay card.
Let's look at our action, which we can see is incomplete and due at noon today.
It looks like we are still waiting for housekeeping to prioritize this room.
Importantly, we are stopped from doing this and would need to make the update from the stay card.
Our best option is to select PUT IN QUEUE.
This allows us to follow the same steps of check-in, such as printing a registration card.
This lets us identify this reservation as waiting for their room and will skip the credit card prompt.
An important reason for skipping the credit card at this point is that authorization transactions processed during the check-in flow are registered differently by the payment processor, and it is best practice for a credit card to be dipped into the reader during the check-in completion.
Let's see how we can keep track of our rooms in queue throughout the day.
Moving over to our QUEUED tile, we see Julia's reservation still has room 200 assigned, which is vacant, but dirty.
As the day progresses and housekeeping cleans rooms, we can review our QUEUED rooms tile to look for updates.
It seems housekeeping were quick cleaning this room. Now that the room number is green, we know we can officially check this guest in.
Please note, the time the guest has been in the queue will display on the top right for tracking, and the guest waiting the longest will always be at the top of the list.
Our action is no longer showing as due.
We can confirm who completed this and when it was completed, if needed, by opening the actions dialogue.
To finalize the check-in and capture authorization, we can follow the same check-in flow as before.
Let's tackle our next arrival.
It looks like we can welcome James back to our property, and we currently have no room assigned. It also looks like James is associated with the company Stayntouch.
In the stay card, we can see that James has some form of routing instruction on his reservations, as indicated by the orange text. As we move through the assignment screen, we are presented with an upsell option. Upsells are normally configured with a unique charge code, which means if we upsell a guest who is not paying for their room—this transaction can be considered an incidental cost that the guest must pay.
We can verify that these costs will be on James's bill by reviewing the ProForma Invoice as shown here.
This shows the projected final invoice for James based on the billing information. We can see only the Upgrade Charge and associated taxes are shown, as the room charge itself is being billed to the company.
Now we can continue with our check-in as normal.
If, for any reason, we want to review the billing information prior to completing the check in, we can do so by selecting the BILL ROUTING button.
This can be reviewed and edited as needed. But everything looks good for this reservation, so we will close and proceed.
Let's see what happens when we are authorizing for incidentals only.
This screen is letting us know that charges are being sent for payment to another entity. In such instances, we should always select the first option, INCIDENTALS ONLY, with the amount configured for your location.
Now that we see James is in house, lets tackle our final example.
On this reservation, we see "Expedia VC Collect" associated. We can assume, therefore, that this reservation's room and tax will be charged to a virtual credit card. Let's take a look at how to check these guests in.
If we need to see the rate amount on this screen, or in the Bill & Charges screen, we can select the SR VIEW RATE button. This will unmask the rate value and allow us to see the bill on which the rate is posting, which would otherwise also show only SR. Selecting this option will unmask the rate amount until you exit the stay card, at which point it will be hidden once more.
Check-in can proceed as it otherwise normally would.
With any virtual card reservation, there should always be BILL ROUTING in place to ensure the room charge is on the bill with the virtual credit card, and that any incidental guest charges will be on Bill #1.
As Bill #1 can only be under the name of the guest, generally such bill routing will be for Bill #2, though any bill other than Bill #1 will suffice, so long as the virtual card is also associated with that bill.
Selecting COMPLETE CHECK-IN will allow us to capture and authorize the guest's credit card for incidentals.
As previously shown, when presented with this screen, you will select the first option INCIDENTALS ONLY.
And when we return to our stay card, our guest is checked in.
