Digital registration system makes arrival easy

Not only currently are requirements for hygiene concepts and compliance with distance rules indispensable.

In the future, too, lodging establishments will have to combine these concepts with their guests' demand for individual care and a feel-good factor if they want to compete successfully in the market.

The digitalization of the registration system is an important building block in guest care, which in the future will begin even before the arrival.

Also the argument that digitization in general, with the exception of successful online bookings of course, does not bring new customers, rather causes additional work and thus additional costs, has often been held against me, especially by small and medium-sized businesses and destinations.

A typical example of how important digitization is in all guest-oriented industries was shown to me by the project started together with Jungfrau Tourismus AG in Interlaken, Switzerland, in December 2019: „Introduction of digital registration and digital guest card“:

Filling out of the registration forms is often taken as bureaucratic process by all involved parties.
But it is absolutely necessary for two reasons.

„Completing the reporting forms is often perceived as burdensome by all involved, but it is absolutely necessary for two reasons. Firstly, it serves to fulfill the legal obligation to report for accommodation establishments, which is stipulated by the Swiss Federal Council. Secondly, the guest reporting system provides the commercial basis for the tourist tax reporting of the accommodation establishments to the responsible municipality“, the tourism director of our customer explained to me at the time.

But the successful launch of digital reporting in June 2020, after only 5 months of development in the Jungfrau Region, revealed many positive aspects that none of the parties involved had thought of beforehand:

1. With the digital capture of guest data taking place in advance of arrival, the check-in process at the hotel reception desk is shortened.
   
   
2. It thus shortens waiting times, helps comply with spacing and hygiene rules, and relieves hotel staff of paper-based file management.
   
   
3. But above all, the simultaneously launched digitization of the so-called guest card, which is directly linked with the registration of the guest records and benefits from it, offers trmendous number of advantages for the guest himself:

• free tickets at the regional bus and train provider
• direct benefits when booking a local hotel room or holiday apartment and regional packages and
• the purchase of mountain railway tickets and much more, which strengthens the positive experience of the guest in the destination and makes it successful.

We can already say today, although we are still in the midst of the transformation process in this region, that digitalization has helped the businesses involved, especially in Corona times, to simplify work processes, reduce costs and, above all, win guests and thus customers.

Last but not least, integrated services such as digital registration, direct online booking and digital guest cards also enhance the image of the guest, who then forgoes going to online marketers such as Booking.com or Expedia if he can access everything from a single source directly on site „DIGITAL“.

Are you interested in the „Digital Guest Registration“ in combination with the „Digital Guest Card“?

You can find more information at www.masch.com.

Please feel free to contact us for a personal conversation at +49 (0)2203 8068 405 in Germany or +41 (0)33 511 2135 in Switzerland or contact me directly martin.schaarschmidt@masch.com.