Online Check-in Form Follow

What is the Online Check-in Form

• The Online Check-in Form allows you to collect information about all your guests before check-in. It is an optional feature, customizable by the you and allows using the collected information throughout the dashboard.
• You can choose to collect guest names, phone numbers, emails, IDs and selfies - for all of the staying guests or only the main guest.
• The form also allows collecting estimated arrival and departure times, which will automatically adjust the reservation, cleanings and all relevant automation.
• You can add custom questions, which are tied to custom fields, to gather special requests and preferences from your guests. If desired, the rental agreement can also be included in the form, as well as extras.
• The form is available in the guest portal between a set days (e.g. 3 days before check-in) and until check-in time, as well as via a link that is active until the form is submitted. Guests can save the form as a draft and get back to filling it out later, in case they need more time to collect the information.

You can also watch the Walkthrough Video on 

• Setting up the Online Check-In Form
  
• Sharing the form with guests
• Filling out the form
• Viewing the answers

Where can you find this feature?

1. Setting up the form is done under listings > edit > guest portal tab > To activate the form for a listing turn on the Online check-in form toggle
   
   It can be bulk copied to other listings. When doing so, all of the form’s settings are copied as-is, there is no option to select which settings to copy.
   
   
   
   

   
   
   
   
   
2. The form can be active to all channels or only some channels. For example, You may feel that Airbnb guests' identity is validated well enough, so they don’t need an extra layer of validation, and turn off the form for Airbnb guests
   
   
   
   

3. Set the form activation time - this determines when the form will be accessible via the guest portal
   
   

   • The form is only accessible via the guest portal if the portal is in the confirmed stage. Meaning, if the reservation is paid, has cc details or comes from a channel

   1. • 1. This is to make sure that guests are encouraged to pay first, and only then fill out other information
           
           

      • The form is always available via its unique URL, until it is submitted
        
        

   
   
   

4.  You can set custom text to appear at the beginning and the end of the form
   
   This can be used to give a more personal touch, or add any needed explanation
   
   
   
   

5. The following are checkboxes to determine which information should be collected:

   1. Estimated arrival time

      a. Guests cannot enter an arrival time that is earlier than the default check-in time in the reservation
      b. This also activated the non-mandatory arrival method field, and if Plane is chosen as the method, then flight number can be collected as well

   2. Estimated departure time

      a. Guests cannot enter a departure time that is later than the default check-out time in the reservation

   3. Rental agreement

      a, Will be included only if it hasn’t been signed yet
      
      

   4. Guest information

      a. The following fields can be mandatory or not. If mandatory, the form cannot be submitted without them

      b. All of these fields can be collected for the main guest only (the one that made the reservation) or all staying adult guests

      1. Name

      2. Email

      3. Phone number

      4. Date of birth

      5. Nationality

      6. ID number

      7. ID photo

      8. Selfie
         
         

   1. 1.  
6. Setting up custom questions - these are tied to custom reservation fields and can be used to collect more information. For example, whether a parking spot is needed, or whether they are traveling with a pet. Answers appear in the reservation under custom fields and can be used to create custom automation flows or display specific information in Tasks.
   
   
   
   
7. To set up which upsells appear in the form, go to listings > edit > price & fees and edit the relevant upsell. Choose online check-in form in the appears in dropdown to display the upsell in the form.
   
   
   

   Sending the form to guests

   1. The form has a unique URL that exists as a dynamic field and can be used in message automations

      a The form is accessible in the URL at any time until it is submitted
      
      

   2. The form is accessible via the guest portal starting from the form activation time (as set in the settings) until check-in time

      a, The form is only accessible via the guest portal if the portal is in the confirmed stage. Meaning, if the reservation is paid, has cc details or comes from a channel
      
      
      Filling out the form

      1. When the guest accesses the form, they should fill out all the mandatory fields To submit it

      2. Guests can save the form as a draft and get back to filling it out later. This is useful when needing to provide IDs for other staying guests, which are not immediately available.

      3. When submitting the form, the guest is prompted whether they want to purchase upsells, as setup in the settings. They can skip this stage. 

          

         a.  If there is a credit card in the reservation, the upsells will be immediately and automatically charged to that credit card. If not, the guest will be prompted to enter their cc details.

          

      4. Submitting the form is irreversible, and guests cannot edit their responses. The information can be edited in the Hostaway dashboard.
         
         
         
         

         Using the information collected in the form

         1. The main guest details - email, phone number, name - are tied to the ones in the reservation. So changing the main guest’s name in the form will change it in the reservation as well.

         2. Estimated arrival & departure time are tied to the reservation check-in & out times. Changing those in the form will affect all relevant automations, cleanings etc.

         3. The arrival method and flight number can be found in the reservation page.
            
            
            
            

         4. All guest information can be found in the reservation page and the guest book.
            
            

         5. Answers to custom questions are saved in the corresponding custom reservation field. This allows using them in automations, for example as conditions for custom messaging flows.

         6. The rental agreement can be found in the reservation page.

What are the limitations and recommendations?

Once check-in time has passed, the form will no longer be accessible via the guest portal. It will still be accessible via its unique URL, so guests can fill it out even after check-in.

Good to know

• The form can be available to reservations from all channels, or only specific channels. In any case, each listing can have only one form.
  
• Guest information for all staying guests is added to the guestbook and can be used for marketing purposes
  
• We collect guest information only for adult guests (18+).

You can also check the FAQ-Online-Check-in-Form  more information