The Guest Portal page features a dedicated Digital Check-in section to configure an electronic digital check-in process for guests. This guide will alk you through the settings and functionalities of the digital check-in feature.
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Things to note before getting started
- Guests will still be required to visit the Front Desk for the issuance of physical keys. The digital check-in will collect in advance all the necessary information for check-in.
- Properties must continue to mark guests as checked-in within the Cloudbeds PMS if you do not use the Housekeeping feature to enable the auto check-in.
- Guests can revisit the check-in flow if incomplete.
- The flow becomes unavailable after a guest is marked as checked-in on Cloudbeds PMS.
- Guests see their total number of accommodations in the Reservation Summary view.
-
Multiple reservations:
- Guests with multiple reservations will have each one displayed dynamically on the Guest Portal main page when accessed.
- Clicking on a reservation launches the check-in flow for that specific reservation.
- Multi-reservation messaging sends guests to the same destination for streamlined communication.
Configure the Digital Check-in flow
- Access the Digital Check-in Configuration
- Step 1- Set up the check-in steps
- Step 2 - Set up the check-in button in the home page
- Step 3 - Set up the auto check-in
- Additional Information
Access the Digital Check-in Configuration
- Go to the Company Settings
page
- Open the Guest Portal section
- Click on the Guest Portal to be configured or
a new one
- Open the Digital Check-in configuration in the left side setup menu:
Step 1- Set up the check-in steps
In the Digital Check-in page, you will find steps to include in the Guest Portal. These sections are the steps a guest will follow in the app to complete the electronic digital check-in flow.
- Primary guest details
- Additional guests
- Registration Agreement
- Identity verification
- Upsells
- Payment step
- Confirmation
Configuration Options
Configure each section according to the settings below:
- Description of the step to your guest
- Add more required fields, if desired
- Enable/disable the field displayed in the app
- Indicate whether this is a mandatory field by checking the box required.
- Check the preview option displaying how the section will look like in the app
- Add translations to your Digital Check-In page
- Always click to save all updates.
Check below for more information about each step to be added.
1 - Primary Guest Details
- The information that guests add or edit here will be updated/reflected on Cloudbeds PMS.
- First Name, Last Name, Email will be mandatory requirements.
- Last Minute Requests are updated in Reservation Notes.
- Primary guest fields are pulled from custom fields in Cloudbeds PMS; new fields cannot be added within Cloudbeds Guest Experience.
2 - Additional Guests
Similar to primary guest details, additional guest information is updated on Cloudbeds PMS. Mandatory fields include First Name, Last Name, and Email.
- Only the number of additional guests matching the reservation can be added.
- Secondary guests can only see/update their details.
Properties using Guest Experience (GX) in countries with government guest reporting requirements can collect required guest information directly during the Digital Check-In flow. This allows guests to provide mandatory data before arrival.
For details on availability, enforcement behavior, and configuration, see Guest Requirements in Digital Check-In.
3 - Registration Agreement
You can select which Digital Registration(s) to include in the digital check-in flow and make it a required field for check-in in this section.
To learn how to configure Digital Registrations (documents to be sent to your guests electronically via link and to collect their digital signatures), click here.
4 - Identity Verification
You can opt to verify the identity and documents of your guests with two options: Automated or manual.
If you do not need to verify the identity for certain sources (like Airbnb which already verifies the guest's identity on their website), you can add the source to the exceptions box so guests will skip this step:
Automated Manual
The automated Identity Verification (IDV) is done through the integration with Stripe Identity.
- Using biometrics and document databases, Stripe analyzes guest's selfies and documents to determine validity or flag them as fraudulent.
- This is a paid method and the costs per verification will be debited on your credit drawer system. Once you enable this option, you will be required to accept the pricing terms per verification.
- The verification is suspended if you reach -20 credits; It resumes again when you boost credits to a positive amount in the credit drawer.
- You can use a test mode for internal testing, if you want to try the flow out without incurring any costs:
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If you opt for the manual verification, your can choose if guests must take a self ID and/or images of their document (e.g., Drivers License, Passport).
- The property is responsible for verifying the documents.
- Images are stored in Cloudbeds PMS in Guest Documents and Reservation Documents.
Once guests reach the identity verification step, they have to:
- Accept Stripe verification conditions
- Take a picture of their document
- Take a selfie
- Submit the verification.
- If a guest's verification fails, they will be allowed a maximum of two (2) retries. Each attempt will be charged from the credit drawer.
.
The guest's identity verification attempt is listed in right sidebar/guest profile in Cloudbeds Guest Experience.
The reservation details will either display ✅ verified or ⚠️ error, along with the error reason.
Find the error codes and their meaning below:
- abandoned - The user began the verification but didn’t submit it.
- consent_declined - The user declined to be verified by Stripe. Check with your legal counsel to see if you have an obligation to offer an alternative, non-biometric means to verify, such as through a manual review.
- country_not_supported - Stripe does not verify users from the provided country.
- device_not_supported - The user’s device didn’t have a camera or they declined to grant Stripe permission to access it.
- document_expired - The provided identity document has expired.
- document_type_not_supported - The provided identity document isn’t one of the session’s allowed document types.
- document_unverified_other - Stripe couldn’t verify the provided identity document. See list of supported document types.
- id_number_insufficient_document_data - The provided document didn’t contain enough data to match against the ID number.
- id_number_mismatch - The information provided couldn’t be matched against global databases.
- id_number_unverified_other - The information provided couldn’t be verified. See list of supported ID numbers.
- selfie_document_missing_photo - The provided identity document didn’t contain a picture of a face.
- selfie_face_mismatch - The captured face image didn’t match with the document’s face.
- selfie_manipulated - The captured face image was manipulated.
- selfie_unverified_other - Stripe couldn’t verify the provided selfie.
- under_supported_age - Stripe does not verify users under the age of majority.
5 - Upsells
You can enable Upsells to display products and services on the Guest Portal during the check-in flow.
The guest can skip this step, no purchase is mandatory.
All the Upsells configurations are done directly in the Upsells feature.
6- Payment Step
If you have Cloudbeds Payments, you can opt to have guests add a credit card to their reservation.
This is for credit card collection only, not payment processing.
Add Exceptions to the payment step
In the digital check-in flow, you have the flexibility to add exceptions to the payment step. Typically, all guests go through the regular payment process unless they meet certain exception criteria. For example:
- The payment step can be required for all guests, but be optional or hidden for Airbnb guests only.
- You can also require payments for Hotel Collect bookings but not for Channel Collect bookings. Check below how to add exceptions:
While creating the digital check-in flow,
- In the payment step, click to Add new exceptions
- Create the exception name
- Select the field name that will be the base information to know if the guest meets that criteria
- Select the condition of this exception
- Write the value
- Select if in that case the payment step will be:
- Required
- Optional
- Hidden
- Save
In this example, the source name (Airbnb) is the matching criteria; the condition is if it matches exactly the value written (Airbnb). In that case, the payment step should be "hidden".
7 - Confirmation
You can configure the image and message that guests see upon completing the check-in flow.
Step 2 - Set up the check-in button in the home page
In the Home page configuration, you need to set up when the Check-In button becomes visible to guests based on arrival date preferences.
In the Guest Portal page,
- Open the Home page sections
- Enable the Check-in button
- Select when the button will be visible to guests
Options include:
- Day of arrival
- Day before arrival
- X days before arrival (insert number of days)
The Check-In button will be displayed only for authenticated guests within the specified window.
- If not authenticated, the button does not show.
- If authenticated but outside the window, the button will be greyed out with a corresponding message.
The component also displays a list of reservations for guests with more than one active reservation.
Step 3 - Set up the auto check-in
Within the Digital Check-In flow, there is an option to automatically check guests in on Cloudbeds PMS if you use the Housekeeping feature. Follow the steps below to enable it:
In the Home Page sections options,
- Switch the toggle on to mark guest as checked-in upon completion of Digital Check-in and select the check-in option you prefer:
- Enable this option if you want to allow the guest to check-in as soon as the room is ready on the date of arrival, or
- Enable this option if you want to allow the guest to check-in as soon as the room is ready, but no earlier than a certain time (am/pm).
You can also add an Automated message to send a message to the guest informing them that the check-in flow is complete, and they will be checked-in as soon as the room is ready.
Additional Information
Identify when the guest has completed the digital check-in
In a conversation: A notification will be displayed in the conversation activity when the guest completed the pre check-in steps: In the Reservation Status: In Cloudbeds Guest Experience reservations page, a column will be added for Check-in. If a guest completed the check-in flow it will indicate 1/1 done.
In Cloudbeds PMS Dashboard: The Cloudbeds PMS dashboard will display the following check-in status icons:
- Green - digital check-in complete
- Yellow - partially completed.
Configure the Digital Check-in trigger in Automated Messages
A digital check-in event is available in automated messages to trigger a message and/or action when the guest completed the check-in flow.
How Digital Check-In Updates Reservation Status in Cloudbeds
When your property uses Cloudbeds’ digital check-in flow, the PMS can automatically update the reservation status based on the room’s housekeeping status and the Auto-Check-In configuration.
- Auto-Check-In → Status updates to “In-House”.
- The reservation will automatically change to In-House only when all of the following conditions are met:
- The arrival date is today
- The room is marked as Vacant & Clean in the Housekeeping module
- The previous stay in that room is already checked out
- Your property is using the Cloudbeds Housekeeping module
- Auto-Check-In is enabled in the digital check-in settings
If any condition is not met, the guest may still complete digital check-in, but the reservation status will not update automatically. In this case, staff must update the status manually.
How Digital self-check-out Updates Reservation Status
When a guest completes the digital self-check-out flow, Cloudbeds automatically updates the reservation status to Checked-Out.
- This status change also triggers any automations configured for the “Checked-Out” event type (such as post-stay messages or surveys).
- There is no housekeeping dependency for the self-check-out status update.
- When a reservation status updates automatically to In-House or Checked-Out, Cloudbeds Automations will trigger any messages or tasks configured for these event types.
- If digital self-check-out did not update the status to Checked-Out, verify that the guest completed the entire check-out flow. If they did and the status still didn’t update, change the status manually in the PMS.
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