Earlier this week Hyatt announcedthat they will be enabling online check-ins to all customers of all Hyatt hotels (The Hyatt brand, not Hyatt Place, Summerfield Suites, or Andaz), previously this was a feature which was offered only to Gold Passport users, but now it is being opened up to all customers. In addition to Online Check-In, Hyatt is also starting Online Check-Out, which will enable a guest to check out via their laptop in the room or via their PDA. This will work by Hyatt sending an email to the guests’ email address the day they are due to check-out. Once the guest is ready to check out, they simply follow a link on the email which will immediately give the final balance, charge the payment method on file and then provide a finalized statement as a PDF attachment.

Hyatt’s online check in can be accessed by visiting http://www.hyattwebin.com and you can check into your room after 1PM the day of check in. (Although the Diamond Passport members are able to check in at 9AM on the day of arrival) Once you have checked in online, simply arrive at the hotel and go to a kiosk where you can obtain your room key.

This is a great feature that will help business people on the go save time by not having to wait on line in the lobby to check in – and it will also help sooth the minds of those who are going to be arriving late, it will ensure they have a room reserved for them.

Hyatt has leapfrogged other hotel chains with this development on two levels,

1. Most hotels don’t even have a lobby kiosk check-ins yet. You mainly see lobby kiosks in high trafficked, very large hotels, yet this will be expanded to all Hyatt hotels, no matter how large or small.
2. Hyatt has gone one step beyond and made online check-ins & check-outs available to any guest, not just frequent travellers, setting a new standard for hotels everywhere.

One major pitfall that I can see of the online check-in is room upgrades. There is something to be said about having a human check you in to a hotel, because that human has the ability to give you a room upgrade, or a specific room in a specific floor, or location of the hotel. Those room upgrades may not be available to everyone – a guest may get it because of their good attitude, a tip, etc, but the online check-in does not take any of that into consideration (except, perhaps the obligatory room upgrade given to frequent travellers) – so for those who are always looking to schmooze their way into a nicer room – they will still have to see a real live person.

This is a technology which I’d like to see other hotel firms roll out very soon. Airlines have been doing online check-ins for years now, and I cant remember the last time I ever received my boarding pass from a live person rather than a kiosk.

Enabling online check-ins has many benefits for a hotel

• Computerized selection of rooms may be better than human selection
• Less interaction between guest and employee (some may see that as a plus, some see it as a negative - I think the option of either/or is very beneficial)
• It allows for future capabilities to easily be implemented – such as picking the exact room you want, similar to how you can pick your exact seat when you check-in on an airline.

Hyatt also is going to be enabling room selection later in 2008 – they state its an industry first, but I know that Hilton’s Homewood Suites currently offers it to their Gold and Platinum HHonors members has been offering it since 2007. This will allow a guest to pick the exact room and floor that they want to stay in upon check-in. I’m going to write more about that in another post shortly.

All in all, Hyatt is heading in the right direction with this move. In no way will we see the removal of lobby check-in or front desk staff, its impossible really, since there are things that a computer cannot accommodate for or predict – but for the traveller who is just looking for a quick way to get into a room, or wants to avoid the lines which always seem to be there, this is where the future is heading. It’s an exciting time to be a hotel guest – there are more changes occurring throughout all the brands now than I think we have ever seen before.

andrew@alconic-inc.com