Help with Online Check-in!

Hola Natalia,

Exacto, a nosotros nos pasa exactamente lo mismo. Manejamos varias propiedades en España y desde que usmaos el OCI de Mews tenemos los mismos problemas operacionales: el flujo de OCI no permite que el huésped principal complete el check-in para todos, y cuando salta los acompañantes, no hay forma de invitarlos después ni desde el lado del huésped ni desde el hotel.

Es un blocker importante para cumplir con Hospedajes. ¿Has encontrado alguna solución o workaround?

También nos gustaría saber: ¿te funcionan bien las tarifas y cobros en el proceso? En caso de que hayas encontrado algo útil, estaríamos interesados en hablar — podemos agendar una llamada si quieres.

You should be able to do this so its strange... In Mews you can customise the check-in form and kiosk journey: The online check-in journey in the Guest Portal and Customize your kiosk and online check-in with the Check in form  - the customisation of fields on the form is dependent on subscription.

There is the option within Mews during online check in for the companion emails to be added when the guest does online check-in and this will send them an invitation for every guest who has an email address added as you know but should show the ‘enter details. option alongside the enter email option, so may be worthwhile customising check in so other guest information is required and set fields to required for name and address etc - it may be that collecting information for other guests is unticked?

In Mews it will automatically send this companion invite once the email address is added to the booking - it may be that the options are set to default instead of required? May be worth trying this change, updating the kiosk and trying?

You could also go a bit manual by updating the confirmation email to ask guests to add the relevant guests to the reservation in the online portal ahead of arrival so they get the invitation to check in themselves if that would help?

I would however raise to mews support if reconfiguring the online check in is not working or possible as, unless there are legal restrictions, it should allow entry of additional guest details

​@farango 

Hola,

Sí, después de hablar con nuestra Account Manager conseguimos que nos habilitaran una funcionalidad.

Ahora el huésped principal puede añadir al resto de huéspedes de la reserva y elegir entre completar sus datos él mismo o enviarles una invitación para que hagan el check-in individualmente.

Sin embargo, para nosotros el problema principal sigue sin resolverse.

El huésped principal puede finalizar el check-in aunque no haya añadido ni registrado al resto de los huéspedes de la reserva. Como en España necesitamos comunicar los datos de todos los huéspedes a Hospedajes, seguimos teniendo que revisar prácticamente todas las reservas de forma manual.

Además, hay otras limitaciones importantes:

• No existe la opción de escanear los documentos de identidad de los acompañantes.
• Si el huésped vuelve atrás durante el proceso, el check-in empieza de nuevo desde cero en lugar de conservar la información ya introducida.
• Desde que activaron esta funcionalidad, el check-in online está fallando prácticamente a diario, con errores en los enlaces enviados a los huéspedes, lo que nos obliga a intervenir manualmente todavía más.

De momento no hemos encontrado un workaround que elimine este problema operativo. 

Sobre las tarifas, todo bien aunque algunas de las automatizaciones que tenemos activas cuanto a cobros están actualmente en revisión con el equipo de soporte porque simplemente no se ejecutan. 

 

​@MattJones 

Thanks for your reply.

After speaking with our Account Manager, they enabled an option that wasn’t available in our account by default.

Now the main guest can add the remaining guests to the reservation and either complete their details on their behalf or invite them to complete the online check-in themselves.

Unfortunately, this still doesn’t solve our main operational issue.

The primary guest can still complete the online check-in without adding or registering the other guests in the reservation. Since, in Spain, we are legally required to report the details of every guest to the Hospedajes system, we still have to manually review almost every reservation before arrival.

There are also a few other limitations that make the process difficult:

• There is still no document scanning available for accompanying guests.
• If the guest goes back during the check-in flow, the process starts again from scratch instead of keeping the information already entered.
• Since this feature was enabled, the online check-in has also been failing almost daily due to errors with the links sent to guests, creating even more manual work for our team.

At the moment we haven’t found a workaround that really solves the operational problem. We’re still discussing it with Mews, and hopefully they’ll improve the workflow in future updates.

Hi Natalia,

These should be in the check-in form settings in Mews by setting the details to required, this should enforce this collection of details?

The issue is the online check-in for guest details is only a pre-fill of details, if setting to required doesnt resolve it, it would need further investigation by Mews or potentially looking at other online check in solutions such as Duve or similar to manage it?

​@MattJones We do have all the required info set as required. But still, you can finish a checkin with only the required info from the main guest. However, in Spain, we are legally required to report the details of every guest to the Hospedajes system. 

We are currently looking for partners since Mews checkin lacks in a LOT of aspects. 

​@nora.bensadon 

We have exactly the same issue at Glamp Nusa.

It's great that the main guest can now add their partner or children during the online check-in instead of having to invite everyone by email. However, the biggest frustration is that only the main guest can use the passport scanning feature.

For all accompanying guests, the details have to be entered manually, which creates unnecessary friction. Many guests simply stop completing the online check-in once they realize they need to type everything in by hand.

It would make a huge difference if passport scanning was available for every guest on the reservation, not just the primary guest. This would significantly improve the guest experience, increase online check-in completion rates, and reduce manual work for hotel teams.

​@jordi.garriga ​@adam ​@marcela.mendez 

tagging you both here since this thread shows we're clearly not an isolated case.

As I mentioned above, we're a fully reception-less operator in Spain (multiple properties), and the two issues Natalia and @Mluca describe are exactly what's blocking us from rolling out OCI across our full portfolio:

1. No recovery path after "skip". Once the primary guest skips companion registration, there's no way for them to resume it later (the OCI link just routes to the Guest Portal), and we have no way to resend invitations to pending companions from our side either. In a reception-less operation there's no manual fallback — no front desk, no staff to step in.
2. No document verification for companions. Mews already does ID scanning for the primary guest, which is one of the reasons we chose it — but that same verification isn't requested from companions, which leaves the process legally incomplete for us (SpanishPolice requires registration of every guest, including minors, with no exceptions).

We've also raised this directly with Adam by email (with Jordi cc'd) since it's currently blocking further deployment for us, but wanted to add our case here too so it's visible alongside Natalia's and Mluca's — this doesn't seem like an edge case, it's a structural gap in how the companion flow handles state.

Happy to share more detail on our specific setup if useful for prioritizing a fix.

agreed ​@farango 
​@nora.bensadon I spoke as well earlier this year with the MEWS support, and they opened a feature request as well: https://feedback.mews.com/forums/955598-guest-experience/suggestions/50965798-in-guest-portal-to-allow-only-the-primary-custome