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Auto check-in with room allocation and unique PIN

J

Hello, 

I have tried to figure out how to auto-allocate rooms along with automatic check-in and unique PIN code instructions per room, but to no avail :) 

The problem I try to figure out is this:
- We have a small nature resort consisting of tree types of accommodation. 
- Each type has a few different cabins.
- Every cabin has a lock box with a PIN code to access keys (a manual one, not electronic).

Now, here’s where I wonder what to do:
I need to auto-checkin people, giving them unique instructions about the cabin’s whereabouts, the number of the cabin and the PIN code without requiring them to check in. We don’t have a manned destination, so kiosks / iPads and the like won’t work. I have tried to look at the info we might access from MEWS when sending emails, but it does not seem to me that I can put in this unique info per cabin anywhere? Or do any of you know how to do such a thing? Thanks :) 

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Best answer by Mick 20 May 2024, 22:57

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S
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Hello @jkjondal 

 

Have you thought maybe of the SMS package. The guest would be able to check-in by phone and you can send them the information you need to too through that medium (see below)

Or maybe use another software as an integration like talked about in this thread: 

 

Maybe that could be a nice workaround if not a solution 😉

 

Let us know

 

Regards

 

Stephane

J

Thanks for the answer :) I’ll look into those options. Do they require the user to manually check in tho? Because in an ideal world, we only need to send an SMS with the practical info, the directions to the specific cabin - and the PIN for the lockbox - without requiring the user to check in at all :) 

Thanks!

S
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Well we are not using it at our property, but you may find the information you need there https://help.mews.com/s/article/SMS-Package-for-Mews-Operations?language=en_US and/or there https://help.mews.com/s/article/SMS-Package-FAQs?language=en_US 😉

 

@gabriela.smrckova could help also 😁

 

Hope it helps

 

Regards

 

Stephane

gabriela.smrckova
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Hi everyone 👋,

Indeed, we have the SMS Package that now supports OCI reminders. However, as the name suggests, we send the SMS to guests who have not completed the OCI on the morning of arrival inviting them to complete it. Given the information @jkjondal shared, I think it wouldn’t solve this case. However, we are looking at expanding the functionality of the SMS Package, so this could be an interesting new use case.

@jkjondal, could you please clarify when you would like to send the information to arriving guests? Would it be sent to every reservation owner with no exceptions? Don’t you need the guest’s data upon arrival latest? Lastly, how do you solve this automated check-in today?

Thank you for sharing the information,

Gabriela

Mick
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Hi @jkjondal, 

Your property sounds intriguing. I did a quick search and WOW, I am lost for words – it looks spectacular!

While Mews is quite versatile, I cannot think of a way to achieve this within Mews direclty.

However, you can achieve this with a bit of integration using Mews and Zapier.

Here's a step-by-step approach you might find helpful:

  1. Automatic Check-in via Mews: Set up automatic check-in in Mews. Visit Options in your service settings. This ensures that reservations are automatically checked in at the appropriate time.

  2. Zapier Integration:

    • Create a Table: Uzing Zapier tables, create a lookup table that lists cabins numbers, their corresponding PIN codes, and any specific directions.
    • Zapier Setup: Use Zapier to create a workflow that triggers when a reservation is checked in via MEWS.
    • Email/SMS Trigger: Set up Zapier to send an email or SMS to the guest. In the email/SMS template, use variables from your table (room number, PIN code, and directions) to personalise the message for each guest.

This method allows you to automate the process of sending guests their room allocation and PIN code.

I hope this helps!

Mick Vazquez | Let's connect: www.linkedin.com/in/mickvazquez
J

Thanks for the suggestions, everyone :) And thanks for the kind words about our spot! 
Think we will try the Zapier way - looks like the most viable. Thanks so much @Mick !

On a related note, I have another Q: How can I ensure that I know the country code of the phone number that I collect from the user? It would be an absolute requirement to know this in order to send SMS to the right number if people are coming from abroad. However, I don’t really see that country code can be set up as a required field to ask the user to provide anywhere. Very thankful to hear suggestions as to how this can be resolved!

gabriela.smrckova
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Thanks for the suggestions, everyone :) And thanks for the kind words about our spot! 
Think we will try the Zapier way - looks like the most viable. Thanks so much @Mick !

On a related note, I have another Q: How can I ensure that I know the country code of the phone number that I collect from the user? It would be an absolute requirement to know this in order to send SMS to the right number if people are coming from abroad. However, I don’t really see that country code can be set up as a required field to ask the user to provide anywhere. Very thankful to hear suggestions as to how this can be resolved!

Hey @jkjondal,

I can share some numbers with you. I assume there will always be phone numbers with invalid formats (not only incorrect country codes), which result in unsuccessful text message delivery. However, if it's any consolation, based on Mews' SMS usage, we see that across different properties (and therefore varying business mixes and sources of reservations), less than 5% of text messages fail to be delivered due to invalid phone numbers.

Please correct me if I am wrong, but having looked at your website, it seems that your booking engine has country code validation, as do the major OTAs. This definitely helps secure good quality data and ensure a high deliverability rate. I hope this helps a bit!

Gabriela

J

Hello Gabriela,

thanks for the answer!

I know that we can validate the originating country where the booking comes from. However, that does not ensure that we’re sending it to the right number. In Scandinavia there are quite a few foreigners, and we cannot be 100% sure that a visitor has the same country code as the country where the order originates from (my wife being a prime example of this, who lives in Norway but yet has a Danish phone number). I’d like to suggest that we could toggle the simple option of requiring the specification of country code before telephone number so that we can know for sure :) Since we’re sending most of the important info via SMS on the day of arrival, it’s critical that our customers receive it :) 

 

Thanks!

gabriela.smrckova
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Hello @jkjondal,

thank you for your patience and for explaining me more the specifics for Scandinavia. I was checking your website and I saw you are not using Mews Booking engine (please correct me if I am wrong), however your Booking engine requires the country code to be added (which is a feature that we are just adding to Mews Booking engine and Guest portal, too). So, do I understand correctly that people struggle to fill in their actually country code when they put in the phone number?

Thank you for more info and wish you a good week ahead,

Gabriela

J

Hi Gabriela,

we are not in production with the MEWS system because there is a bug regarding Apple Pay / Google Pay that the MEWS team is looking into. We have a demo instance running in production tho – and in that instance it would be amazing to be able to require a country code there. Glad to hear that you’re working on it! When will it be ready? Thanks :) 

J

Forgot to say that most people will not necessarily format the phone number  with international prefixes unless we force them to :) Which means that we might get in trouble when sending out vital SMS’es to their phones if they’re from abroad. So the only thing I need is a check box in the admin system that forces the user to fill out the country code. Then I’ll be a very happy man! :) 

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