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PLEASE NOTE
This guide is NOT intended for existing Connectivity Partners. Please refer to the Connectivity Partner Programme Guide.
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Connected Stay programme guide
This guide is intended to be the go-to-resource to find important information regarding your partnership with Booking.com and steps required to enable online check-in.
It consists of the following parts:
2) Steps to deliver online check-in
Contact Details and Technical Documentation
Definitions
To help you read this document effectively, we’re providing the following definitions:
- Guests: Travelers who have made a reservation through Booking.com.
- Customers / Accommodation Partners: Your customers who list their properties and rooms on Booking.com.
- Solution Providers / Partners: Companies that offer check-in products and services, like you.
- Online check-in: We consider the integration of the guest pre-registration data as must for a collaboration. Room access methods, link-outs etc. can be added depending on the use case. Please consult with checkin.provider[a]booking.com about the exact flow.
Our partnership
Booking.com believes an excellent check-in experience delights travelers and leads to higher guest satisfaction. With that in mind, Booking.com aims to empower accommodations to deliver a great check-in experience for Booking.com guests.
We therefore partner with the best providers in the industry, providing you the following benefits:
- Accelerate guest adoption: By offering a Booking.com powered online check-in functionality to guests, we believe that you can grow the rate of online check-ins of your accommodations.
- Strengthen your value proposition: By connecting your product with Booking.com online check-in, we believe you can strengthen your value proposition and possibly even attract new customers.
- Partnering with a trusted brand: With 29 million listings and years of expertise in the travel industry, Booking.com is trusted to help millions of travelers experience the world. By working together, we believe we can accelerate the awareness and adoption of the online check-in experience for the whole hospitality industry.
Online check-in’s impact on your product and processes
Guest flow changes
Once you’ve finished the integration and your customer(s) enabled the Booking.com online check-in functionality, you will be able to power your product with a Booking.com branded online check-in flow to retrieve guest information and share check-in instructions:
- When a Booking.com reservation is eligible for online check-in from our side, we will send you a check-in request that you can accept or decline.
- If you accept the request, the guest will receive a check-in request from Booking.com through one of our communication channels and start the online check-in process.
- Throughout the online check-in flow, guests are asked to share personal information such as name, address and passport details (up to date list can be found in the technical documentation).
- The check-in flow exists of form fields that are adaptable, and we continue to work on making the flow as customizable as possible. The guiding principle is that we only want to collect and share information that is needed for a successful check-in at the property.
- This will take governmental regulations and accommodation policies into account. If you need fields that are not yet available, please ask your dedicated Solution Engineers about it.
- Guests will receive a request to check-in via email or app notification.
- Once all required fields have been completed and the information is confirmed by you, guests will be notified that they’ve successfully checked in online and will receive on-site check-in instructions.
Example of the guest flow: link to mocks
Where and to whom is online check-in available?
We are building an online check-in product based on our core markets and accommodations. It’s your responsibility to only activate the online check-in flow for customers for whom the available form fields suffice. It’s also your own responsibility to only accept a check-in request from Booking.com for reservations where the online check-in is possible.
Important considerations
- Field customisations: The online check-in flow has predefined fields for guests to fill. Your customers cannot add or customise the available fields in the current version. You can find the most recent information about the available fields in the technical documentation.
- Sharing guest contact details: GDPR regulations and internal policies do not allow us to directly share guest emails. We can still share the proxy email addresses of the guests and phone numbers (if provided).
Branding and white labelling: We cannot white label the flow or co-brand the feature as we want to keep a consistent online check-in experience for guests through the Booking.com platform.
Booking.com’s responsibility
- Booking.com handles, as stated in the "Connected Stay Partner Agreement"
- Develop the guest interface and continue to work on improving guest communication and flow to optimise for conversion and experience.
- As a data driven company, we will collect guest feedback at several touch points during the whole flow and innovate accordingly.
- Provide the guest flow in a variety of languages.
- Develop, maintain and support the API connection.
- Support partners to deliver Booking.com online check-in by providing:
- Connected stay partner guide (this document) - including useful information and steps to growing online check-ins.
- Updated technical documentation, which we encourage you to check in a timely manner to stay informed about the latest changes.
- As we’re in our early development phase, continuous support will be provided to you by your Solution Engineer and Business Manager.
- Technical and non-technical materials and guidelines.
- Technical support for you and your tech team.
Your responsibility: Minimum partnership requirements
- The partner handles as stated in the ‘Connected Stay Partner Agreement’
- Develop and maintain the online check-in integration.
- Educate and train your customers about the Booking.com guest-facing online check-in flow.
- You can find a customer facing FAQ in the appendix. Our team will continue to provide updated educational materials that you can use to educate your customers about Booking.com online check-in.
- Promote Booking.com online check-in to your customers and driving adoption – with prior consent on promotional materials, and guidance from Booking.com.
- Own all your customer-facing interfaces (back office, notifications, PMS interface, etc).
- Support your customers in case of hardware or software malfunctioning.
- Share relevant customer feedback you receive with Booking.com.
- Prepare for any fall-back scenarios in case guests are not able to check-in when arriving at the property and after completing the Booking.com online check-in (e.g. supporting guests, providing solutions).
In the next section you will learn more about the steps on how to deliver the online check-in.