A Guide to Better Hotel Onboarding
Data minimisation and single-click sign-ups are designed in a way to reform and refine the customer experiences that the Hotel Industry offers. In addition to streamlining the guest check-in process, they also reduce the vulnerability of personal data.
Here’s a look at the state of affairs, advancements, and the future of hotel onboarding.
Data — Do More with Less
Current onboarding trends require the filling out of forms and entering of details that aren’t always made use of. Even if they make it to the end, guests are left feeling frustrated and fatigued. Also, a honeypot of guest information is created anywhere there’s a copious supply of personal data. Data minimisation saves time and increases usability. As the fields on a sign-up form start to disappear, so does user dissatisfaction.
Onboarding Redesigned
If data minimisation improves the guest experience, one-click onboarding revolutionises it. It’s baffling that guests are still required to type to be onboarded. With new, efficient alternatives at hand, people can be checked-in instantly, without them having to fill out any information. They tap a button on the hotel’s website and a QR Code with consent information comes up. They would then scan the code with a self-sovereign identity mobile app and be done.
This can transform the way that guests experience a hotel’s website. Businesses that implement this early will be rewarded with happy customers.
From Booked-In to Checked-In
Self-sovereign data sharing can also be used to iron out the check-in process. Guests typically arrive at their hotel accommodation exhausted, hungry and jet-lagged. They’re then found wearily leaning against the counter as the receptionist types in their personal details. And if that were not enough, copies of sensitive documents, such as their credit cards and passports are made and stored. Implementing an in-built check-in solution eliminates the need for dangerous duplication and makes seamless onboarding experiences possible.
Ideally, the guest would perform one simple task on a device, without any typing, and be handed the room key. The good news is that an interaction such as this can be easily implemented into existing booking systems.
Data Capture — An Alternative
National laws are the main drivers for passport and identification capture and storage. Most hotels and businesses copy identification documents into locally or centrally-managed databases. While doing this meets national law requirement, it fails to comply with data protection regulations (country-specific). The less-secure, centralised storage of identity documents also increases guest insecurity. Hotels are then required to answer to data privacy regulations, such as the EU’s GDPR and Singapore’s PDPA.
But it does not have to be that way. Identity-based technologies for onboarding have advanced. Optical Character Recognition (OCR), for example, is a game-changer. With it, data collection then becomes more accurate, more user-friendly and more secure.
The Currency of Consent
In regards to the collection of personal data, the Kantara Initiative is a benchmark for best practice and compliance. The Digital Identity non-profit has been pivotal in the development of international consent receipts and data collection standards. A consent receipt lists the type of data transferred and its authorised use. There’s a sense of trust and security when a service provider takes consumer consent to data collection seriously.
Public consciousness these days is immersed in good onboarding and a no-compromise attitude to data security. With self-sovereign identity systems and the latest technology, businesses have the unique opportunity to tackle this dual dilemma head-on.
Hotels strive to keep things as simple and secure for their guests, so there’s much to gain from reinventing the onboarding journey. By adopting a typeless solution, form-fatigue is minimised and a new phase of customer experience can be nurtured.
Sphere Identity streamlines the customer onboarding process in a safe and compliant way while also giving individuals their privacy back.
