It's 3:04 pm, and Mr. Brandt is standing at the front desk of Hotel Tannenhof. Check-in takes two minutes, the small talk about his journey takes about the same. Then comes the question that gets asked ten times a day at every front desk: "So what is there to do here in the evening?"
This is the exact moment that decides whether Guestnet will ever matter to this guest.
The receptionist could pull a brochure out of the drawer. Instead, she says: "We'll send your personal login details by email in about ten minutes. So you don't have to wait, here's our app already." Mr. Brandt scans the code, saves the app icon to his home screen, and since he's in a hurry, he goes ahead and types in his reservation number and surname instead of waiting for the email. Two minutes later he's looking at the evening's activities, sorted by time, with a booking button right there.
From here, everything else pretty much takes care of itself. When the welcome email arrives a little later, it's no longer a necessary first step for him, just a convenient extra that will let him log in on other devices without typing anything again. The room bill, the spa offers, checkout, all of it is now a tap away, because the first and most important step is already done: the login.
So this article is less a feature list and more a guide to making that one moment at the front desk work for you, and to backing it up technically, visually, and organizationally.
Why it's worth more than you'd think
At first glance, a login looks like a technical detail. In reality, it's the gateway to almost everything Guestnet can do. Without a login, personalized content stays impersonal, automated communication goes nowhere, and digital services like orders or the room bill exist in the system but not in the guest's awareness. Even with a perfectly set up welcome email and PMS connection, most of it goes unused if the login never happens.
In practice, that shows up in four places:
In communication. Notices, offers, and important information actually reach the guest, instead of sitting unread in an inbox.
In service. Digital orders, activities, and self-service features get used, because they're visible and within reach exactly when the guest needs them.
In revenue. Upselling modules like Order or Shop only work once guests are logged in. No login means no revenue from these modules, no matter how well they're set up.
For the team. Fewer questions at the front desk, because guests can inform themselves, plus direct charges to the room bill instead of cash transactions at the bar.
The good news is that most of the levers are in your own hands. Let's start where Mr. Brandt's login was actually already prepared, long before he reached the front desk.
The groundwork behind the scenes
Before a QR code or a friendly reminder can have any effect at all, the digital access itself needs to work smoothly. That's the invisible work that makes the visible moment at the front desk possible in the first place.
PMS data quality as the foundation. A guest can only be recognized automatically if they're correctly stored in the PMS as a room guest, with a unique email address and an active check-in. Incomplete or duplicate entries are one of the most common reasons a welcome email never arrives, even though the guest has been in the hotel for hours. If it really doesn't arrive, spam folder, a typo in the reservation, or something similar, it can be resent at any time, and that's something everyone at the front desk should know how to do.
Pre-arrival login, where available. If your PMS supports it, a guest can log in with their surname and reservation number before they even arrive. That moves the first contact earlier, into a phase when anticipation is already running high, often days before the actual check-in.
The landing page after login. Guestnet lets you decide where a guest lands after logging in, for example straight to "My Stay" instead of a generic home page. When the first thing they see shows clear value right away, guests tend to log back in on their own next time.
Dynamic links in the welcome email. A link that already includes the room number and password cuts out manual entry almost entirely. That's exactly what was happening in the background for Mr. Brandt shortly after check-in, while he'd already logged in himself at the front desk.
With that foundation in place, the next step is making sure guests actually notice that this access exists, and that's where the front desk takes center stage.
The front desk as the real login moment
Flawless technical access doesn't help if nobody knows about it. Hotels with a high login rate all share one thing: they make the login visible in more than one place, with the front desk as the natural starting point.
Back to Mr. Brandt and his question about evening activities. Questions like that come up constantly, about restaurants, the spa, the pool's opening hours. Each one is an invitation to show the app, not as an extra step, but as the faster, better answer. "Let me show you on your phone" is almost always more convincing than a list recited out loud that the guest will have forgotten in ten minutes.
A combination of several building blocks makes this work day to day:
QR codes at multiple touchpoints, not just at the front desk, but also in the room, at the bar, in the spa area, or on the terrace. These codes lead to the app, or to the general login screen, not to a pre-filled personal login, but even that small extra step of entering reservation number and surname is no problem at all for most guests, as long as they know the app exists in the first place.
A small, well-designed object in the room, a card, a little stand, matching the hotel's design, placed on the nightstand or the dresser. Not a loud piece of advertising, but a quiet, visible reminder with a clear, short message.
An info display in the lobby, pointing guests to the app at exactly the moment they're already expecting information about their stay, right at check-in.
Print materials with a QR code. Room folders, flyers, or daily menus from Guestnet's print modules can easily be extended with a QR code, which makes them a natural bridge between the printed and the digital experience.
And the verbal mention at check-in itself. One simple sentence from the team, "Your login details will arrive by email shortly, but here's the app in the meantime," often works better than any printed material, because it's personal and comes at exactly the right moment.
One thing matters here: this sentence shouldn't be confined to the front desk. Questions about activities, opening hours, or the spa come up just as often with housekeeping, at the bar, or in the restaurant as they do at reception. If only the front office knows how the login works, a large share of these opportunities simply gets lost. It's worth making that brief QR code mention a standard part of onboarding across every guest-facing area, not only the front desk.
Making the access itself as easy as possible
Once a guest is motivated to open the app, the final step shouldn't be an unnecessary hurdle. Small points of friction in the process cost a disproportionate amount of login rate.
A short, clear login message. The introductory text on the login page can be customized. A sentence that covers both cases tends to work well, something like: "Already received an email from us? Feel free to use the link in it. If not, just log in with your reservation number and surname." That removes any uncertainty about whether guests are waiting for something that might not even be there yet.
Offering both login paths equally. Not every guest already has their login details. Logging in with reservation number and surname should be just as prominent as logging in with room number and password, not tucked away as a secondary option.
Actively mentioning the share login feature. Once a guest is logged in, they can share their access under "Stay" via QR code or link with people traveling with them. A short mention of this saves everyone sharing the same room their own separate login.
Keeping an eye on multiple languages. The login experience is available in multiple languages and is responsive. It's worth checking this occasionally from a guest's point of view, especially in hotels with an international clientele.
Where to start
Not every hotel can tackle everything at once, and honestly, the list above already covers nearly everything that's possible. If you need to prioritize, three things move the biggest lever:
Check your PMS data. Correct email address, active check-in. Without this, nothing else works reliably.
Brief every guest-facing team, not just the front desk, to mention the app and how to access it whenever a relevant question comes up.
Place a QR code to the app at the front desk and in the room. The most visible and quickest touchpoint to put in place.
Everything else, pre-arrival login, info displays, additional print materials, can be added once these three points are in place.
Mr. Brandt, by the way, booked a table at the restaurant through the app that evening and ordered breakfast to his room the next morning. Both of those are revenue that likely wouldn't have happened without that one sentence at the front desk.
FAQ
How many login methods should I promote at once?
How many login methods should I promote at once?
Two or three touchpoints, used consistently, are enough, rather than setting up many in parallel without much thought. What matters more than the number is that every touchpoint leads clearly to the login.
Does the login rate change right away after the first measures?
Does the login rate change right away after the first measures?
An effect usually shows up over several weeks, since new hints first need to become part of everyday routine. A gradual rollout following the checklist above is also easier to evaluate than one big change all at once.
Support
Want to work with us to figure out which of these measures will do the most for your property, or need help setting up Pre-Arrival Login, the Welcome E-mail, or the landing page?
Our Customer Success team is happy to help: 📩 [email protected]