GUIDE: Setup my Online Check-in form

In order to make life easier for holiday home owners, Smoobu has developed a new feature: online check-in. Often, for government agencies or official events, the guests’ data must that be collected goes beyond the normal booking process. For example, date of birth or nationality.

Now it’s easy to automatically request this data from your guests, even before they arrive. No annoying filling of paperwork on site! You can then download the guest data from Smoobu.

Thanks to the new “Online Check-In” function at Smoobu, the collection of registration data or online check-in can be done quickly. Of course, all this is encrypted and secure against access by third parties. Here you will learn how to setup your form. 

How does the “Online Check-In” function work?

Step 1: What data is collected?

The first step is to define what data of your guests you would like to request. Please go to Smoobu Settings / Online Check-in.

You can differentiate here between the Main guest and Additional guests.

To enable your Checkin form simply press the highlighted button below:

If you need to request other information, such as the means of transport in which the guests are arriving, you can add a custom field. Click on 'Add custom field' to add the title of the field.

At the bottom of the form, there is space to have an e-signature (if "Signature" is ticked as a box)

For example, if you want to request a means of transportation for your guests to the city, you could do it as follows:

At the bottom, in the Description section, specify the text that should appear on the form page. For example:

Dear guest,

We look forward to your visit with us. To prepare for your stay, we kindly ask you to complete the online check-in form and send it to us.

Kind regards.,

Your Host

To Enable your Checkin form simply press the highlighted button below:

Step 2: Prepare the mailing

Now you are ready to provide your guest with the link to check-in online. You should write an message template and save it. 

You probably already know the new function of Smoobu. Go to Settings / Communication and click Create message.

Go to Settings / Communication and click on Create Message.

Customize your message and - IMPORTANT - paste the [OnlineCheckInLink] placeholder into your email template. 

Online Check-In Form Placeholders for all available languages
Default: [onlineCheckInLink]
English: [onlineCheckInLinkEN]
German: [onlineCheckInLinkDE]
Italian: [onlineCheckInLinkIT]
Dutch: [onlineCheckInLinkNL]
Spanish: [onlineCheckInLinkES]
French: [onlineCheckInLinkFR]
Portuguese: [onlineCheckInLinkPT]

Then specify whether you want to send it manually or select "Send automatically" and set the time period. For example, 4 days before arrival. 

Read detailed instructions here

Step 3: Send the message

If you chose auto-send in step 2, you can sit back and wait for your guest's response. 

If you prefer a manual submission, look for the booking in the Cockpit or in the Bookings list. Click on the "Send mail" option and select the appropriate mail template. You can adapt this email here again. More information about sending messages

 

Step 4: Waiting for the guest and notification

Your guest only has to complete the form and submit the information to you. As soon as they do, you will receive an email notification from us.

 

Step 5: Download check-in data

Find the booking and access its Details. You can access the data, edit it or download it as a TXT or PDF file.

How can I add a Hyperlink URL to my Terms and Conditions?

Firstly please note you need to have your text of your Terms and Conditions hosted externally on a page, which means it needs to exist first. 

Then you can hyperlink it into online Check-In page like so:

Copy and paste this code below into your online check-in form Description and replace the word ADDLINK with your own URL link.

<p><a href="ADDLINK" style="letter-spacing:.2px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255);font-size:1rem;">Terms & Conditions link</a><br /></p>

It will look like so in your Online Check-in Form:

How can I see what the form looks like from the Guest's view?

Open the Booking Details of any reservation

Scroll to Online check-in and copy the link, pasting it into a new tab. Each booking has a unique URL:

Online check-in Link expiration

The link expires once the information has been added, however a new link is created in case you need an update. Obviously we do not want the guest to be able to adapt, delete the info, so you need to send a new link to them.

If you need additional info you need to send out the new link. 

Find the booking, click Details

Find the new URL link under Online check-in

Send this new link to the guest to request additional information.

Additional Tips

• If you need a copy of your guests' IDs, remember to check the 'Attachments' option in Step 2
• If you require the signature of your guests, you now have the possibility to mark the field 'Signature'
• If you would like to request acceptance of your Terms and Conditions via your Online Check-in form, you can use the 'Description' section to paste the link to a Dropbox/Google Drive file. Your guests can download it and after reading it, sign your Online Check-in as acceptance. Simply paste the link into the description for your guests to access.

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