Skift Take
Hotels are looking to increase engagement with guests, and CheckMate offers some of the mobile tools to get the job done. It remains to be seen, though, whether any large chains will opt for CheckMate as their preferred solution or whether they will seek out alternatives.
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- The CheckMate service integrated into a hotel’s app.
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- Sample email that a guest would receive from their hotel.
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- The beginning of mobile check-in.
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- Guests can request types of rooms, upgrades, and arrival times within the app.
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- The hotel can communicate details of the check in back to guests.
CheckMate, acquired by hotel metasearch site Room 77 when it hired Drew Patterson as CEO, debuted in beta today as a way for hotels to streamline guest check-ins, giving travelers the ability to make room category requests and communicate with the property prior to arrival.
“It’s an operating system for how they can interact with guests,” Patterson told Skift.
Geared to be a behind-the-scenes mobile and online application for hotels and distributors, CheckMate enables travelers to “request room preferences, communicate arrival times, receive last-minute upgrade offers, submit loyalty numbers, and receive room status alerts and other direct communication from the hotel in advance of arrival,” CheckMate states.
CheckMate’s platform lives on top of existing hotel property management systems. Commune Hotels + Resorts, MetWest Terra Hospitality, and Pacific Hospitality Group are using it.
For users, CheckMate appears as an extension of the hotel, not a standalone app. The service sends an email roughly 24 hours before the guest is scheduled to arrive and offers them the opportunity to check-in online. The guest can see room types, request a better room, and share his arrival time. Guests’ requests will be reviewed by the hotel before it replies with a confirmation email and information about where the guest can pick up their key, whether it be from the doorman or the front desk.
Founded in 2010, Room 77 in its beginnings built a large database of hotel room information and sought to give hotel guests the ability to discover specific rooms. The latter option was largely dropped when hotels didn’t go for it, but CheckMate has integrated Room 77’s room data into the CheckMate platform.
On the distribution front, Room 77, PointsHound, and Alliance Reservations Network have implemented CheckMate.
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Tags: check-ins, checkmate, loyalty, room 77
Photo credit: The CheckMate service integrated into a hotel's app. PlaceIt by Breezi