Kiosk Booking Engine for Guests to Book and Check-in

The BookingCenter Kiosk solution enables each Kiosk to offer a Booking Engine that is specific to the specific Kiosk needs.  For example, each Kiosk can use it's own Booking Engine template; each Kiosk  use the System Date to allow bookings up to an hour in the early am and then cut-off additional bookings automatically for that 'business day'; each Kiosk can use its own payment gateway, thus supporting either 'EMV MyCard' or 'Traditional MyCard' or no payment gateway; and from the booking can seamlessly check-in their booking, as they standing at the Kiosk.

Booking Engine Template to Use

Each Kiosk Agent selects a unique Booking Engine template when offering 'Book Now' capabilities at the specific Kiosk(s), in order to facilitate the best experience for a Kiosk Guest.  Learn more about the different Booking Engine templates here.  

For example, if your Site ID is MYPMSDO and you use two Kiosks: K1 and K2, the Booking Engine ‘agent allocation' for K1 (set to use Booking Engine template: 01) would link as: https://book.bookingcenter.com/01/?site=MYPMSDO&agent=MYPMSDOK1.

The other K2 'Kiosk agent' might be set to use Booking Engine template: 02 and it would then link to:https://book.bookingcenter.com/02/?site=MYPMSDO&agent=MYPMSDOK2.

Manage the System Date and Arrival Date for Kiosk Bookings

By default, the Kiosk uses the 'System Date' of the PMS as the 'arrival date' to offer the Guest the ability to 'Book Now' and upon successful completion of their <optional> eSign and payment policy compliance, 'check in' to their unit.  By using System Date, the property can accept arrivals for 'today' as late in the evening as desired.  

Most properties manually manage Night Audit to set their System Date, and then increment the date manually when they wish. But some properties use Auto Night Audit to do this, and this can allow any setting between midnight and 6:30 am in half hour segments.  For example, if you are willing to accept bookings via your Kiosk for 'today' up till 4 am, but then want to stop any more checkins for the day, your options are:

1. Manually increment the date at 4 am in Night Audit to move to 'tomorrow' so your Kiosk begins offering booking arrivals at the current System Date.
2. Have your Auto Night Audit time set to 4 am so it automatically runs and offers booking arrivals for 'today' from 4:01 am onwards.  
3. Turn Off the Kiosk agent at 4 am to cease any more bookings from occurring via the specific Kiosk(s).

Payments for a Kiosk via an EMV device

Each Kiosk can have its own EMV payment terminal, so that a Kiosk in one location can offer different EMV terminal(s) than other Kiosk(s).  If using an EMV terminal, it is required that the Kiosk and the EMV device be on the same subnet of your IP network, and the EMV device secured and powered-up to work.  Getting a user to identify and use a 'tap/dip/swipe' EMV device can be a challenge, thus BookingCenter allows you a 'Note' field to explain to the Guest where the EMV device is located and how to use it.  Note that you can use either an EMV device (what we call 'EMV MyCard') or have the guest enter their credit card manually (what we call 'Traditional MyCard') when paying via Self Check-in. Either way is secure and offers PCI compliance.  In fact, you can offer a mix of payment options, with some bookings paying via an EMV (what we call 'EMV MyCard') while others manually manage credit cards (what we call 'Traditional MyCard').

If you are a property that participates in 'Suppressed Rate Bookings' (for example Expedia pre-paid bookings) and you require that an incidental credit cards be saved prior to allowing check-in, then this is supported, as well.

Check-in After the Booking

Upon completing the booking, the Guest is requested to click a 'Check in now' button (or 'Pay and Check-in Now' if using payments) and then they perform their Self Check-in without having to authenticate themselves (as they just completed their booking, we 'know' who they are).