Traveling Smart / On Business -- Hotel Chains Introduce Quick Check-In Process

A few years back, the nation's hotel managers put on their collective thinking caps to devise ways to speed up the check-out process, which guests had complained was a time-consuming hassle. And lo, we were introduced to express check-out - at least in many leading hotel chains.

So what more could these picky guests want?

Express check-in, for one thing, to eliminate the sometimes long and creeping lines at the registration desk.

And lo (again), their wishes are being granted. At least three major hotel chains - Marriott, Hyatt and Hilton - have adopted new procedures aimed at smoothing or hastening room check-in.

Efficient check-in and check-out procedures are especially appealing to business travelers who spend much of their time on the road shuffling between hotels. The three chains cater to these frequent travelers, who are a lucrative source of income.

Each of the chains has developed its own quick check-in process, although there are some similarities.

In each, guests are assigned rooms in advance of their arrival and most of the necessary paperwork is completed ahead of time. When guests show up, they simply pick up their keys at a special desk and head for their rooms.

Depending on the hotel, a signature may be required or a credit-card impression taken, but that's the extent of the fuss.

Marriott appears to have taken the boldest step, all but eliminating the front desk for credit-card-paying guests in a two-step plan to be phased in over the next year.

The name of the program, at least for now, is "1st 10," on the premise that guests can get a good or bad impression of a hotel in the first 10 minutes of their stay.

Hilton's new express registration has been dubbed "Zip In, Check-In," and it also enables guests to bypass the front desk.

Initially, the service has been offered only to the 2 million members of Hilton's HHonors frequent guest program. But it will be extended to all Hilton customers later this fall.

Hyatt's variation is called "1-800-Check-In," and it permits guests with a reservation to check in by phone as early as 10 a.m. on the day of arrival.

When they show up in the hotel lobby, they too skip the front desk. At the outset, Hyatt also limited the service to its most frequent guests - those who qualified for the "platinum" or "diamond" categories of its Gold Passport promotion. Now phone check-in is available to all guests.

In surveys of guests taken in recent years, Marriott asked what aspect of service most satisfied them. An "overwhelming majority," says Marriott spokesman Gordon Lambourne, cited being able to check in quickly.

The Hyatt chain agrees. "Checking in and out quickly is a big priority for travelers," says spokeswoman Carrie Reckert. "You just don't want to stand in line."

"We listened closely to our customers, who told us that they wanted a faster check-in process," says Michael A. Ribero, Hilton's senior vice president of marketing.

If the new procedures prove successful, as every sign so far indicates, they almost certainly will be adopted in one form or another by other hotels in the highly competitive lodging industry.

All the feedback has been positive, say spokesmen for the three hotel chains, which are enthusiastic about implementing them as fully as possible.

Among them, the new check-in methods amount to what Marriott accurately characterizes as a revolution in the way large hotels welcome their guests. In test runs, Marriott has determined it is cutting check-in time by more than half.

Traveling Smart focuses on business travel, health and other travel issues on the fourth Tuesday of the month.