Monday, September 14, 2026 The Daily Checkout Hotels, rates and the guest experience
Guest Experience

The check-in queue is a design problem, not a staffing one

Properties that cut arrival wait times did it by changing the desk layout and the arrival sequence, not by adding agents.

Time-and-motion work across 60 lobbies found the bottleneck is rarely the number of staff at the desk. It is the arrival sequence: guests queue before they know what they need.

Pre-arrival messaging and a separate key-collection point removed most of the wait at a fraction of the cost of another full-time position.

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