Rentlio leads the tech revolution in tourism: Check in in a few seconds!

Pankracije Barać: Why not grow 15% annually instead of 10%?

Author  Goran Rihelj

January 29, 2025

In a world where speed of service is key, especially in the hospitality industry, document scanning technology solutions offer an efficient solution to speed up the guest check-in process. The technology allows hotels to process the necessary data in a few seconds, which significantly relieves the reception staff and shortens the waiting time for guests.

Two years ago, Rentlio, thanks to his Rentlio Pro software reduced the duration of the administrative work check-in process to everything half a minute. Now they have gone a step further and reduced the time of the check in process to practically a few seconds last year. Interestingly, even though they are a travel tech company that offers software, the fastest guest check-in was achieved with a hardware document scanning device - Rentlio DocScan, which uses advanced technology to scan documents in seconds and automatically transfers data to Rentlio PMS (Property Management System).

In a conversation with Pankraci Barać, head of engineering at Rentli, we find out how they decided to invest in a physical device for document scanning, which significantly saves time when checking in and checking out guests. 

"The administrative time of the check-in process has been further reduced, from a very fast search for reservations and general data within the system, requiring only one click of registration to the actual scanning of guest documents. Among other things, we have a new product Rentlio DocScan adapted to document scanning, which takes 0,4 seconds per page of the document to read the data, and then guests can log in to the eVisitor system with one click. The point of all this is that administration is drastically reduced so that time can actually be dedicated to the guest himself in the form of "up-selling", various instructions, etc., and not, as has happened so far, when the guest waits for a long time while an employee looks at the screen", Barac pointed out.

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Fast check-in is especially important when checking in large groups, when the hotel is hosting sixty or more people at a time. In such situations, the front desk often faces a lot of pressure. Through technology, we not only optimize this process, but also ensure a positive first impression for guests, reducing potential crowds and stress for staff.

When asked why they decided on hardware, even though they are a software company, Barać states that they were not satisfied with the performance of existing hardware solutions that did not keep up with the speed and experience that their software could deliver. "The goal is for the device to work in any lighting, it is also important that it has manual focus since the distance from the document is always the same (this saves time on autofocus), that it is compact and has a slot for ID cards to make the whole process as fast as possible. We source some parts, print some with a 3D printer and then assemble everything together into the final product."

The speed of the software here is the same as with mobile scanning, but the scanning time itself is faster because mobile devices will spend a little more time on auto focus and adjusting the distance from the document. The DocScan device is intended for facilities that have a reception. As for groups, there are now several options. Within Rentlio, a rooming list template can be generated, which, after filling it out, can be imported into Rentlio with one click, and all guests are ready to check in to eVisitor, so there is no need for documents. The second option is to check in via online check-in, and the third is to have the entire administration done upon arrival, which makes a big difference if, for example, you have a group of 50 rooms and you spend 20 seconds per room instead of 2 minutes. This means that you spent a total of approximately 17 minutes instead of 1 hour and 40 minutes on the entire group check-in," emphasizes Barać.

By reducing the administrative burden, staff can devote more time to upselling services, such as wellness treatments or excursions, as well as introducing guests to the hotel's amenities and offerings. This additional "bought" time is also an opportunity to build better relationships with guests, create a memorable first impression, and proactively communicate about their needs and desires.

"The experiences of hoteliers are very positive considering the fact that they do not waste unnecessary time and can devote themselves to the guest or hospitality. Such things of course reflect on the guest experience which means how ratings on OTA channels such as Booking.com increase which then means how better prices can be achieved. "Given that the entire check-in, including document scanning and eVisitor registration, can be done via a mobile app, hoteliers can then offer a different check-in experience where, for example, you direct the guest to the hotel bar, give them a welcome drink, scan the documents at the table, chat with the guest, and hand them their room card without the guest having to wait at the reception desk," explains Barać and emphasizes that, given the labor market and constant employee changes even in the middle of the season, it is very important for hoteliers to have software like Rentlio, which a new employee can master within a day or two.

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Domestically, digitalization in the hotel industry continues to lag behind global trends, even among larger and more established hotel chains. While some segments are gradually modernizing, such as online reservation systems and basic automation, many key processes – including guest check-in, service personalization, and operations optimization – are still insufficiently digitized.

"I think the domestic market is lagging behind a lot in digitalization and transition to more modern systems. Various legacy solutions that are not in the cloud but are installed on a computer are still prevalent, some of which have done an excellent job over the years, but I think they will not and are already unable to keep up with the development of modern solutions. Our team of 40 people releases around 80 upgrades annually across all parts of the platform (PMS, CM, Booking engine, mobile applications) that are immediately available to all our users, while with a legacy solution you have to upgrade one user at a time, which is a laborious job that consumes a lot of resources and time that you could spend on development.

Furthermore, with a cloud solution you don't have the cost of IT staff, servers, risk of data loss, you can access the system from anywhere, you have unlimited integration options via open API... We notice that larger hotel systems are the slowest to modernize, which is logical because it is a much greater logistical challenge to replace the entire software in a large system, which at the end of the day, despite the software, grows year after year in business, but there is something called opportunity cost. Why not grow annually, for example, 15% instead of 10%", Barac concludes.

Photo: Rentlio

*The article was originally published in the hrturizam newspaper. Would you like to receive the hrturizam newspaper? Become part of the hrturizam family. 

Author  Goran Rihelj

January 29, 2025