What happens when a visitor checks in

The three places a visitor can be admitted — the reception desk, a lobby screen or kiosk, and their own phone — and what each one does at the moment they arrive: whether the guest is shown the room they are going to, and whether the host is told. The panel outside the room is not one of them.

Updated 13 Sept 2026

A visitor can be admitted in three places, and the panel outside the room is not one of them. A room booking panel can let a visitor who is already checked in take a free room, and it can open a door for them, but nothing on a panel admits anybody to the building. That is worth saying first, because it is where most people look.

The three that do admit a visitor are the reception desk, a lobby screen or kiosk, and the visitor’s own phone. They create the same record. They do not show the guest the same thing.

What each surface does

Where they check in	Shown the room	Floor plan	You are here	Host told
Reception desk — a receptionist scans their code	no	no	no	yes
Lobby screen or kiosk — the guest checks themselves in	yes, when the visit names a room	yes, that room lit up	when the screen is placed on a plan	yes
The visitor’s own phone — from a link or a QR on the screen	no	no	no	yes
Room booking panel	cannot check a visitor in at all

A matrix of three columns over four rows. The columns are Reception desk, Their own phone and Lobby screen, each headed by a tinted icon tile. The rows are admits the visitor, tells the host, shows the room, and draws the floor room lit up. All three columns carry a green tick on admits the visitor and on tells the host. On shows the room and on draws the floor only the Lobby screen column, at the right, is ticked; both cells are blank and grey for the reception desk and for the phone. A green band across the foot reads, only when the visit names a room that is on a floor plan. — Wherever a visitor is admitted, the host is told. Only the lobby screen also shows the guest the room they are going to.

The guest who is shown the room

At a lobby screen, a successful check-in interrupts the welcome content with the destination: the room’s name, its floor and its building, and a plan of that floor with the room lit up. Where the screen itself has been placed on a floor plan, the guest also gets a You are here pin and can see both ends of the walk. It closes itself after a minute.

It is not unconditional. The visit has to name a room that is open to visitors, and that room needs a floor and a position on the floor plan; without those the guest gets a plain confirmation instead. The four conditions, and what to check when the map does not appear, are in Show a visitor the way to the room they are visiting.

The reception desk’s own check-in wizard shows no plan — the receptionist is standing next to the guest, and the room is on the visitor’s badge. A guest checking in on their own phone is told to collect that badge at reception.

The host who is told

Every surface tells the host, and it is on out of the box. The moment the badge is admitted the host gets an email, a push notification where they use the mobile app, and a Teams message where Teams is connected. The host is whoever invited them — for a visit created from a booking, that is the booking’s organiser.

The message names the visitor, not the room. Turning it off is a policy setting per location, and a visit governed by two locations keeps the notification until both have turned it off. Both facts are in Tell the host their visitor arrived.

What this does not decide

Whether the guest is admitted at all. A visit awaiting approval has sent no invitation and has no code to check in with — see Require approval.
What the badge says, which is set once for the whole company.
Whether a door physically unlocks. Checking in at a screen can trigger the doors linked to that screen; everything else about a lock is access control.
Who works the desk. That is the Receptionist permission, and the desk has a guide of its own.