Helping hotel guests and travellers jump queues, Check-in, Check-out, Order and Pay without waiting
London January 23, 2017: At next month’s Travel Technology Europe show in Olympia, instant interaction specialists Ensygnia, will demonstrate and launch a new smartphone-based check-in and payment system that could help virtually eliminate hotel check-in queues.
A new application of Ensygnia’s award-winning and patented Onescan process enables travellers to simply scan a code in reception in order to check-in for their stay. They then receive their room number and other details about their stay direct to the Onescan, hotel or booking app on their smartphone. At the room, a further scan, key code or Bluetooth can unlock the door; alternatively, self-service key-validation can be enabled using existing hotel infrastructure and equipment.
The system works by integrating the Onescan instant interaction platform with a hotel’s management system. Scanning the code allows the system to retrieve and register the name of the guest, the length of stay, and the room details as well as to add any loyalty data or offer upgrade options if available.
The system presents all the relevant details on the smartphone screen for the guest to confirm, sends a copy of the guest’s ID or passport information to reception, and puts a payment method on file without having to hand over a physical payment card or passport at any stage. The whole process also completes in seconds.
Throughout the stay, Onescan enables guests to simply and easily order additional services via their smartphone, either through the hotel app or driven directly by visual calls-to-action displayed around the hotel. This can be anything from room service, to restaurant bookings, shopping, events, excursions, value-added services or any special offers the hotel presents.
The service runs using bank grade security to safeguard each user’s personal and financial data which is protected and accessed by Ensygnia’s secure platform and its patented Picture & PIN technology.
At the end of their stay, guests can review their bill - and split items between personal and business expenses if required - and then quickly and easily pay using the appropriate card details without leaving the app. Receipts are sent immediately to the app and also by email.
Announcing Onescan for check-in, Ensygnia CEO Richard H Harris said: “The value for hotels is not just the faster check-in, but also the instant interaction marketing and customer service that it enables both when guests are staying and when they are at home. It delivers a huge increase in guest engagement.”
“And of course, for guests, it will mean they can check-in quicker, order smarter, and pay easier,” he said.
Ensygnia will be demonstrating Onescan for hotel check-in on Stand Number LP19 at Travel Technology Europe, Olympia, February 22-23.
About Ensygnia and Onescan Ensygnia has designed and developed an instant interaction platform that allows customers to use their smartphone to immediately react and engage with almost any piece of marketing material that has a ‘call to action’ – whether that’s ordering goods, registering for a service, booking a trip, making a payment or claiming a reward.
These interactions can be triggered from an email, a text message, a website, a poster, an advert or a sign inside a store, hotel, airport or restaurant – basically anything your smartphone can receive or its camera can see, can be used to trigger the interaction.
Ensygnia’s solution is built around its IoT Gateway and its Internet of Services™ platform. The company has created and patented both a highly flexible “work-flow engine” – capable of managing multiple different interactions across the platform - and a rendering capability that means all the exchanges can be customised and presented using the branding of the company providing the goods or services.
This enables any company to immediately turn virtually any smartphone into its own, multi-purpose branded customer engagement platform. This goes much further than any current simple own-brand App. The Ensygnia platform can provide services including identity verification, registration, log-in, authentication, the purchase of goods or services, awarding and managing loyalty schemes, keyless entry, digital rights management, survey completion, competition entry, bill payment or anything else your business requires.
The service can be provided via Ensygnia’s own Onescan app, by an own-brand version of it, or can be embedded into an existing branded app. Whichever route is taken, customer interactions always feature the host company branding. Embedding the service into an existing app using Ensygnia’s Software Development Kit (SDK) also allows companies to immediately take advantage of Ensygnia’s security, encryption and compliance certifications. The Ensygnia SaaS platform is extremely secure, regularly penetration tested, and is PCI Level 1 Certified and PSD2 Ready.
An important factor in the security and safety of the service is that key data is not stored centrally. In fact, personal data is encrypted and stored in a secure vault on the user’s smartphone and the interaction with the platform effectively triggers permission for it to be accessed and used. It is never stored on the Ensygnia platform and permission is ‘granted’ every time the process is triggered. This protects personal data, gives service providers the best data compliance and conforms with upcoming legislation. Security of access to the data on the handset itself also has multi factor capability – it can be as simple as a PIN code, or can use a combination of different bio-metrics and a PIN.
As far as payment information is concerned, these details remain encrypted and stored in the cloud and not by Ensygnia. Instead, Ensygnia supports the broadest range of existing global payment providers and methods including Credit & Debit Cards, Direct Debit, Direct bank transfer, PayPal, Apple Pay and Carrier Billing (providing rapid sign-up for billions of consumers globally). Service companies wishing to use Ensygnia’s interaction platform can do so without changing their existing payment acquirer, gateway or infrastructure as the platform is able to seamlessly integrate with the current service providers.
Ensygnia’s backers include Gate Ventures, Telefonica and BBC Worldwide Labs. First customers for the Onescan system include Sabre, BBC Worldwide, Visa Europe, Noddle and Playjam.
The company has been granted multiple patents for the Onescan system in the UK, USA, Russia, China, Australia and Mexico and has many other patents pending worldwide.
For further information
Kevin Taylor
M: +44 7850 858 291
E: kevin.taylor@ensygnia.com