Check-in is the first time you can make a personal, face-to-face impression on your guests. They will already have formed an impression of the property from the advertising, the exterior of the property itself and whatever they may have heard from friends or picked up on social media.

Check-in is where you encounter your guest and set the impression. There are a few things you can do to ensure it’s the best impression possible.

Don’t overdo it. Your guests have been travelling, they’re tired, they want to get the key and go to the room. They don’t want to hear the restaurant schedule unless they ask, they don’t want to hear about every local attraction, they don’t want a long conversation. Give them the key, the crucial information, handle payment necessities, and wish them a pleasant stay. Any other conversation is at their prompting.

Information such as the minibar policy, room cleaning schedules, parking, checkout times and all that can be printed on a card and placed in the guest rooms for them to peruse at their leisure. Or you can create a printout of commonly-asked questions and answers and hand it to the guest with the key.

Have maps handy. Some of the most common questions guests have when checking in have to do with where things are and how to get there. If you’re in the middle of a city or out in the country, have a pad of maps on the desk so you can tear one off and give it to the guests.

To make things run even more efficiently, have a well-designed reservation form on your website to collect all the pertinent information, so the guest doesn’t have to give it all at the desk. That makes check-in much more relaxed and pleasant.

Finally, run frequent checks to make sure you have enough forms, pens, cards, maps, everything you need at the front desk to handle an unexpected number of walk-ins.