Front Desk
Hotel front desk software should run the shift, not replace the PMS.
Your PMS keeps reservations, rates, folios, billing, and core room inventory as the system of record. Hotel Central gives agents the operations layer beside it: arrivals and departures context, pass-down notes, guest threads, signed authorizations, room-ready coordination, and manager-visible exceptions.
For the agent who runs the lobby and the manager who runs the agents.
What should hotel front desk software actually manage?
It should manage the work around the reservation: the shift handoff, guest requests, authorization evidence, room-ready signals, exceptions, and manager visibility. The PMS remains the system of record for reservations, rates, folios, billing, and room inventory. Hotel Central is the front desk operations layer that keeps every person working from the same story.
Reservation system of record
Rates, reservations, room inventory, folios, billing, and core room assignment stay in the PMS.
The shift operating layer
Pass-down, open tasks, guest messages, authorization proof, complaint follow-up, and room-ready coordination sit in Hotel Central.
Exceptions before they disappear
Unresolved requests, aging guest threads, missing authorization evidence, and repeat issues stay visible across shifts.
Haven powers this desk: Smart Summary distills a full shift of notes, Smart Detection catches complaints and work orders as they are typed, and Auth Capture turns a photographed authorization form into a secured record.
A day in the life.
A real Tuesday at a 120-room independent, beat by beat. Each moment below sits next to the exact surface the agent is using, the same screens that ship in the product.
- 06:55Open the shift dashboard.
The shift opens on the Shift Dashboard: 38 arrivals, 32 departures, 4 VIPs, four overnight work orders.
Shift dashboardToday's arrivalsLIVEM. TanakaRm 412 · 14:30ExpectedL. OkaforRm 207 · 15:10ExpectedS. ReyesRm 318 · 16:00ExpectedEvery tile on the Shift Dashboard is a click into the underlying records, no PMS export, no morning spreadsheet to rebuild. - 07:15Read the pass-down.
The overnight agent's Daily Notes sit at the top: VIP arrival in 412, a returned passport, and a short video of the jammed key encoder.
Daily Notes · pass-downPass-downLIVEVIPNight audit · 03:12VIP in 412: high floor, sparkling water on arrival.L&FFront · 05:40Passport returned to 219. Logged and signed.MAINTNight · 06:02Lobby key encoder jammed. WO-188 opened.Each Daily Note carries author, timestamp, and a thread, so the hand-off reads in minutes instead of deciphered handwriting. - 07:40Cover the gap.
A mid-morning call-out leaves the desk short. Scheduling flags the open slot on today's roster.
Scheduling · coverage gapSchedulingGAPMonTueWedAMRATKLOPMSRGAPMJNightDABWCNCoverage89%Scheduling surfaces the open slot on today's roster; the agent fills it from the on-call list before the lobby ever notices. - 09:10Turn a room, fast.
An early arrival needs 412 now. The agent pings housekeeping in Communications, threaded straight to the room.
Internal comms · room threadCommunicationsTHREADDispatchRm 118Late checkout approvedHousekeepingFloor 4 is CLEAN INSPECTEDFront · AnaRm 412Welcome amenity deliveredCommunications threads the request to the room and the housekeeper acknowledges with an ETA, no phone tag, no WhatsApp group. - 11:20Win a chargeback.
A month-old $340 charge gets disputed. The agent pulls the Digital Authorization the guest signed at check-in.
Digital authorization · signedAuthorizationsSIGNINGCardholder signatureAuth-2451.pdf · audit trailVisa ····4417 · signer, timestamp, IP capturedThe Digital Authorization audit-trail PDF goes back to the bank in eleven minutes, door to door, the artifact that wins the dispute.
What this replaces.
Everything the front desk improvises with: gone. The agent's desk is finally clear.
- The paper logbook the night agent writes inDaily Notes with author, timestamp, media, and thread
- The 'arrivals' spreadsheet someone re-exports every morningShift Dashboard live tiles
- The clipboard of authorization forms in the binderDigital Authorizations with audit-trail PDF
- The WhatsApp group for room-ready pingsInternal Communications threaded to the room
- The 'who's a VIP today?' email chainAuto-tagged VIP queue on the Shift Dashboard
- The verbal twenty-minute shift handoverPass-down notes the next agent reads in four minutes
- The complaint Post-it on the manager's monitorGuest Complaints with category, severity, and trend tracking
The morning spreadsheet, replaced.
The feature stack.
The front desk uses six surfaces every shift, and another four on a weekly or monthly cadence. The PMS still owns reservation and billing actions; Hotel Central owns the operational context around those actions, one click from the Shift Dashboard.
The pains this kills.
Three different agents tell three different stories about the 4pm chargeback because each one wrote it down somewhere different.
One thread on the reservation. Author, timestamp, attachments, resolution. Every agent reads the same story.
The early-arrival queue is a whiteboard, and the whiteboard doesn't know which rooms housekeeping has finished.
Live housekeeping status on the dashboard. The agent can see CLEAN INSPECTED before promising a key.
Shift handover takes twenty minutes of verbal storytelling and the new agent still misses the VIP arriving at 6pm.
Pass-down notes are read in four minutes. VIPs are auto-tagged on the dashboard with arrival window.
Authorization forms live in a binder behind the desk. When a dispute arrives, the team loses time proving who signed what and when.
Digital Authorizations package signer, timestamp, card details, policy acknowledgement, and source record into one exportable evidence trail.
Group arrivals back the lobby up to the front door because rooming lists arrive by email the morning of.
Group Sales Contracts pre-load the rooming list, billing, and amenities. The queue moves one room at a time, with no surprises.
The complaint about hallway noise in 318 is forgotten by tomorrow, and the same room complains next week.
Guest Complaints are categorized and trended. Three complaints about 3rd-floor noise this month triggers a maintenance review.
What gets measured.
The metrics this department instruments by default. Each derives from one or more shipped features above; drill in, source data included.
Where this connects.
One source of truth means every department reads the same data. Here is exactly how Front Desk touches the rest of the property.
Live room status on the dashboard. The agent knows a room is CLEAN INSPECTED the moment the supervisor signs off: no phone call, no 'let me check'.
Every front-desk-filed guest complaint with a 'fix-it' category becomes a Maintenance Work Order with priority routing, no second entry by the engineer.
Guest Hub threads opened at the desk follow the guest to AI Concierge after check-in. One conversation, one history, never restarted.
Every shift's pass-down feeds the next morning's Night Audit Intelligence briefing. The GM reads what happened before unlocking the office.
Questions.
The ones that actually come up in the demo.
Do front desk agents need training to use Hotel Central?
Does Hotel Central replace our PMS at the front desk?
What happens to our paper authorization forms?
Can we still use our existing key encoder?
How does the shift pass-down work for night audit?
What about chargeback disputes that go back months?
- what should hotel front desk software manage
- front desk software for hotels
- hotel shift handover software
- digital guest authorization form
- mobile check-in for independent hotels
- hotel front desk dashboard
- hotel pass-down log software
- night audit briefing software
- front desk chargeback dispute tool
- front desk agent workflow tool
- boutique hotel front desk software
See front desk running on one screen.
A walkthrough takes 30 minutes. Real property data, no slides.