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.
Room 214 HVAC follow-up is still open.
Breakfast inventory count is due this morning.
Vendor access confirmed for the west stairwell.
Review the room 214 follow-up and this morning's inventory count.
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
Daily Notes, task status, maintenance follow-up, personal reminders, and the underlying hotel workflows 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 Shift Dashboard with today's Daily Notes, task and maintenance status, reminders, and the widgets available to this staff role.
Shift dashboardToday's Daily Notes3 notesJS6:48 AMRoom 214 HVAC follow-up is still open.
MR7:05 AMBreakfast inventory count is due this morning.
Haven · Daily Notes briefReview the room 214 follow-up and this morning's inventory count.
Shift Dashboard brings today's Daily Notes and available operational summaries into one starting view, with links back to the underlying work. - 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. - 07:40Check the desk schedule.
The manager opens Scheduling to review today's front desk assignments, days off, and any staff marked as covering.
Scheduling · team scheduleTeam scheduleWEEKTeamFront Desk
Jun 8–14
SMTWTFSMorning7a–3pRARATKTKMSMSDAEvening3p–11pLOMSDARALOTKTKMinePersonal Sunday–Saturday viewScheduling keeps the current front desk assignments, days off, and covering markers in the same hotel record. - 09:10Turn a room, fast.
An early arrival needs 412 now. The agent messages a housekeeping colleague in Communications, putting the room number and request in the conversation.
Internal comms · staff updateCommunicationsDRAFTAll StaffFront DeskHousekeepingAll Staff
Use the east entrance during lobby floor work, 11:00 AM–2:00 PM.
✓Acknowledgement requiredSendIn Communications, an All Staff or department announcement can request explicit acknowledgement when an update needs a response. - 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 · signedAuthorizationSIGNINGCardholder signatureAuth-2451.pdf · audit trailVisa ····4417 · signer, timestamp, IP capturedThe Digital Authorization keeps the signature, timestamps, requested documents, and audit-trail PDF together for staff review.
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 hotel-defined Shift Log templates, dated publishing, media, and follow-up
- The browser tabs each agent rebuilds at shift startA saved Shift Dashboard layout
- The clipboard of authorization forms in the binderDigital Authorizations with audit-trail PDF
- The WhatsApp group for room-ready pingsDirect staff conversations and department announcements in Internal Communications
- The personal follow-up list on a sticky notePersonal reminders on the Shift Dashboard
- The verbal shift handoverA structured Shift Log the next agent can read and continue
- The complaint Post-it on the manager's monitorGuest Complaints with category, priority, status, and ownership
Room 214 HVAC follow-up is still open.
Breakfast inventory count is due this morning.
Review the room 214 follow-up and this morning's inventory count.
A starting view for the Hotel Central work already recorded.
The feature stack.
The front desk uses Hotel Central for daily operations around the reservation. The PMS still owns reservation and billing actions; Shift Dashboard is a starting point for the Hotel Central work available to each user.
Front Desk
Jun 8–14
All Staff
Use the east entrance during lobby floor work, 11:00 AM–2:00 PM.
Count the opening float
Enter coin and bill denominations for the staff drawer.
Staff counts physical cash. A closed drawer is not a guarantee of zero variance.
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.
A hotel-defined Shift Log prompts the outgoing agent for the same operating context each time, then publishes one dated handoff for the incoming shift.
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.
Front desk can review the hotel-scoped contract record, dates, recipient, status, selected shared documents, and related group context when access permits. Group Room Lists separately holds stay reservations, nightly room blocks, and staff-reviewed coordinator requests; PMS updates remain a staff step.
The complaint about hallway noise in 318 is forgotten by tomorrow, and the same room complains next week.
Guest Complaints keeps the category, priority, status, owner, and staff notes in one hotel-scoped record for the next shift to 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'.
Front Desk keeps the complaint owner, priority, status, and staff notes in Guest Complaints. Repair follow-through stays a separate Maintenance workflow.
Guest Hub keeps hotel messaging and stay-service follow-through in one staff workspace, while AI Concierge remains a separate staff-reviewed local-guide workflow.
Management can review the published Daily Note and its follow-up from the same dated handoff record.
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 report review 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.