The handover is the most expensive appointment of the week
Anyone who rents four or more holiday apartments knows the Saturday: departures by ten, cleaning by three, arrivals from four, and somebody is stuck in traffic. In between come the guest registration forms that have to be filled in, signed and reported to the municipality or region, and the evening question whether the guest from Hamburg found the key safe.
Each of these tasks can be handled from the booking, which already sits in your channel manager. The booking knows the guest, the period, the apartment and the number of people. From it come the registration form, the door code and the cleaning plan, without you typing anything.
The three building blocks
Digital registration form and tourist tax
Before arrival the guest gets a link, enters the registration data and signs on their phone. The tourist tax (city tax, Kurtaxe) is calculated per municipality and summarised for your accounts. Details under Guest registration and tourist tax.
Keyless check-in
For every booking a code is created that is valid from the check-in time on the day of arrival and expires at check-out. It goes to the guest by WhatsApp or email as soon as the registration form is complete. Details under Keyless check-in.
Cleaning plan from the calendar
Departures and arrivals produce the week’s cleaning plan. The cleaner receives it on their phone, confirms each apartment with a photo, and you see the status before the next guest is at the door. Details under Cleaning plan.
All three modules use the same booking, which reaches your system through the channel manager integration. Questions from guests during the stay are answered by the AI concierge from the same knowledge base.
The holiday apartment case: six units, seasonal business
Calculate with your own figures; the table shows example values.
| Item | Example value |
|---|---|
| Units | 6 |
| Changeovers per week in season | 7 |
| Time per handover including travel | 45 minutes |
| Time per registration form and tourist tax entry | 10 minutes |
| Coordination with the cleaners per week | 60 minutes |
| Hours per week in total | around 7.5 |
| Hours in a 20-week season | around 150 |
Whether this pays off depends on what your hour is worth and whether you see the handover as part of hospitality. Many hosts keep the personal conversation for the first morning and hand off the logistics.
The apart-hotel case: 24 units without a night porter
An apart-hotel with a front desk until 6 pm loses every later arrival to phone calls and workarounds. With registration form and code, an arrival at 10 pm runs like one at 3 pm. The front desk sees in the morning who has checked in and whose registration form is still missing, and housekeeping gets the day’s departures as a list instead of a shout across the corridor.
What you need
A channel manager or PMS
with an open interface, such as Smoobu, Lodgify, Beds24 or Apaleo.
A Nuki or comparable smart lock per apartment
, with a bridge or a current-generation smart lock; you buy the hardware, we set it up.
A phone number or email address of the house
from which the registration link and code are sent.
The rules of your municipality or region
on tourist tax; we enter the rate you give us.
When it is not worth it
- With one to three apartments at your own house, when the handover happens over the garden fence anyway.
- If your municipality or region does not accept electronic registration and you have to keep the paper route; then the biggest time saving disappears.
- If your guests are mostly older and you know that a code on the phone causes more calls than the handover.
Prices
Registration form and tourist tax
from 1,900 euros setup and 39 euros per month.
Keyless check-in
from 1,200 euros setup and 29 euros per month; you buy the locks directly from the manufacturer.
Cleaning plan
from 900 euros setup and 29 euros per month.
All three together
from 3,400 euros setup and 79 euros per month. The prerequisite is the operations contract from 149 euros per month.
Process
Review
Which apartments, which system, which municipality, how the handover works today.
Set up the registration form
Fields according to the registration rules of your country or region, signature, tourist tax rate, email templates in your language.
Connect the locks
Link the Nuki account (or your lock’s), test codes, set time windows.
Cleaning plan
Add cleaners, test photo confirmation, set notifications.
Trial week
One apartment runs for a week in the new process while you still accompany the handovers.
Start
All apartments, with a monthly report on arrivals, missing registration forms and cleaning times.
Frequently asked questions
Is self check-in allowed?
In most European countries, yes. Registration law requires that guest data is collected and, usually, a signature, not a handover in person. How the electronic registration reaches your municipality or region, we clarify with the competent office; we do not replace the legal assessment of your individual case.
What happens if the guest has no smartphone?
Then they fill in the registration form on paper, and the code arrives by SMS or you place it in the key safe. The process stays the same, only the channel changes.
Do we need a separate contract for each module?
No. The modules run on the existing operations contract and are billed monthly. They can be added one by one and cancelled one by one.
Does it also work with locks other than Nuki?
We start with Nuki because its interface is openly documented and the locks are widely used in Europe. We check other systems with a documented interface in the first conversation.
Who is liable if a code does not work?
There is always a second way for this case, such as a key safe with an emergency code and a phone number. We set up both and test the failure in the trial week.