# Check-in in one minute: Sunborn London's pre-arrival trick

Canonical-URL: https://hoteltech.news/digest/one-minute-check-in-pre-arrival
Text-Version: https://hoteltech.news/digest/one-minute-check-in-pre-arrival.txt
Markdown-Version: https://hoteltech.news/digest/one-minute-check-in-pre-arrival.md
Language: en
Published: 2026-07-22T10:00:50.081Z
Modified: 2026-07-22T10:00:50.081Z
Author: Joan Sanz
Topics: Hotel Technology
Summary: Sunborn London GM Francisco Ventura cut check-in from 8 to 1 minute by moving registration and payments to pre-arrival. Staff now focus on real guest interactions.

## Article

Sunborn London GM **Francisco Ventura** has pulled off a feat that sounds like hospitality folklore: reduce check-in time from **8 minutes to 1 minute**. The trick, as he explains in this [Hospitality Net podcast](https://www.hospitalitynet.org/podcast/4133607/interconnected-hospitality-begins-long-before-guests-arrive), is not a faster tablet or a magic queue algorithm. It's about moving the real work to before the guest sets foot in the lobby.

By shifting **registration, payment collection and document signing** to the pre-arrival phase, the hotel front desk no longer has to process data entry while the guest waits awkwardly in the marble hall. The one minute that remains is just **identity verification and key handover**. That is it.

The payoff goes beyond speed. With the admin cleared off the table, staff can actually **focus on genuine guest interaction**: a welcome drink, a local tip, a conversation that turns a transaction into a stay. Ventura calls it *interconnected hospitality*, and it begins long before arrival. For any hotel wrestling with the "check-in bottleneck", the lesson is brutal and liberating: the bottleneck you are fighting in the lobby was set by the tech you chose not to use before the guest arrived.

## Sources

- Hospitality Net: https://www.hospitalitynet.org/podcast/4133607/interconnected-hospitality-begins-long-before-guests-arrive

## Citation

Check-in in one minute: Sunborn London's pre-arrival trick. Hotel Tech News. 2026-07-22. https://hoteltech.news/digest/one-minute-check-in-pre-arrival