Check-in

Check-in is the process whereby people announce their arrival at an office, hotel, airport, hospital, seaport or event.

When presenting at the check-in counter, a passenger will provide evidence of the right to travel, such as a ticket, visa or electronic means.

There is an increasing trend towards more streamlined checking-in processes, whereby passengers can bypass or reduce the time in queues at the staffed check-in counters.

Some airports have a curbside check-in, where passengers can check in their bags to an airline representative before entering the terminal and then proceeding directly to security.

This is to allow the airline to offer unclaimed seats to stand-by passengers, to load luggage onto the plane and to finalize documentation for take-off.

The laws of some countries require guests to provide this information and to sign a register, often called a hotel register or guestbook, which may be in the form of a registration card,[3][4][5] and some also require the provision of identification documents, such as a passport, national identity card or drivers licence which the hotel may wish to copy and retain in its records.

Sometimes, the register may need to be provided to a government agency, such as the local police, and sometimes with a court warrant or similar authority.

Many social networking services, such as Foursquare, Google+, Facebook, Jiepang, VK, GetGlue, and Gowalla, as well as Google Latitude (closed), and Brightkite (closed) in the past, allow users to what has been referred to as self-reported positioning,[7][8] or more commonly known as a "check-in", to a physical place and share their locations with their friends.