The door is the first thing your guests experience and the last thing most organisers plan. A slow check-in means a long queue outside, frustrated guests and a late start. A fast one means people are inside, buying drinks and enjoying themselves.
You don't need special scanners or a printed list. A phone is enough.
How phone check-in works
When someone gets a ticket on revel, free or paid, it's emailed to them with a QR code and a short check-in code. On the day, open check-in from your event dashboard on any phone with a browser. There's nothing to install.
Point the phone's camera at the guest's QR code and the ticket is checked in. If the QR code won't scan, because the screen is cracked, too dim or the guest has a printout that's been folded, type in the check-in code instead.
Each ticket can only be checked in once. If someone forwards a screenshot of their ticket to a friend, the second person can't use it. That's one of the biggest advantages over paying by transfer and showing a receipt.
Before the day
Tell guests what to bring. A day before the event, remind attendees that their ticket is in their email, and suggest they find it or take a screenshot before they leave home. Mobile data at busy venues can be unreliable.
Pick your door team. For a small event, one person is fine. For a few hundred guests, plan on two or three people scanning, plus someone to deal with problems so the main line keeps moving.
Do a test run. Get a ticket for your own event and scan it with each phone your team will use. It takes five minutes and saves you from discovering a camera permission problem with a queue in front of you.
Charge the phones. Bring power banks. Check-in uses the camera and the screen constantly.
On the day
Open the doors on time. If your event starts at 7, guests who arrive at 6:45 should be able to get in or at least queue somewhere comfortable.
Have a problem desk. Most queue delays come from a few guests: someone who can't find their email, someone who bought under a different name, someone whose ticket is in a friend's inbox. Send them to one person with the attendee list, so everyone else keeps moving.
Use the attendee list. Your event dashboard lists everyone who has a ticket, with their name, email and phone number. If a guest can't find their email, check the list to confirm they're on it and which address their ticket went to.
Watch the numbers. The dashboard shows how many people have checked in. That helps you decide when to start, whether to send more people to the door, and how many guests to expect at the bar.
After the event
Check-in data is useful. It tells you how many people who got a ticket actually came. For free events especially, that number helps you plan the next one, from how much food to order to how big a venue you need.
