—PreArrive vs. Chekin
Be clear up front: PreArrive does not compete with Chekin on ID verification, and is not trying to. Chekin verifies guest identity and handles police or tourism registration. PreArrive is the signed-acknowledgment layer — deliberately lightweight, with no ID scans and no biometrics.
01What Chekin is good at
Chekin is a serious online check-in product, and for hosts with a legal identity-capture obligation it is genuinely the right tool. It handles guest ID verification, biometric and document checks, and automated police or tourism-authority registration in the jurisdictions that require it. In many European markets — and some others — a host is legally required to register guests with the authorities, and Chekin is built to do exactly that, well.
PreArrive is a lighter tool by design. It does not scan IDs, it does not run biometric checks, and it does not register guests with any authority — by design. If you legally need to capture and verify guest identity, Chekin is the correct choice and PreArrive will not replace it. What PreArrive does is the separate job of getting the guest to sign your house rules and fees.
02What PreArrive is
Touch Stay, Hostfully, and the rest are great at showing the guest the rule. They don’t get the guest to sign it. The point of a signature isn’t to win a fight later — it’s to make sure most fights never start, because a rule someone actively acknowledged is a rule they tend to keep.
PreArrive does that one thing: it gets each guest to read, tap through, and sign your house rules and itemized fees before check-in, and gives you a PDF certificate — a drawn signature, line-by-line acknowledgment, a two-event audit trail with IPs and timestamps, and a SHA-256 content hash. If a dispute does escalate, that certificate is the document you attach to an AirCover, insurance, or small-claims filing.
The two columns above are not a win-and-lose chart. They are two different products. Chekin is built for one job; PreArrive is built for another. Reading them side by side just makes the line between the two jobs clear.
03When each is right
These two tools genuinely do not overlap. ID verification and a signed rules acknowledgment are different obligations. The honest recommendation: if you need identity capture, use Chekin — and consider PreArrive only for the acknowledgment piece.
Your jurisdiction legally requires you to verify and register guest identity
The right toolChekin — this is its core purpose, and PreArrive does not do it.
You need biometric or document-based ID checks before a guest arrives
The right toolChekin — PreArrive deliberately captures no ID and no biometrics.
You want a signed, dated record that the guest agreed to your rules and fees
The right toolPreArrive — that is the one job it is built for.
You have a legal ID obligation and also want a signed rules acknowledgment
The right toolBoth — Chekin for identity and registration, PreArrive for the rules signature.
PreArrive is the lightweight signed-acknowledgment layer — no ID scans, no biometrics. Free covers one property, no credit card.
04Keep reading