Sidehide integrates Onfido biometric verification for hotel check-in

Apr 9, 2019, 1:44 pm EDT | Chris Burt

Mobile hotel booking app Sidehide has chosen Onfido as a partner to deliver a frictionless, one-click hotel check-in experience with mobile biometrics.

Sidehide is based in Switzerland, and is now launching in Berlin, with plans to expand to other European cities in 2019. Its proprietary patent-pending technology allows mobile app users to search for hotel rooms, book them, and check in through their smartphones. Onfido’s artificial intelligence technology allows a biometric video selfie and ID document photo within the Sidehide app to replace the traditional process of queuing up to check in at a desk. As the first company to implement it, Sidehide says it now offers the most secure booking platform ever.

“Working with Onfido means we’ll be able to offer a better quality guest experience, as well as enabling hotels to save time on administration. It’s a win-win,” says Sidehide Co-founder and CEO Joakim Hultin. “The hospitality industry hasn’t been innovated much – at Sidehide, we want users to ask themselves ‘why hasn’t it always worked like this?”

“Our mission at Onfido is to build an open world where identity is the key to access, and that’s exactly what Sidehide is creating,” adds Onfido Co-founder and CEO Husayn Kassai. “We’re excited to be helping evolve the hospitality industry to create a better experience for both guests and hotels.”

Kassai mentioned remote prescription drug ordering and hotel check-in specifically among possible use cases for Onfido’s technology to be extended to in the near future, with the company adding $50 million in a recent funding round.

Acuant and Intelity recently partnered to provide secure identity verification for the hospitality industry, which is expected to increasingly deploy biometrics to support seamless traveler journeys.