Skip to main content

ID Scan & Verification

On the Legal step of check-in, a guest can scan an identity document (passport or ID card) with their phone camera, and LIKE MAGIC reads the machine-readable zone (MRZ) to pre-fill the legal form. This article explains what the scan captures, how you switch it on per property, and how the captured data is checked and retained.

This article is written for the administrator who configures identity capture for a property.

1. Who Can Use This​

⚙️ Whether guests are offered the scan is set per Property in the Operations Platform under Settings → Pre-Check-In, in the ID Document Scan section. Editing and publishing that page requires the Property Admin (property-admin) or admin role. Property Viewer (property-viewer) sees it read-only.

ℹ️ The setting is managed per Property. If you work at Account level, switch to a specific Property to see the Pre-Check-In entry in the Settings navigation.

Whether guests may upload documents at all, which nationalities are excluded and how long documents are kept is set separately under Settings → Guest Data & Retention, with the same roles.

The accepted identification document types are maintained by LIKE MAGIC. To change them, request the change via a Support Ticket.

2. What the Scan Does​

During the Legal step, the guest photographs their document with the phone camera. The platform reads the MRZ (the two or three lines of machine-readable text on a passport or ID card) and pre-fills the legal form with the values it can verify:

  • Document number
  • Document type (passport or identity card)
  • Date of birth
  • Nationality

Pre-filled fields are marked in the form, so the guest sees which values came from the document. The guest reviews them, corrects anything that is wrong, completes the remaining fields (including their name, which the scan does not fill), and signs.

🛎️ Reading happens on the guest's own device. The document image is not sent anywhere to be read, so no document data leaves the phone during the scan.

ℹ️ Only values that pass the document's own check digits are used. A misread value is discarded rather than written into the form, so a partially readable document fills fewer fields instead of filling them wrongly.

⚠️ If the document has expired, the guest still gets the pre-filled values and a warning that the document is out of date. The guest can continue and your staff see the captured data as usual.

3. Where the Scan Is Offered​

The scan is offered to the primary guest on a mobile device, in the Pre-Check-In Flow on the Digital Guest Portal and on the guest's own profile page.

It is not offered:

  • on the Self-Service Kiosk,
  • on desktop browsers, where capturing a readable MRZ with a webcam is not reliable,
  • for travel companions, who complete their legal data manually or by document upload,
  • when the reservation already carries legal data (a document upload, an identification number or a date of birth), because there is nothing left to pre-fill.

Document upload and manual entry stay available in every one of those cases, so no guest is ever blocked by the scan.

4. Making the Scan Available​

⚙️ Open Settings → Pre-Check-In for the Property you want to configure:

  1. Go to the ID Document Scan section.
  2. Switch Enable document scan on or off.
  3. Publish the configuration. Draft changes are not live.

The scan is on by default for every Property, so you only visit this setting to switch it off, or to switch it back on for a single Property.

Document upload and retention remain separate settings under Settings → Guest Data & Retention:

  • Switch on Enable Document Upload so guests are asked to upload identity documents during check-in.
  • Use Restrict Passport Upload by Nationality for the countries where you must not collect a passport.
  • Set the retention period under Document Retention.

⚠️ Important: There is no police or SIDAP reporting screen in the product. Capture and MRZ reading are what this feature provides. Any automated forwarding of registration or identity data to an authority is set up by LIKE MAGIC, separately from this capture flow, so no operator or guest sees a screen for it. If you have a legal reporting obligation, request the reporting setup via a Support Ticket.

The registration form itself (the legal fields and signature the guest completes) is configured separately under Settings → Registration Form. See Download the Registration Form (Meldeschein).

5. Where Staff See the Result​

👤 Captured identity data appears against the reservation in the Operations Platform, where staff can review it as part of the guest's profile and identity check. Staff can also run the check during an assisted check-in.

6. Data Retention & Compliance​

Identity data is sensitive, so its retention is governed by the dedicated Guest Data & Retention settings page: per Property, whether guests upload documents at all, how long uploaded documents are kept before automatic deletion, and which nationalities are excluded from passport upload. Because this data carries compliance obligations that vary by jurisdiction:

  • Set retention in line with your local legal requirements.
  • Restrict passport upload for the countries where you must not collect it.
  • Treat the captured document data as personal data end-to-end.

7. Troubleshooting​

a) Guests are not offered the scan​

  • Check that Enable document scan is on for that Property, and that you published the change.
  • The guest is on a desktop browser or at the Self-Service Kiosk. The scan is a mobile capability.
  • The guest is a travel companion, or the reservation already carries legal data.
  • The guest's nationality is excluded from identity capture for this Property. That list is maintained by LIKE MAGIC, so request a change via a Support Ticket.

b) The scan keeps failing for a guest​

The guest gets a hint that matches the reason: photograph the side that carries the machine-readable lines, take a sharper or larger photo, or try again because the read took too long. After repeated failures the scan option steps back and the form takes over, so the guest can finish by typing. A document whose type LIKE MAGIC does not map, for example a driving licence, has no MRZ to read and is entered manually.

c) The form is pre-filled only partially​

Only the values that pass the document's check digits are used. Worn, glossy or partially covered documents often yield the document number but not the date of birth, or the reverse. The guest completes the rest by hand.

8. Conclusion​

ID Scan & Verification lets a guest scan a passport or ID card on the Legal step, reads the MRZ on the guest's own device to pre-fill document number, document type, date of birth and nationality, and feeds the result into the guest's profile for staff review. You switch the scan on or off per Property under Settings → Pre-Check-In, and you control document upload, nationality restrictions and retention under Settings → Guest Data & Retention. Remember there is no police-reporting screen. Any authority reporting is set up by LIKE MAGIC, separately from this capture flow.

Related articles:

Was this article helpful?