Shiji and Fliggy partner to pioneer facial recognition hotel check-in and payment

Beijing, Shiji working with Alibaba's Fliggy (formerly known as AliTrip), have achieved a hotel industry first by integrating full facial recognition for hotel check-in including credit authorization for 50 hotels in Hainan district of China. Fliggy provided the reservation and customer data with Shiji providing the integration, distribution, payment gateway and on-property systems to provide a seamless guest experience for the China travelers.

With China's rapid advance in New Retail systems and mobile technology, the country has become a pioneer in integrated business processes to improve the customer experience using mobile technology.

"Our aim with this project has been to find ways for hotels to increase guest satisfaction by reducing wait times as much as possible. Working with Fliggy and our partner hotels have made this a success and we're monitoring privacy and efficiency closely to develop ways to increase this across more hotels," said Kevin King, COO of Shiji Group

As a guest makes a reservation on Fliggy, the guest's information is processed through Shiji Distribution Solutions to the hotel's property management system leveraging Shiji's deep integration of hotel solutions. When the guest arrives at check-in, they simply scan their ID on the kiosk. The new solution then verifies the ID against the Public Security System, performs a credit authorization and produces the room card.

The system involves integration between multiple systems and across multiple verticals (Payments, Public Tourism system and more). Shiji founder's vision for the company has always been to connect within business verticals but also horizontally across multiple industries in order to speed up processes for hotel companies.

The entire process takes 30 seconds from arrival to room card issued including payment authorization.

Custom hardware has been created to ensure optimum speed and guest data security is maintained at all times.

Following Shiji Group's vision of open platforms for hotel technology, this system is designed to work with multiple PMS systems and distribution platforms. The idea is that this can be expanded to all hotels and thus reduce wait times for guests while increasing the time to assist guests for hotel staff.

"It has been great to work with Shiji Group's teams on this project. Their in-depth industry knowledge and international experience have given us access to solutions that we hadn't predicted with. They're a great partner and love to think with innovative solutions." Said the Project Leader from the Program at Fliggy.

About Fliggy

Fliggy, as Alibaba Group's travel brand, provides travel service including but not limited to booking for flight tickets, hotels, inns, tour tickets, visas, destination guide, as well as travel packages for youth and the younger generation of consumers. Fliggy is dedicated to satisfying consumers' outbound travel needs and enables them to have a more comfortable, and hassle-free travel experience. Through continuous innovation of online technology, Fliggy empowers business owners to coordinate their offers, promotions, and upgrades and thus revenue. With the combined advantages of Alibaba's ecosystem and Internet technology genes, representing the new force of travel innovation, Fliggy has become China's top online travel platform.

About Shiji Group

Shiji is a multi-national technology company that provides software solutions and services for enterprise companies in the hospitality, food service, retail and entertainment industries, ranging from hospitality technology platform, hotel property management solutions, food and beverage and retail systems, payment gateways, data management, online distribution and more. Founded in 1998 as a network solutions provider for hotels, Shiji Group today comprises over 5,000 employees in 80+ subsidiaries and brands in over 31 countries, serving more than 91,000 hotels, 200,000 restaurants and 600,000 retail outlets. For more information, visit www.shijigroup.com.

Chloe Xu
Brand Manager
+86 10 5932 5388 86856