Your guest says the online check-in link doesn't work, shows an error, or won't go through. The likeliest cause is that the link has already been used or has expired: every check-in link works exactly once and stops working 30 days after it was created. If the link merely expired, the fix is sending the guest a fresh link from the booking; if the guest already submitted, complete the record on the booking yourself instead.
First, check
- Is it one guest or every guest? A single guest with a dead link is almost always the link itself (the causes below). Every guest reporting the same error at the same time points to something bigger; see the last section.
- Is the problem really submitting the form? If the guest submitted fine but you can't find the data in Smoobu, that's a different article: see check-in-data-not-showing.
The guest can't get past a starred field
Fields marked with an asterisk are required and must be filled in before the form will send. If the guest leaves one blank, their own browser blocks the submission and shows its built-in "please fill in this field" prompt next to the first empty field. That prompt appears in the guest's browser language, not your form's language, so a German prompt on an English form is normal and not a Smoobu error. Ask the guest to fill in every starred field and submit again.
The guest already submitted the form
Check-in links are single-use. Once the form is submitted, reopening the same link no longer shows the form; it shows "Token not found or expired" instead. A guest who clicks the link again later (for example from the same email) runs into this even though nothing is wrong.
Open the booking's detail page. If an Online check-in details section shows in the Guest card, the form was already submitted and there is nothing to fix.
If the submission is incomplete, do not ask the guest to fill in the form again as a fix. Submitting a second time does not save added guests, and it can even remove the data from the first submission. Collect whatever is missing by message and complete the record on the booking yourself; see check-in-data-not-showing.
The link is older than 30 days
Every check-in link expires 30 days after it is generated, whether or not the guest opened it, and an expired link shows the same or a similar message. To the guest the two look identical, so check the booking first: if Online check-in details already shows in the Guest card, the link was used and the previous section applies. If nothing was submitted and the link is simply old, the fix is to send a fresh link. Bookings made far in advance hit this often: the confirmation message goes out at booking time, and by arrival the link is dead.
To fix it, open the booking's detail page, copy the fresh check-in link shown in the booking's Online check-in section, and send it to the guest, for example through the booking's message composer. For future bookings, put the check-in link in a message that goes out closer to arrival instead of (or in addition to) the booking confirmation.
The cursor jumps around while entering additional guests
While the guest is typing in the additional-guests part of the form, the cursor can jump back to the main guest's fields, which makes the form very hard to complete. There is no setting on your side that fixes this; it can only be fixed by our customer service team. As a way through, ask the guest to send the remaining travellers' details by message and enter them on the booking yourself; see check-in-data-not-showing.
The guest fills in the form but it never goes through
Sometimes the form loads and accepts the guest's entries, but the submission never completes: the guest never sees a confirmation that their details were sent, and nothing shows up on the booking in Smoobu, even after they try again. There is no fix on your side for this, and asking the guest to resubmit will not get the data through, so don't keep sending them back to the form. Contact the Smoobu team (see Still stuck below) and say that the check-in form submits without saving.
Every guest gets the same error page
If every check-in link on your account (or on one whole property) shows the same error, for example "An error occurred during execution; please try again later", whatever the booking and however fresh the link, it is not a link problem. For hosts using the AVS registration integration, an integration error can block the whole online check-in. In this state, contact the Smoobu team (see Still stuck below) and mention that all your check-in links are affected.
Check it's fixed
The guest opens the fresh link and sees the form with your description text at the top. After they submit, the Online check-in details section appears on the booking's detail page in Smoobu.
Related articles
Still stuck?
If these steps didn't fix it, contact the Smoobu team: open the Help menu to open a ticket or book a call slot, or use the chat bubble in the bottom-right corner. To get the fastest answer, please include:
- Your Smoobu User ID (in the profile-icon menu, top right).
- The property name or ID, if it's about one property.
- The Booking ID, if it's about one booking (Bookings, then View more).
- The channel name, if it's about channel sync (Booking.com, Airbnb, Vrbo, and so on).
- A short step-by-step: what you did, what you expected, and what happened.
- Screenshots or a short screen recording of the problem.
- Your browser and operating system, if something looks wrong on screen.
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