Set up guest and member check-in so every ticket gets redeemed correctly and every membership discount applies, whether that's staff checking guests in at the front counter, or guests checking themselves in at a gate. Checking a guest in means marking their ticket as used (redeemed) so they can enter the venue. In ROLLER that's called redeeming the ticket, and it's what your attendance figures count.
A booking can hold one ticket or many, so a family of four is one booking with four tickets to redeem.
If the guest is a member, there's a second thing to redeem: their membership, which applies their membership discounts to the qualifying products they're purchasing.
At the counter you usually do both at once. If the guest bought before their visit, their membership was usually redeemed then, so all that's left is the ticket.
Compare ticket and membership redemptions
You'll see redeem across ROLLER: tickets, memberships, discount codes and gift cards. Only tickets check a guest in.
What to compare | Ticket redemption | Membership redemption |
|---|---|---|
What it does | Lets the guest in. This is the check-in | Applies their discount |
When it happens | On arrival | When they buy |
Where | POS, the Mobile Check-in app or an access gate | POS, online checkout, Venue Manager for a phone booking or an access gate |
How often | Once per ticket, unless the product allows multiple redemptions (eg a multi-pass) | Once a day per membership |
A membership works much like a discount code. From Venue Manager, apply one to the booking by typing the membership number under Add discount. See Redeem a membership in Venue Manager.
Where tickets get redeemed
Three places can redeem a ticket, which means three places can check a guest in.
Channel | Who checks the guest in, and where | What it does |
|---|---|---|
Your staff, at the counter. POS is your point of sale, the register your staff serve guests from | The whole arrival: tickets, waivers, payment and member photo checks | |
Your staff, on a phone or tablet away from the counter | Redeems guest tickets, and nothing else. The Mobile Check-in app is a paid add-on. To add it, contact your customer success manager or the support team. | |
Guests, at the gate | Redeems a ticket when the guest scans a wristband, barcode or QR code (needs the Alvarado integration). |
Alvarado makes the gates and turnstiles that ROLLER connects to.
Use POS when the arrival needs a staff member: checking a member's photo, attaching a waiver, taking money or working through a group booking.
What guests can do on their own
Self-serve kiosks and waiver kiosks take work off the front counter. Neither of them redeems tickets or checks a guest in. Someone who buys at a self-serve kiosk still has a ticket to redeem, so they carry on to the front counter or a gate. Self-serve kiosks save you time on selling and waivers, not on check-in.
Channel | What guests do there |
|---|---|
Buy tickets, sign a waiver, use a gift card or discount code, look up a booking | |
Sign a waiver, even without a booking |
Self-serve kiosks and waiver kiosks are very different to set up. A self-serve kiosk is a Windows computer with a receipt printer and a card reader, and it needs ROLLER Connect, the software that links ROLLER to your hardware. A waiver kiosk is just a web page, so a laptop or iPad will do.
See Create your self-serve kiosk devices, Get started with online waivers and Set up a waiver kiosk.
What to set up first
Waivers. A waiver is a form a guest signs. Waivers are set per product and attach to individual tickets, so one booking can have some tickets covered and others not. See Get started with online waivers.
Member photos. POS can prompt staff to match a member to a photo at check-in. Adding photos up front means the check doesn't hold anyone up. See Add member photos to a membership at POS.
Scannable IDs. Wristbands, key tags and barcodes can be linked to tickets so they scan at check-in. Memberships use their own separate ID or a printed card. See Capture custom ticket IDs at POS and Enter a custom ID for a membership at POS.
POS device settings. These change how check-in behaves, and one is worth knowing before you open: attaching a waiver can automatically redeem the ticket, which checks the guest in at the same time. See Manage individual POS device settings.
Staff roles. Decide who can use POS and who can use the Mobile Check-in app. See Permissions by feature and role.
Check in a guest
Find the booking, redeem the tickets, then take payment for anything still owing. See Check in a guest at the venue for the steps at POS and on the Mobile Check-in app.
Check in a member
Checking in a member follows the same steps, with one thing to watch: if they bought online or over the phone their membership is already redeemed, so redeem only their tickets. See Check in a member at the venue for the steps for each way they can buy.
When a check-in isn't straightforward
Four things commonly slow a check-in down. All of them are covered in Redeem tickets and assign waivers at POS.
A waiver is missing. If the activity requires one, you can't redeem the ticket until it's attached to the ticket at POS. Search by email or date of birth as well as by name, and send a request if there's nothing on file. Mass ticket redemption is the exception, so a large group can be checked in with waivers still outstanding.
The ticket is for another day. Past or future, the ticket still redeems. POS offers to reschedule the booking to today first. Rescheduling applies any price difference between the two days. Check them in without rescheduling and they keep the price they paid, so if you charge more at peak times, rescheduling is usually the right call.
The guest needs a minute. Park the booking, which sets it aside so you can serve the next guest, then reopen it from the parked bookings list when they're ready.
The guest is banned. If your venue requires approval for banned guests, POS asks for an approving POS PIN before the ticket can be redeemed. Without someone on shift who has the POS admin permission, it can't be redeemed. See Can I check in a guest who has been banned?
How ticket redemptions are counted
Check-in numbers show up in several places, and they count differently. Pick the one that matches your question.
Where to look | What it counts |
|---|---|
Tickets redeemed so far today, in the Daily summary section. Use it for a quick live count | |
Tickets redeemed. Use it for how many tickets you redeemed | |
One visit per guest per day, however many tickets they redeem. Use it for how many people came in | |
One redemption per member per day | |
One row per entitlement redemption and full detail per redemption (date, member name and number, booking ID, product/variation, home venue and redemption venue). This is a granular, transaction-level view versus the summary counts in the other reports, and for multi-venue operations, it can also help you reconcile cross-venue (home vs away) redemptions. |
A member buying two discounted sessions shows as two tickets redeemed, one guest visit and one membership redemption. All of these are in Venue Manager.
In the Attendance report, Total redemptions counts every redemption and Unique redemptions excludes repeat redemptions of the same ticket.
Next steps
Work through What to set up first above, then take your team through Check in a guest at the venue before the first shift.