The project dashboard is a free tool that is only available to verified hoteliers to make adopting new technology easier by streamlining their research and simplifying their communication workflow.
TLDR
We analyzed 105 verified hotelier reviews, compared feature sets, pricing, and real-world case studies to break down where each platform delivers. The right choice depends on your property type and priorities:
Straiv shines in automated guest communication and pre-arrival emails — especially for boutique properties (4.9/5), with exclusive features like Mobile Checkin and Mobile Checkout.
Side-by-side ratings based on 105 verified hotelier reviews on HTR.
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| Starting Price | Contact sales | From $500/mo |
| Verified Reviews | 0 | 105 |
After analyzing 105 verified reviews, ICG Software users most value its , while Straiv users highlight automated guest communication and pre-arrival emails, online check-in and pre-check-in workflows, staff efficiency and front-desk relief. Click any theme to see what reviewers say.
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| Pros | |
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Automated guest communication and pre-arrival emails
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Online check-in and pre-check-in workflows
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Staff efficiency and front-desk relief
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Integrations with PMS and hotel systems
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Customization, templates, and flexible module setup
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Reporting, analytics, and admin usability
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Mobile app, kiosk, and device support
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How each product ranks among Contactless Check-in vendors for different property sizes, types, and regions — based on verified reviews from hoteliers in each segment.
By Hotel Size
| Segment | ICG Software |
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| Small (10-24 rooms) ▾ | — | #3 42 reviews |
| Mid-Size (25-74 rooms) ▾ | — | #3 43 reviews |
| Large (75-199 rooms) ▾ | — | #5 9 reviews |
| X-Large (200+ rooms) ▾ | — | #5 8 reviews |
By Property Type
| Segment | ICG Software |
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| Boutique ▾ | — | #4 33 reviews |
| Luxury ▾ | — | #7 10 reviews |
| Branded / Chain ▾ | — | #3 22 reviews |
| Extended Stay ▾ | — | #3 22 reviews |
By Region
| Segment | ICG Software |
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| North America | — | #17 2 reviews |
| Europe ▾ | — | #2 100 reviews |
Straiv and ICG Check-in Online both address the need for contactless check-in solutions that reduce front desk workload and improve guest arrival experiences. Straiv offers a broad digital guest journey platform incorporating check-in, check-out, guest messaging, and upselling features. In contrast, ICG Check-in Online’s offering is less visible in the market with no verified reviews or integrations, making its operational impact uncertain.
Straiv fits hotels seeking a comprehensive, smartphone-based service without app downloads, supporting multiple hotel segments across Europe. ICG Check-in Online claims to streamline check-in and automate ID verification but lacks published pricing, reviews, or integration data to confirm its market presence or effectiveness. Both solve the core problem of enabling guests to complete registration and payment before arrival, but Straiv provides a more complete, proven solution.
If your property is a small to medium European hotel prioritizing a proven digital check-in platform with broad integration into existing PMS systems, choose Straiv. Its 105 reviews averaging 4.7/5 overall, including 23 recent reviews with a 4.6/5 rating, demonstrate consistent customer satisfaction. Hotels across segments—boutique, branded, extended stay, and budget—rate Straiv between 4.6 and 4.9, reflecting its flexibility and reliability.
For hotels outside Europe or seeking a niche or emerging solution where integration and user feedback data are unavailable, ICG Check-in Online presents an unknown risk. It has no active reviews, pricing transparency, or verified partners, making it difficult to assess fit or impact. This lack of evidence advises caution unless direct vendor engagement uncovers specific advantages.
Straiv’s ease of use rating stands at 4.6/5 across 105 reviews, with onboarding similarly rated at 4.6/5. Reviewers frequently mention its intuitive guest and staff interfaces, noting pre-check-in workflows that reduce front desk effort and passenger friction. Some backend setup complexity is reported but does not significantly impact adoption.
Without any user reviews or ratings, ICG Check-in Online’s ease of use cannot be validated. The vendor’s claims of an intuitive interface remain untested by the market. Given this, Straiv is the only product with verified usability feedback.
Edge: Even.
Straiv offers 19 unique features relevant to contactless guest management, including mobile check-in and checkout, local recommendations, web-app support, room service ordering, guest messaging, PMS integration, upselling, lobby kiosk, door lock integration, payment authorizations, and ID verification. These features enable hotel staff to automate routine tasks, enhance guest self-service, and generate additional revenue during the pre-arrival and arrival phases.
ICG Check-in Online lists no unique features or integrations. Its core functionality revolves around contactless check-in and automated ID verification, but without detailed feature data or integrations, it cannot match Straiv’s operational depth. Straiv’s broader feature set changes workflows by enabling not only contactless check-in but also on-property guest communications, payment handling, and access control.
Edge: Straiv.
Straiv scores 4.7/5 in customer support and 4.6/5 in onboarding from 105 reviews. Users report fast, uncomplicated support that resolves issues quickly and facilitates continuous product improvement. Phrases like “fast and uncomplicated support” and “constant improvements” indicate a responsive vendor relationship.
ICG Check-in Online has no published reviews or support ratings, providing no evidence of customer service quality. This absence limits confidence in vendor responsiveness.
Edge: Even.
Straiv offers 38 verified integrations, including key hotel systems like protel, Oracle Hospitality, Mews, Infor, SALTO Systems for keyless entry, and key revenue management platforms like Profitroom and Bookboost. These integrations enable seamless data flow from digital check-in processes to PMS, access control, and payment systems, reducing manual input and errors.
ICG Check-in Online has zero verified integrations listed, indicating limited connectivity with other hotel systems. This restricts automation potential and may increase front desk workload rather than reduce it.
Edge: Straiv.
Straiv’s 4.7/5 overall rating across 105 reviews, including 23 in the last six months with a 4.6/5 average, indicates strong and current user satisfaction. Segment-specific ratings range from 4.6 (resorts) to 4.9 (boutique and branded hotels), showing broad appeal. Review volume and recency confirm that ratings reflect the current product quality.
ICG Check-in Online has no reviews, so no rating data exists to measure hotelier satisfaction.
Edge: Even.
ICG Check-in Online does not publish pricing information, nor does it offer free trials, freemium, or per-room pricing models. This opacity hinders budget planning and comparison.
Straiv charges a base price of $500 without pay-per-room fees or implementation charges. No trial is available. This flat-fee pricing suits hotels that want predictable costs without incremental per-room expenses.
Not ideal if:
Not ideal if:
The core difference between ICG Check-in Online and Straiv lies in market presence, product maturity, and operational depth. Straiv provides a full-featured digital guest journey platform with proven integrations and high user satisfaction. ICG Check-in Online’s value remains unproven with no public reviews or integration data.
Choose ICG Check-in Online only if you prefer a straightforward contactless check-in system and accept the risk of limited market validation. Its claimed automation of ID verification and check-in could suit small properties with simple needs but lacks evidence.
Choose Straiv when your hotel demands a comprehensive, integrated solution that automates multiple guest journey steps, supports upselling, and is backed by hundreds of positive reviews and a broad partner ecosystem. Straiv’s device-agnostic platform and mobile key integration enhance guest convenience and operational efficiency across diverse hotel types.
Contactless Check-in pricing is rarely straightforward. Here is what we know from each vendor's public pricing data. Always request a custom quote for your property size.
| ICG Software |
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| Starting Price | — | From $500/mo |
These are the features each vendor has configured, organized by feature group — the same data shown in the vendor dashboard. Expand a group to compare features side by side.
| Feature | ICG Software |
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Pre-Arrival & Check-in
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| Hotel Website Check-in Portal | ||
| Lobby Kiosk | ||
| Self Service Checkout | ||
| Self Service Checkin | ||
| Device Agnostic | ||
| Easy Room Selection | ||
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Information Collection
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| Custom Questions | ||
| Terms & Conditions Signing | ||
| Marketing Communications Opt-in | ||
| Pre-regisration info collection | ||
| Document & Passport Scanning | ||
| ID Verification | ||
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Translations
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| Automatic Translations | ||
| Multi-lingual | ||
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Payments & Authorization
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| Registration Card E-signature | ||
| Collect Deposits | ||
| Payment & Authorizations | ||
| ID Verification | ||
| PCI Compliant | ||
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Mobile Key
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| Door Lock Integration | ||
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Upgrades & Upselling
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| Pre-arrival Upselling & Upgrades | ||
| Easy Room Selection | ||
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Other
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We analyzed 1 verified case studies to compare what hotels actually achieve with each platform across four key business objectives.
No published case study for this goal yet.
"The automation of key processes delivers measurable time savings and significantly boosts productivity in hotel operations. The capacity thus freed up can be specifically channelle..."
What hoteliers love
Many reviewers mention automated emails, pre-arrival communication, and other guest messaging as a core benefit. Straiv helps hotels keep guests infor... Many reviewers mention automated emails, pre-arrival communication, and other guest messaging as a core benefit. Straiv helps hotels keep guests informed before arrival and reduces manual follow-up, though a few note that email layouts and the number of messages could be improved.
Users most often praise Straiv for making pre-check-in and self check-in fast, simple, and low-friction for both guests and staff. Reviews say it redu... Users most often praise Straiv for making pre-check-in and self check-in fast, simple, and low-friction for both guests and staff. Reviews say it reduces reception workload, speeds arrivals, and creates a smoother guest experience, especially when templates and automation are set up well.
A recurring theme is that Straiv relieves reception staff by shifting routine check-in tasks into a digital process. Hotels say this makes service fas... A recurring theme is that Straiv relieves reception staff by shifting routine check-in tasks into a digital process. Hotels say this makes service faster and more comfortable for guests while freeing staff to focus on higher-value interactions and exception handling.
Where hoteliers push back
Users like the customization options, drag-and-drop forms, and flexible module structure, which make it easier to adapt Straiv to different hotel proc... Users like the customization options, drag-and-drop forms, and flexible module structure, which make it easier to adapt Straiv to different hotel processes. At the same time, some say backend setup can be confusing or time-consuming, especially when managing multilingual content or changing modules.
Some hotels want stronger analytics, better statistics, and a more polished admin experience. Feedback also points to backend usability issues such as... Some hotels want stronger analytics, better statistics, and a more polished admin experience. Feedback also points to backend usability issues such as confusing navigation, manual language updates, incomplete reporting, and an imperfect ticket history process.
Unique capabilities
It depends on your requirements. ICG Check-in Online and Straiv share many core Contactless Check-in features, but each has unique capabilities. ICG Check-in Online offers 0 verified integration partners, while Straiv offers 38. Review the feature comparison above to see where they differ before switching.
ICG Check-in Online: No. Straiv: No. Neither product currently offers a free tier. Most Contactless Check-in vendors offer demos or trials — request one from each to evaluate before committing.
The HT Score is a composite ranking that considers 4 criteria groups and over a dozen variables to help hoteliers objectively compare hotel technology products. ICG Software has an HT Score of 0 and Straiv has 78. Here is how the score is calculated.
| Criteria Group | Weight | What It Measures |
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| Customer Ratings & Reviews |
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How highly do users recommend this product? Ratings Score, Review Volume, Share of Voice, Review Depth, Review Recency, Success Stories ▾ The most heavily weighted factor. Analyzes average satisfaction ratings (likelihood to recommend, ease of use, support, ROI), total review count relative to category peers, review recency (at least 20 reviews in the trailing 6 months), and share of voice across unique hotel clients to detect selection bias. |
| Partner Ecosystem |
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How highly do tech partners recommend this company? Partner Recommendations, Integration Quantity, Integration Quality ▾ Evaluates partner recommendations as expert votes of confidence, the number of verified integrations, and ecosystem quality — the average HT Scores of integration partners. Products with higher-quality integration ecosystems are more likely to deliver a connected tech stack. |
| Customer Centricity |
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How customer-centric is this organization? Certified Support, Review Consistency, Profile Completeness ▾ Assesses whether the company has earned HTR Customer Support Certification, maintains consistent review collection over time (an indicator of feedback-driven culture), and keeps product profiles complete with capabilities, screenshots, pricing, and features. |
| Reach, Staying Power & Resources |
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How extensive is this company's reach and resourcing? Geographic Reach, Staying Power, Company Resources, Trending Score ▾ Measures global presence (countries and regions served), years in business as a stability proxy, team headcount as a resource proxy, and a trending score based on trailing-twelve-month buyer inquiries, reviews, partner recommendations, and press activity. |
Customer ratings and reviews are by far the most important factor in the HT Score algorithm. HTR does not accept payment for higher rankings. All reviews are verified — only hotel industry practitioners with confirmed affiliations can submit ratings. View full HT Score methodology →
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