Event Check-in Challenges and Practical Ways to Solve Them

Nothing ruins event day energy more than a check-in line that barely moves. People come in with a high degree of anticipation. They are excited to enter the venue, collect their badges, and quickly attend the sessions they have been planning for. Most already expect to spend a few minutes at check-in, and that is perfectly fine. 

The problem begins, however, when the few minutes taken at check-in turn into an hour or more, and attendees stand around with little idea of how long it will be until they can proceed to their sessions. That is not the mindset you want right from the start.

If you are organizing the event, keeping the entry process smooth should be a top priority. A well-managed event check-in sets the tone, reassures attendees that everything is under control, and helps protect the reputation you worked hard to build. In this blog, we will go over event check-in challenges and a few simple and effective strategies to prevent check-in delays and create a welcoming experience as soon as people enter your venue.

1. Long Queues and Bottlenecks at Check-in

The event check-in area serves as the main entrance to your event, as any mistakes made here are notoriously difficult to fix. When multiple attendees arrive simultaneously and are directed to a single registration area, the result will be three problems: overcrowding, disarray, and visible frustration. A long line that snakes around your lobby doesn’t just annoy your attendees; it creates a domino effect of logistical issues. If you have a bottleneck at the entrance, your keynotes start late, your catering schedule gets disrupted and therefore spikes stress for both your staff and your guests. 

Waiting 20 minutes for a plastic badge in a hot lobby on this day of instant gratification can ruin the whole experience before your first speaker has even spoken. In many cases, these delays are caused by outdated manual methods such as flipping through printed lists or sorting through stacks of pre-printed badges.

How to improve the situation?

• • Fast-Scan QR Codes: Fast scan QR codes allow attendees to receive their tickets on their phones ahead of time, so entry can be verified in seconds without manual searching or back and forth questions.
  • Self-Service Kiosks: Standalone kiosks will let attendees check in and print their own badges on demand.
  • Strategic Tiering: The strategic tiering system implements separate, clearly marked lanes that let speakers, VIP guests, and general attendees move through the venue without getting caught in a single line bottleneck.
  • On-Demand Printing: Print credentials only when the guest arrives. This way, you can avoid having large, pre-printed badge tables for your staff to go through to find each guest’s printed badge.

2. Technology Failures

Nothing strikes fear into an event team like a loss of Wi-Fi or a complete software failure with thousands of people waiting to enter the gates. When your barcode scanners fail to sync with the registration database, the digital quick entry pass is no longer available, leaving you and your staff with no way to get things back on track.

Relying solely on a live cloud connection is a huge risk and usually requires manual workarounds that are prone to error and embarrassing for all parties involved. Without a robust contingency plan, a simple router glitch can quickly turn what was once a very tech-savvy entrance into a total disaster that stalls the entire event schedule.

How to address it?

• • Offline Data Synchronization: Use a check-in system that does not require an active internet connection to function so that your staff can continue to scan QR codes and validate guests, whether or not the venue has a stable WiFi.
  • Hardware Redundancy: Have several spare, charged scanners, tablets, and thermal printers ready as backups in case there are malfunctions with the equipment. Simply swapping the equipment will resolve the issue instead of having to repair it.
  • Dedicated On-Site Tech Support: Station a “Rapid Response” IT team at the registration area. The rapid response team can assist with troubleshooting all issues that may occur at the event to prevent minor glitches from escalating into systemic failures.
  • Alternative Connectivity: Never rely on venue Wi-Fi alone. Always have preconfigured 5G hotspots or cradlepoints for the registration team’s devices as a private network.
  • Offline Backup: Maintain a physical list or a downloadable CSV file on an offline laptop. 

3. Insufficient Staff

Inefficient staffing can create a bottleneck very quickly as you put unprepared temporary staff or volunteers at check-in. Staff who are not so familiar with the system will be hesitant to guide attendees throughout the event check-in process. They might take more time to resolve one complex issue while other attendees wait. 

Beyond the operational impact, this can also give attendees the impression that the event is not well-managed. Offer your staff enough training prior to the event. Define their roles within the check-in process. Make sure they are familiar with the tools used at the event. 

How to handle it effectively?

• • Pre-Event Tech Rehearsals: Hands-on training for all staff (24-48 hours prior to the first guest arrival). They must practice mock check-in, troubleshoot printers, and become proficient with the software interface for the entire process to be automatic for them.
  • The Floater Strategy: Designate experienced staff as “floaters” who can assist other staff at the front but are not responsible for check-in. 
  • Crowd Control: Train your team on physical flow management, teaching them how to use verbal cues and body language to funnel attendees into underutilized lanes.
  • Role-Specific Training: Instead of giving a generalized training experience, provide an in-depth training that focuses on the specific roles of each station(VIP desk, help desk, kiosk zone). This way, each of your staff will be an expert at the specific station they are assigned to.
  • Standardized Troubleshooting: Create an easy-to-use cheat sheet for troubleshooters to help fix common issues, like when you can’t find a ticket and when your badge won’t print.

4. Walk-in Registration Delays

A guest arrives at an event and has not registered beforehand, and so, the staff member will usually have to manually enter the guest’s name, contact information and payment method into the registration system using either a paper form or through verbal input. The manual entry of this data will be time-consuming, and there is a high risk of typo errors, which will likely tie up a registration desk for several minutes per person.

The longer the line builds up from a single walk-in, the more frustrated those who have pre-registered are going to be. And there is an increased chance for data to become isolated within each individual registration group. Without a streamlined method for capturing new data and integrating it into the master attendee list, walk-ins become a bottleneck. 

Practical ways to sort it out:

• Automated Confirmation Triggers: Have your system automatically send a welcome guide with a digital ticket via email as soon as the walk-in registration process is completed. This way, the guest will have everything they need before contacting someone manually.
• Dedicated “New Registration” Lane: Physically separate walk-in guests from pre-registered guests. Once you isolate spontaneous guests to an area of their own, the fast track lane will be free of any interference by walk-ins.
• Integrated Payment Gateways: Incorporate a secure payment method such as Apple Pay or Stripe in your digital form.
• Instant Database Sync: Use a mobile registration platform that automatically syncs all guest-submitted forms to the event check-in list. Once the guest hits “Submit,” their record appears instantly on the staff’s scanners, allowing for immediate badge printing.
• Self-Serve Mobile QR Stations: Place ‘Register Here’ signs with QR codes in the lobby for attendees to be able to self-register using their mobile devices, shifting the data-entry task from the staff to the attendees.

5. Unclear Signage

When signage is small or ambiguous, it can cause attendees to play a guessing game as soon as they enter the venue. The result is a counter-flow of traffic. More importantly, the clump effect also creates congestion at the very first visible service desk that has been assigned to a particular level of service, while the other, potentially much faster, service desks remain unused just down the hall. 

Beyond the physical delay, the psychological toll is high. As soon as one person gets confused or misdirected, they get a sense of anxiety and that can set the tone for how they perceive the rest of the event. Without a visual roadmap, even the fastest event check-in software cannot make up for the total lack of order in a chaotic lobby.

How to fix the problem?

• • Large-Format, Eye-Level Signage: Use signs with bold high-contrast color schemes for banner and digital signage and place at strategic points along the guest path to identify their entry lane prior to reaching the front of the line.
  • Color-Coded Entry Paths: Assign colors to each attendee type (VIP = gold, speaker = blue, general admission = white) and have the same color applied to floor decals to create an unconscious path direction.
  • Strategic Greeter Placements: Station people as “human signposts” at the front door of the venue. Provide them with directional paddles so they can direct the crowd towards the correct stations.
  • Digital Way-finding Tools: Integrate an interactive map in the mobile event app. Send attendees a “know before you go” email with a photograph of the registration area to set attendee expectations. 
  • Zoned Access Points: Designate the access point by ticket type in order to disperse people from one location throughout the venue.

Final Thoughts

In most cases, event check-in bottlenecks are the result of gaps in planning, last-minute decisions or relying too much on on-site registration without having an understanding of how many attendees will arrive at once. Fortunately for event planners, such problems can be completely avoided if you take time to plan ahead and map out the entire attendee experience from start to finish prior to the event day. 

Using the right technology also removes a lot of manual pressure by automating check-in, tracking attendance in real time, and keeping entries fast and organized. Dryfta supports this with features like QR code-based event check-in, onsite badge printing, live attendee tracking, and integrated registration data that eliminates the need for manual verification. To see how it works in practice, book a free demo and walk through the workflow with our team.