Dubai just did something no other global city has managed to do. It fixed the hotel check-in experience at the system level, not the hotel level.
Anyone who travels frequently knows how broken hotel check-in is.
You arrive exhausted, your data already sits inside multiple travel systems, yet the hotel still has no idea who you are.
You stand in line while someone retypes information that exists in a dozen back end databases.
This fragmentation has defined hospitality for decades.
Dubai is about to end it for every traveler passing through the city.
Whether it’s a stopover between continents, a resort stay, or a business trip, the experience is finally becoming seamless.
The city has launched the first government-backed, citywide contactless hotel check-in system.
A unified platform built by the Dubai Department of Economy and Tourism that works across every licensed hotel and holiday home in the city.
One system. One flow. One standard.
Guests can now upload identification, complete biometric scans, and confirm all details before arrival.
Once verified, the information stays valid until the ID expires.
On your next trip, you simply walk in and pass a facial scan.
No reception desk. No paperwork. No friction.
What makes this so important is the uniformity. Other markets have pieces of this.
Hilton and Marriott have mobile keys, but ID still requires in-person verification.
Singapore uses digital IDs, but adoption depends on the hotel.
Japan, China, South Korea, and Europe offer kiosks, but foreign guests still get routed back to the front desk.
The US has mobile apps, but nothing close to a universal digital identity layer.
Dubai is the first city to execute the full stack. A seamless check-in experience for every traveler, at every property, with zero hardware overhaul required.
It’s exactly the type of infrastructure shift other global cities will eventually need to follow.
This is part of a much larger ecosystem.
Dubai’s airports already use biometric systems for passport control, boarding, and security.
Smart Gates process passengers in seconds. Contactless payments dominate retail.
The upcoming Al Maktoum International Airport is being built with next-generation biometric infrastructure from day one.
It’s a coherent, citywide vision. Hospitality is simply the next domino.
I know the team building pieces of the technology behind this and they are exceptional.
This is deep infrastructure work that will quietly reshape the guest journey for millions of travelers.
As someone who has spent more than a decade building ETG and speaking publicly about how broken hotel check in has become, it’s refreshing to see a city take the problem seriously and solve it at scale.
I hope every hotelier in my hometown embraces this shift.