A queue at reception at nine
A freelancer in town for a meeting walks in and asks for a day pass. The community manager is on the phone with a member's IT problem. The freelancer waits, pays on the card machine, writes their name and email on a clipboard and gets a wifi code written on a card. The next person in the queue is a member who needs a parcel. Two more day pass customers are behind them.
At the end of the month, the clipboard has illegible emails, the card machine takings do not quite match the day pass count in the platform, and nobody has followed up with the regulars who have bought ten passes this quarter and might as well be members.
Why day passes are still handled manually
Most membership platforms can sell day passes online, but many operators have not set it up fully, or the front desk still defaults to the card machine because it is faster in the moment.
- The website sends day pass enquiries to email rather than to a checkout.
- Capacity for hot desks on a given day is not known, so the desk cannot sell with confidence.
- Payment is taken on a card machine, separate from the membership platform.
- Wifi and door access are given out by hand.
- Day pass customers never enter the CRM, so there is no follow-up.
What manual day passes cost
The front desk spends its busiest hour on transactions rather than members. Takings are hard to reconcile. Day pass customers turned away on a busy day, or oversold on a quiet one, leave unhappy. The most valuable thing about a day pass customer, the chance they become a member, is lost because their details are on a clipboard.
There is a security side as well. A wifi code on a sticky note is shared with anyone, and a day pass customer who is waved through at reception is not recorded as being in the building, which matters in a fire evacuation.
The day pass flow we build
- Your website and a QR code at reception lead to a day pass checkout, built on your membership platform's booking tools where they fit, or as a small booking page connected to it.
- Capacity for the day is checked against hot desk bookings and members expected, and passes stop selling when the limit you set is reached.
- Payment is taken through Stripe, with the receipt and VAT invoice issued automatically.
- Access is issued for the day: a temporary door code or mobile credential if your access control supports it, and personal wifi credentials rather than a shared code.
- The visitor is recorded as in the building for the day, which feeds your fire roll call list.
- Every day pass customer goes into your CRM, and repeat visitors trigger a follow-up from the sales team with an offer your team sets.
| Step | Front desk today | With the day pass flow |
|---|---|---|
| Buying | Queue and card machine | Online or QR code, before arrival |
| Capacity | Guesswork | Checked at purchase |
| Receipt | Printed or emailed by hand | Sent automatically |
| Access and wifi | Codes on cards | Issued per visitor for the day |
| Follow-up | None | Repeat visitors flagged to sales |
How reception changes
Most day pass customers arrive having already paid, and walk straight in with their access. The front desk greets them rather than processing them. Takings match the platform. And the sales team gets a list of people who keep coming back, with their visit history, which is the warmest lead a coworking space has.
Busy days are handled better too. When capacity is reached, the checkout says so and offers the next available day, rather than someone arriving to find no desk.
Is this your front desk?
- Day pass customers queue to pay at reception.
- Names and emails are written on paper.
- Wifi codes are shared on cards or stickers.
- You have oversold or turned away day passes on busy days.
- Regular day pass users are never offered a membership.