The Newman Hotel Case Study

From clipboard to digital

The Challenge

When Darren Mountain joined The Newman Hotel in London as Chief Engineer the day after the property opened, he inherited a sign-in process that hadn't caught up with the rest of the operation: a clipboard and a paper form at the loading bay entrance, used by contractors, agency staff, visitors, and delivery drivers.

For an engineering team fielding a steady flow of contractors, the format created real friction.

“The process struggled depending on the person's handwriting,” Darren said.

Illegible names and phone numbers made it hard to know who was actually on site, and a single sheet of paper left no room to capture more than the basics, let alone maintain an accurate audit trail.

Darren had seen a better way to do it in his previous role at the NoMad London hotel, where Sign In App had been implemented.

“I thought this was really great... it allowed me to track when contractors are in the building, I could set a notification,” Darren said. “Even if I'm off, I want to keep an eye on things, I know when people are turning up.”

The Solution

When he arrived at The Newman, bringing in Sign In App was one of his first requests, especially with the hotel group planning to open more properties and looking to streamline processes across the portfolio.

Darren replaced the loading bay's paper sign-in with Sign In App, giving the hotel a fully digital process for contractors, agency staff, visitors, and deliveries.

The switch immediately solved the limitations of paper.

“With Sign In App it allows you to add as many questions as you want,” Darren said, versus what fits on a single form.

The photo capture feature added a security layer he didn't have before: “So you know what the people look like” for new contractors arriving on site. He also built the hotel's site policies directly into the sign-in flow: fire exit procedures and locations, roll call points in the event of an emergency, and key hotel contacts.

However, the impact reached well beyond engineering and security:

• Sales uses it to notify hosts by text or email when a visitor arrives for a tour or meeting.

• Goods receiving, a team of just two people, gets notified the moment a delivery arrives so they can prioritize urgent pickups without constantly monitoring the bay.

Plus, Sign In App gives multi-site oversight. With the hotel group expanding, Darren won’t be able to be in every building at the same time. Sign In App lets him see who's entering any site and when, including catching potential cases where a contractor claimed to have shown up but the sign-in record says otherwise.

The Results

Faster, more professional arrival experience for contractors, agency staff, and visitors

Accurate digital records with photo capture, replacing illegible paper logs and strengthening on-site security

Site policies, fire exits, and emergency roll call information built into every sign-in

Real-time visibility into who's on site across multiple buildings, even when managers aren't physically present

Faster, better-prioritized deliveries for a small goods-receiving team

Permanent digital records retained for compliance, audits, and future reference

What's next?

Darren's already planning the next step: adding a second iPad in the engineering workshop so contractors can complete a permit-to-work form - for example, if they are doing hot work - there instead of at the loading bay, cutting down congestion during the morning delivery rush. He's also working with the security team on further configuration tweaks as he learns more of what the system can do.

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Case study The Newman Hotel