Collect Wedding Guest IDs for Hotel Check-In on Your RSVP

Three weeks before the wedding, the hotel's reservations team sends your planner one line: please share a photo ID for every guest who is checking in.

So she does what planners usually do. She posts in the family WhatsApp group, then messages the cousins one by one. By evening her phone is full of photos: a passport page taken sideways, an Aadhaar card with a thumb over the number, the same driving licence sent twice, and one from an unsaved number that she cannot match to anyone on the guest list.

There is a tidier way. If you are already asking guests whether they are coming and whether they need a room, ask for the ID in the same place. This post shows how that works on your RSVP, what you see on your side, and how to handle other people's documents sensibly.

Why WhatsApp makes ID collection harder than it needs to be

Indian hotels ask every guest for a photo ID at check-in. At a destination wedding, say a Goa beach resort or an Udaipur palace hotel, many guests fly in and land within the same few hours. So the couple or the planner usually collects the IDs in advance, to keep the front desk from turning into a queue. And the usual tool is WhatsApp, which was built for chatting, not for collecting documents against a list.

Here is where it goes wrong:

Photos arrive one at a time. They come in whatever order guests get round to it, so you rebuild the list by hand, matching every photo to a name on your guest list and a room.
Blurry, cropped, wrong side. Every retake is another message.
It is mixed up with everything else. The ID photo lands between an RSVP question, a flight query and a good-morning forward, and it can sit in your chat history and your phone's gallery long after the wedding.
The family group is the worst place for an Aadhaar card. Everyone in the group can see it.

None of this is anyone's fault. The question is simply living in the wrong place.

Ask on the RSVP, right next to the room question

The Destination Wedding RSVP template, one of the starter forms you pick when you set up your RSVP, builds the ID question into its Stay step. Here is what a guest sees, in order:

"Do you need a room?" They choose "Yes, need a room" or "No, I'm sorted".
Nights, room preference and who they are sharing with. These appear for guests who said yes.
"ID for hotel check-in". Passport, Aadhaar, Driving licence or Voter ID, with a line underneath: "Hotels ask for this at check-in. You'll show the original there."
"Upload a photo of your ID". This appears once they have picked an ID type.

The Stay step of a Destination Wedding RSVP in a desktop browser. A guest has answered Yes to needing a room, picked Saturday 13 February and chosen Passport as the ID type. Below the ID question, an empty dashed upload box labelled Tap to upload sits under Upload a photo of your ID. — The upload box appears only after a guest says they need a room and picks an ID type.

Three details are worth knowing before you rely on it.

It is optional. A guest who would rather carry the original and show it at the desk can leave the upload empty and still finish the RSVP.

It only appears for the guests who need it. The Stay step is shown to guests who say they are attending, and the upload appears only for those who also need a room and pick an ID type. Guests who decline, and guests who do not need a room, never see it.

It is per person. Everyone in a party answers their own Stay questions, and the ID question has no "same for everyone" shortcut, because an ID belongs to one person. A family of four can upload four files, one each.

The room and ID questions sit alongside the usual ones, such as which events a guest is attending and what they eat. Our guide to the RSVP questions every Indian wedding form should ask covers the rest.

Already built your RSVP? A form keeps the questions it was created with, so the ID upload comes with RSVPs created from the Destination Wedding template. If you made yours earlier, check its Stay step before you tell guests to expect an upload box.

What happens when a guest picks a file

Types and size. JPG, PNG or PDF, up to 10 MB, one file per person. A phone photo of a passport page or a scanned PDF both fit.
It uploads straight away. The moment a guest picks the file, the box says "Uploading…". Then it shows the file name with "Tap to change", so a guest who picked the wrong photo can swap it on the spot.
Problems are explained at once. "Please upload a JPG, PNG or PDF." for the wrong type, "That file is over 10 MB. Please pick a smaller one." for a big file, and "Upload failed. Please try again." if something goes wrong on the way.
It follows your RSVP's rules. Uploads work while your RSVP is open and stop when it closes, including at your deadline if you have set one.
The editor preview is not the live form. In the preview, the box only says "Uploads open once the form is published." Guests see the working upload on the published form.

Two phone screens showing the Stay step. On the left, a guest has picked a file called IMG_4821.jpg, shown with a tick and the words Tap to change. On the right, the upload box is empty and a red message says That file is over 10 MB. Please pick a smaller one. — On a phone, the guest picks the photo from their gallery. If it is the wrong type or too big, they are told at once.

Planning a destination wedding?

Ask for the room, the nights and the ID in one RSVP, from guests who are already replying.

See how it works

What you see as the couple

Open RSVP form under Your guests in the sidebar and find the guest on the Responses tab. Each person on that reply gets their own card, with their answers grouped by the step that asked them. Under Stay you will find their room, nights, room preference, ID type and, if they uploaded one, the file.

Click the file and it opens in a new tab. The link is signed and short-lived, and it is created at the moment you click, so you can come back and open the file again whenever you need it. If it does not open, the page says "Couldn't open the file. Please try again."

The couple's RSVP page with Meera Menon's reply expanded on the Responses tab. Meera and Karthik Menon each have a card of answers grouped by step, and under Stay Meera's card shows an uploaded file called IMG_4821.jpg as a clickable chip. RSVP form is highlighted in the sidebar under Your guests. — Each person on a reply gets a card. An uploaded file shows up under their Stay answers, and clicking it opens it in a new tab.

Two things to plan for:

You open files one at a time. Each file is opened from its guest's response, so set aside time to work through them, in room-list order.
Sharing is up to you. Because the links are short-lived, passing a link on is not how you share a file. Open it, save it if the hotel wants a copy, and send it the way the hotel prefers.

The same cards also hold the nights and room preference, so the other details a hotel asks for alongside IDs are in one place too.

Ask the hotel before you ask your guests

Whether a hotel will take a photo before arrival, or only the original at the desk, is the hotel's call. It is not yours, and it is not ours. Ask before you collect anything:

Ask the hotel	Why it matters
Do you take ID photos before arrival, or only the original at check-in?	If it is original only, tell guests to carry theirs. The upload is optional, so nobody is forced.
Which IDs do you accept, and is a masked Aadhaar fine?	Guests choose from Passport, Aadhaar, Driving licence and Voter ID, so check the hotel is comfortable with all four.
Do you need both sides of a card?	The upload takes one file per person, so a guest can put both sides into a single image or PDF.
What do you need for children, and for guests travelling on foreign passports?	Better to know before the invitations go out than at the front desk.
Who should receive the files, and how?	Name one contact at the hotel. Do not send IDs to a group.

Planning from abroad? Our NRI wedding planning guide covers the wider timeline and paperwork, and the hotel questions above are easy to put in an email.

Good practice with other people's documents

A guest who uploads an ID is trusting you with a document that identifies them. Treat it that way.

Ask only the guests who need a room. The Stay step already works this way, so guests who do not need a room are never asked.
Tell guests why, before they open the form. One line in the message you send with the RSVP link is enough:

Hi Meera, here is the RSVP link. If you need a room, the Stay step has an optional upload for a photo of your ID, which the hotel asks for at check-in. Please carry the original too, you will show it at the desk.
Make it easy to say no. Some guests would rather not upload an Aadhaar card, and that is fine. The upload is optional, and the form already tells them they will show the original at check-in. Do not chase them. If the hotel accepts it, you can suggest a masked Aadhaar instead, which shows only the last four digits. Guests can download one free from UIDAI's My Aadhaar page with a mobile OTP.
Share files only with the hotel. One named contact, not the family group and not the whole planning team.
Delete your copies once the wedding is over. The files you saved, forwarded or emailed have done their job by then. For now, a file a guest uploads stays with their RSVP reply on The Curated Knot; there isn't an option to delete it yet, so only ask for IDs if your hotel truly needs them in advance.

Rooms, nights and IDs belong in one place, not in forty WhatsApp threads. The Curated Knot has a Destination Wedding RSVP that asks for all three on a single Stay step. Try it free →

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I collect guests' ID photos on a wedding RSVP?

Yes, on the Destination Wedding RSVP template. Guests who say they are attending and need a room can pick an ID type and then upload a photo of it on the Stay step. The upload is optional, takes JPG, PNG or PDF files up to 10 MB, and allows one file per person.

Which guests are asked to upload an ID?

Only guests who say they are attending, say they need a room and pick an ID type. Guests who decline, and guests who do not need a room, never see the upload.

What file types and sizes can guests upload?

JPG, PNG or PDF, up to 10 MB per file. If a guest picks something else, or a file over 10 MB, the form tells them straight away and they can pick another.

How do I open a guest's ID file?

Open the guest's response in the Responses list on your RSVP page and click the file shown under their Stay answers. It opens in a new tab through a short-lived link, so click it again whenever you need the file.

Will the hotel accept a photo instead of the original?

That is the hotel's call, so ask before you collect anything. The form itself tells guests that hotels ask for ID at check-in and that they will show the original there.

Does the RSVP send the IDs to the hotel for me?

No. The files are there for you. You open each one from the guest's response and share it with the hotel yourself, in whatever way the hotel prefers.

How long should I keep guests' ID photos?

Only as long as the hotel needs them. Share the files with the hotel and nobody else, and delete the copies you saved or forwarded once the wedding is over. For now, a file a guest uploads stays with their RSVP reply on The Curated Knot; there isn't an option to delete it yet, so only ask for IDs if your hotel truly needs them in advance.

RSVP Questions Every Indian Wedding Form Should Ask