Waivers for lodges and resorts

Asking guests to sign a separate form for every activity slows down check-in and annoys people on holiday. A single release can cover the whole stay: the activities you run yourselves, the property itself and the trips your partners operate.

A resort waiver usually starts by defining what it covers. That can include guided and self-guided activities, equipment rentals, transport between sites, and simply walking the grounds, where icy paths and uneven trails cause more incidents than any excursion. It then names the releasees: your own company, its owners and staff, and the partner operators who run tours for your guests. When a partner is named in your waiver, a guest who signs once is covered for the whole program.

If some activities carry a higher risk, such as snowmobiling or dog sledding, a clear notice in the waiver makes sure guests see it before they take part.

WaiverNorth doesn't write your wording, and it shouldn't. You publish your own text, ideally reviewed by a lawyer, and every published version is locked. If you add a new partner next season, you publish a new version, and every waiver already signed stays tied to the exact text its guest agreed to.

The best time for a guest to read a waiver is at home, days before the trip, not at the front desk after a long drive. Add your signing link to the booking confirmation and the pre-arrival email so guests sign at home before the drive.

The reservation number ties the waiver to the booking. Guests enter it on the form, or, on Pro and Business, your booking system creates a prefilled link through the API, so the reservation number and the guest's details are already filled in. Webhooks can report back to your booking system the moment each guest has signed.

Because every guest in a booking signs their own waiver, the front desk can search by reservation number and see who is done and who still needs to sign. Guests receive the signed PDF by email for their own records, so nothing needs printing at check-in. If a guest loses it, staff can resend it from the console.

Some guests will always arrive without signing, and the front desk needs a quick way to handle them. A tablet in kiosk mode on the counter or in the lobby lets late guests sign while someone else checks them in. The kiosk is signed in once by staff, shows only the waiver form and clears itself after every guest. Kiosks are unlimited on every plan, so a second one in the activity centre or the gear room costs nothing extra.

In the console, staff search by name, date of birth or reservation number and check guests in individually. Notes and tags let the team record useful details, such as which activities a guest booked. If the connection drops, the kiosk keeps collecting waivers offline and uploads them once it is back online, so a remote lodge never loses a record. Guests who signed at home only need a quick check-in, so the line at the desk stays short.

How long a waiver stays valid is your decision. Some lodges keep a waiver valid for a set period after signing, such as 24 months, so a returning guest doesn't need to sign again. Others ask for a fresh waiver with every booking, so each stay is covered by the current wording and the current list of partners. WaiverNorth supports both. The console shows which waivers are valid, expiring within 30 days or already expired, and a guest whose waiver has expired simply signs again with the same link. A waiver past its 24-month validity is not deleted. It stays on record for your retention period. Returning guests are easy to find with a quick search.