How many check-in lanes do you need?
Short answer
It depends on when check-in opens. The day before: one lane per 300–400 attendees. Only 1–2 hours before the start: one lane per 150, because 60–70% arrive in the last 30 minutes. A longer morning window: busiest-hour arrivals ÷ 200, plus one. Always add an enquiry lane, which checks nobody in.
When does check-in open?
Everyone who needs a badge from this desk.
People who collected their badge at their hotel never join the venue queue.
150 when check-in opens only 1–2 hours before the start.
About your event
Day one usually checks in 80% or more; from day two, two lanes are enough.
Exhibitor badges are collected before the event, not at the check-in desk.
Build
10 check-in lanes
1,500 attendees ÷ 150 per lane.
- Plus one VIP and speaker lane on the conference day.
- Plus one enquiry lane at each desk. It takes every unusual case and checks nobody in.
- Walk-ups: put up a QR code to register on their own phone. They do not need a lane.
- Staff at the lanes
- 22 · two per lane
- Queue guides
- 2 · head + floating
- Desk length
- 12.0–18.0 m · 1.0–1.5 m a lane
- Power sockets
- 36 · three a lane
Network: a dedicated, symmetric line — about 100 Mbps at a large venue, about 10 Mbps per hotel point.
Free Excel manual
Take this plan to the venue
An Excel check-in manual built from your numbers: a countdown dated to your event, a lane-by-lane staffing sheet, the kit list, the offline pre-flight, volunteer scripts, the exceptions sheet to print for every desk, and a device log. Change a yellow cell and the rest recalculates.
How the calculator works
- Check-in the day before: one lane per 300–400 attendees. Arrivals spread across a full or half day, so no extra lane goes on top. The rest are sized for the conference day.
- Check-in 1–2 hours before the start: one lane per 150. 60–70% of people arrive in the last thirty minutes.
- A longer morning window: busiest hour ÷ 200, plus one. One lane checks in about 200 people an hour — the scan is two seconds, the badge, lanyard and bag the other sixteen. Half to two-thirds of same-day arrivals land in the ninety minutes before the opening session, and lanes running flat out have no slack.
- The three agree. 150 attendees a lane at 65% in thirty minutes is about a hundred people in half an hour: two hundred an hour, one lane's pace.
- Around the lanes: two staff per lane, two queue guides per point, 1.0–1.5 metres of desk and three independent power sockets per lane, and a dedicated, symmetric network line.
These are planning starting points, not guarantees. Time your own handover at a rehearsal on the real venue network three days out, and change the lane rate to match. The reasoning behind every number is in the on-site check-in field guide.
Frequently asked questions
Plan one lane per 300–400 attendees collecting their badge that day. Large conferences — academic congresses of 3,000 and more especially — often open check-in a full or half day early, and because arrivals spread across the day, no extra lane is needed on top. Size the conference-day desk separately for everyone who is left.
One lane per 150 attendees. With a short window, 60–70% of people arrive in the last thirty minutes before the start, so the desk has to absorb nearly the whole event in half an hour. Add an enquiry lane on top for the unusual cases.
About 200 with two staff. Scanning a code takes around two seconds; the rest of an eighteen-second check-in is printing a name label, fitting the badge and lanyard, and handing over the bag. Speed comes from the handover, not the scanner — which is why two people per lane beats one person with a faster device.
Because arrivals are never flat. For a morning-start conference, between half and two-thirds of same-day arrivals land in the ninety minutes before the opening session. Desks that are comfortable across a four-hour window collapse in that ninety minutes.
A lane that checks nobody in. Every unusual case goes there — a wrong name on a badge, someone not found in the system, a registration still pending approval, someone attending in another person's place — so that one complicated attendee does not stop a lane for four minutes while the queue behind them grows.
Spread the peak rather than absorbing it. Open check-in the day before, or run it at the hotels the evening before, so people arrive already wearing a badge — and shorten the handover: pre-thread lanyards in quiet periods, pre-assemble bags by category, and colour-code badges so nobody makes a decision at the desk.