We have had requests from customers who wish to automate the delivery of Lock Codes to be sent using Auto Letters, as opposed to Self Checkin. This is usually done to reduce costs, but has the following concerns:

• It will allow some bookings to 'fall through the cracks', such as those booked the same day as arrival. For customers who are setup for Self Check-in, the system knows if a booking is received (from Booking.com or Expedia, for example) for 'today' and immediately begins the automation setup as per the Self Check-in guidelines.  This contrasts to Auto Letters, which are only sent once per day, so these 'same day arrivals as booked' bookings would have to be manually delivered via a Letter you issue manually.
• Also, their is no way to initiate payment automatically with the Guest agreeing to 'pay now', which is a core part of self check-in that guarantees payment has been received prior to delivery of a Lock Code. Rather, you will have to manually apply payment to the folios to get payment.
• Because the Guest will not be required to check an "I Agree' button to initiate payment, this provides less support in the event of a dispute.  The only guarantee one would have to support a dispute would be the eSign letter. That is less desireable than a proper Self Check-in where an explicit message is displayed to accept payment terms.
• The eSign letter will also have to be manually confirmed to be signed and on file before the Lock Code goes out, as no Self Check-in process would verify that it is on file and received prikor to delivery of a Lock Code.

Such scenarios are less than ideal, in order to save on costs, but can be done if one wishes to use Auto Letters to automate the delivery of Lock codes.