Digital Visitor and Key Management for Marriott Residences
Entry2Exit deployed its Visitor Management System, with a dedicated Key Management module, across a 15 storey residential tower in Business Bay, Dubai. Handwritten visitor logbooks and a paper key register were replaced with verified digital records, camera based ID capture, and reporting available on demand.
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What we put in, and who it covers
Marriott Residences, Business Bay
Marriott Residences at Business Bay is a 15 storey residential development on Al Asayel Street, minutes from Downtown Dubai, The Dubai Mall, and Burj Khalifa. It is managed under the Marriott brand, with concierge, valet, fitness, a pool deck, and in residence dining.
It is home to a large number of permanent residents. For a building like this, security is not a back office concern. Every guest, contractor, and delivery person who walks through the lobby is a record that has to hold up months later.
The front desk ran on paper, and paper does not scale
Before the change, visitors and keys were recorded by hand. Different logbooks were used across shifts and across time periods, so pulling up an old visit meant searching through physical files. Nothing was searchable, nothing was reportable, and too much of it came down to what the person on duty could remember.
- Visitor records were scattered. Several logbooks were in use across shifts, so historical data was hard to retrieve.
- Entries were easy to lose or get wrong. Handwriting, missing fields, duplicate rows, and a misplaced book all had the same effect.
- No live view, no reports. Security and management could not see who was in the building, or pull a trend for the month.
- Registration was slow. Writing everything by hand held up the lobby at peak hours.
- ID checks were inconsistent. Visitors turned up with different documents and there was no set way to record or verify them.
- Keys were tracked on paper. Who took a key, when they took it, and whether it came back on time were all hard questions to answer.
- Disputes came down to memory. With no verifiable record, tracing what happened depended on staff recollection.
One system for people at the door and keys at the desk
We deployed the Entry2Exit Visitor Management System, configured for residential use, and added a Key Management module so both records live in the same place. The front desk works from a desktop or laptop, and every entry is captured once, correctly.
Registration on the spot
Staff register a visitor in seconds from the front desk. No queue, no waiting for a form to be filled in by hand.
Camera based ID capture
The ID is photographed with a normal camera or phone and the details are read straight into the record, so nobody retypes a passport number.
Multiple ID types accepted
Emirates ID, UAE Pass, passport, and other approved image based IDs. The building decides what counts as valid.
Fields built for a residence
Apartment number, person being visited, purpose, and expected duration. We configured the form around how the building actually works.
Key and access card module
Every key has a digital record: what it opens, who has it, when it left the desk, and when it came back.
Reports without the filing cabinet
Management pulls visit history, key movement, and monthly summaries from one dashboard, in the time it used to take to find a logbook.
How a key gets handed over now
Key handover used to be a line in a book. It is now a record that carries a name, a time out, and a time back.
The key is picked from the register
Every key and access card is already in the system with an ID and a description of what it opens.
The person collecting it is identified
The name is tied to a verified visitor, resident, or staff record. Not to a signature nobody can read later.
Collection is time stamped
The system logs the exact date and time the key left the desk, without anyone writing it down.
The return closes the loop
When the key comes back it is logged against the same record, so anything still out is visible at a glance.
Built around the building, not the other way round
A residential tower is not an office lobby. The people at the door are guests of residents, cleaners, contractors, and delivery riders, and the rules for each of them are different. Off the shelf visitor software tends to force a building into an office shaped workflow. We changed the software instead.
We own the product, so a residential field set, a residential authorisation flow, and a key module were configuration work, not a feature request sent to a vendor overseas. There is no outside dependency in the chain, and no waiting on someone else's roadmap.
The same openness applies to hardware. The building started on the front desk computers it already had. Kiosks, badge printers, barriers, and access control can be added later, from any brand, without replacing the software underneath. That is the reason customers who start small with us tend to stay.
What changed at the front desk
Paper logbooks retired
Visitor and key records are now digital, searchable, and kept in one place.
Faster check in
Registration takes seconds, so the lobby keeps moving at peak hours.
Near zero entry errors
ID details are read from the camera capture instead of being typed by hand.
Verified identity every time
Visitors are authorised only once the record is complete and the ID is captured.
Full key traceability
Who took a key, when, and whether it came back are all one lookup away.
Reports on demand
Management runs audits and reviews from a dashboard, not from a filing cabinet.
The hard part was never the software
Front desk teams in residential towers have their own rhythm. They know the residents, they know the regulars, and a system that slows them down gets worked around within a week. So we spent the first sessions watching how the desk actually ran before we changed a single field.
What came out of that was a form with the apartment number in the right place, an ID capture that takes one photo instead of five questions, and a key screen the night shift could learn in an afternoon. Nothing exotic. Just built around the people using it.
Questions we get about this deployment
What did Marriott Residences use before Entry2Exit?
Paper logbooks at the front desk for visitors, and a separate paper register for keys. Records were spread across shifts, and finding an old visit meant going through physical files.
Which Entry2Exit modules are live at the building?
The Visitor Management System and the Key Management module. Both run from the same front desk workstation and share one visitor and resident record.
How do visitors register?
The front desk registers them on the spot from a desktop or laptop. The ID is captured with a camera, the details are read into the form, and the visitor is authorised only after the record is complete.
Which IDs does the system accept?
Emirates ID, UAE Pass, passport, and other approved image based IDs. The building can decide which ones are valid for which visitor type.
How is key handover tracked?
Every key has a record. The system logs who collected it, the date and time it was collected, and the date and time it came back. Nothing depends on staff memory.
Can the visitor form be changed for a residential building?
Yes. We added fields for apartment number, person being visited, purpose of visit, and expected duration. Fields are configured per client, not hard coded.
Does the building need special hardware to start?
No. The deployment runs on the front desk computers with a standard camera. Kiosks, badge printers, and access control can be added later without changing the software.
Running your building on a logbook?
We power visitor, parking, queue, and gate pass operations for enterprises across the GCC. Show us your front desk and we will show you what it looks like without paper.
