Frequently asked questions

Kiauth OVSE is guest verification and compliance software for Indian hotels, homestays and guesthouses. One check-in covers three jobs: verifying the guest's Aadhaar with UIDAI's digital signature, adding them to your digital guest register, and preparing Form C for foreign guests.

It works on its own for a small hotel, and it also plugs into whatever booking platform or PMS you already use (OYO, MakeMyTrip, your own software).

OVSE stands for Offline Verification Seeking Entity. It is UIDAI's term for a business that verifies a person's Aadhaar offline — using the digitally signed QR, file, or app credential that UIDAI issues — instead of collecting the Aadhaar number or a photocopy. Kiauth is built on this model, which is why the full Aadhaar number is never needed.

No special hardware. Kiauth works in any browser — on a laptop, tablet, or phone at the front desk — and there is also a Kiauth app on Google Play for Android. Both use the same account and the same data, so use whichever suits your desk.

The phone or tablet camera is all you need to scan a guest's Aadhaar QR. Check-ins keep working when the internet drops and sync when you're back online.

• Create your workspace and sign in.
• Complete onboarding: property name, address, and PIN code (the city/state fill in automatically from the PIN).
• Optionally add your rooms under This property → Rooms, and invite your front-desk staff under Your business → Team & access.

You are then ready to verify your first guest — scanning the Aadhaar QR works straight away. If you also want guests to verify from the Aadhaar app on their own phone, complete Your business → Aadhaar App setup (a one-time UIDAI registration we help you file).

• Owner — full control of the workspace, billing, and team.
• Manager — day-to-day operations: verify guests, manage the register, rooms, and integrations.
• Staff — front-desk check-in and verification only.
• Org admin — administers the workspace across properties (for multi-property owners).
• Developer — access to the Verify API and integration keys, no guest data.
• Billing — sees invoices and plan, nothing else.

You can invite people and set their role under Your business → Team & access.

Yes. The platform is built for multiple properties under a single owner or chain from day one. Add properties and switch between them using the property switcher in the top navigation. Each property keeps its own guests, register, rooms, and integration settings, fully separated.

• Quick verify is the quick, booking-platform-agnostic tab. Use it when the stay itself lives somewhere else (for example an OYO or MakeMyTrip booking) and you only need to verify the guest's identity and keep the statutory record. It returns a transaction number you can paste back into your other system.
• Check-in is the full front-desk flow: it verifies the guest, assigns a room, and records the stay inside Kiauth. Use it when Kiauth is where you run the stay.

Both produce a verified guest and a compliant register entry.

• Scan Aadhaar QR — the most common way. Scan the Secure QR on the guest's Aadhaar card (a recent PVC card or e-Aadhaar PDF) or in their Aadhaar / mAadhaar app. We check UIDAI's digital signature on our own servers. Older QR codes that expose the full Aadhaar number are refused for privacy.
• Aadhaar ZIP file — the guest downloads their Offline e-KYC ZIP file from UIDAI and gives you the 4-digit share code they set. Useful when the guest isn't at the desk yet.
• Aadhaar app on the guest's phone — you show a QR, the guest scans it with their Aadhaar app, approves, and does a quick face check. The strongest method, as it confirms the guest is physically present. Needs Your business → Aadhaar App setup first.
• Other ID — a passport, driving licence, or voter ID, when the guest has no Aadhaar. This is recorded with a photo, not verified.

For foreign guests, check-in also starts the Form C record.

It is a unique reference for that verification. When the booking lives in another system (OYO, MMT, your PMS), copy this transaction number back into that booking so both sides point at the same verified guest. It is proof the guest was verified and links to the register entry.

It is an optional free-text field where you paste the guest's booking ID from wherever they booked — an OYO booking code, an MMT/Goibibo reference, or your own PMS number. Kiauth stores it alongside the verification and includes it in the register and in any webhook you receive, so the record reconciles with your other system. Leave it blank if there is no external booking.

Sandbox mode lets you practise the full verification flow with test data, without a live Aadhaar credential and without creating a real compliance record. Use it to train staff or try the product. Turn it off before checking in real guests.

No — never. This is a hard legal rule under the Aadhaar Act, and the product is built to enforce it. The Aadhaar QR and ZIP file are designed by UIDAI to carry only the last 4 digits, and Kiauth stores, logs, and transmits only that reference — never the full 12-digit number. If a full Aadhaar-shaped number is ever entered, it is rejected at the boundary and never saved.

The guest register is your legally required digital guest register. Every verification — whether from Quick verify or a full check-in — automatically creates a register entry, so the statutory record is kept without extra data entry. You can view it, search it, and export it as a PDF for inspection.

Yes. If a guest was verified elsewhere or by another means, you can add a manual register entry so your record stays complete. It carries the same fields — including the optional booking reference — as an automatic entry.

• A register entry is the compliance record of a person who was verified — the legal log.
• A stay is the operational record of a room being occupied for some dates, which can group several guests together.

A full check-in creates both; Quick verify creates a register entry without a stay, because the stay lives in your other system.

Go to This property → Rooms. Define your room types and individual rooms there. Once set up, the check-in flow lets front-desk staff pick a room from that inventory instead of typing a number. Rooms are optional — check-in still works without them.

Form C is the report that hotels, guesthouses, homestays and other places of stay in India must send to the immigration authorities (the FRRO / Bureau of Immigration) for every foreign guest. It must be submitted within 24 hours of the guest's arrival.

Kiauth captures the passport and visa details at check-in, prepares the Form C record, and shows every foreign guest whose Form C is due or overdue on the Foreign guests page.

When you mark a guest as a foreign national, Kiauth captures the extra details required for Form C (the FRRO filing every hotel must submit for foreign guests) and records it under Foreign guests. This keeps your FRRO obligation and your normal guest register satisfied from the same check-in.

Kiauth prepares and records the Form C data so your filing is ready and complete. Automatic submission to the government FRRO portal is being rolled out separately; until it is enabled for your property, use the prepared record to complete the filing. Your data is captured either way, so nothing is lost.

No — that is deliberate. Kiauth is the verification and compliance layer, not a full property-management or channel-management system. Keep booking on OYO/MMT and running on whatever software you like; Kiauth verifies the guest, keeps the statutory record, and hands the result back to your system.

Go to Your business → Integrations and add a webhook — a URL in your own system. Every time a guest is verified, Kiauth sends that URL a signed "verification.completed" message containing the guest details, the transaction number, and the booking reference. Each property's webhook only ever receives that property's own events.

Every webhook is signed. Kiauth shows you a signing secret once, when you create the endpoint — store it safely. Your system uses it to check the signature on each incoming message, so you can trust that the data genuinely came from Kiauth and was not tampered with.

Yes. If your workspace is on the API/verification mode, the Verify API lets your own product verify a guest programmatically and receive the result. Manage keys and read the reference under Verify API in the navigation. This is aimed at businesses that want to embed verification, not at typical front-desk use.

Kiauth is a subscription per property, paid monthly or yearly. Aadhaar verifications are included in your plan — there is no per-check charge for them, however many guests you check in. Checking other IDs (passport, driving licence, voter ID) uses prepaid credits.

For a quote for your property, email hello@kiauth.com. Once you're signed in, your plan, credits and invoices are always on the Billing page.

Billing lives under Your business → Billing and is handled through Razorpay. Only the Owner, Org admin, Manager, or a dedicated Billing user can see it. Amounts are always in Indian rupees.

If Kiauth suspends an account — for example over an unresolved payment or a compliance issue — a banner appears across the dashboard, and new check-ins and billing changes are paused. Your records stay safe and are never deleted because of a suspension. Email support@kiauth.com to restore access.

No. When you scan the Aadhaar QR or use the ZIP file, the guest's full 12-digit Aadhaar number is never shown to you or to Kiauth — the QR and file only carry the last 4 digits. You also don't need to keep a photocopy of the Aadhaar card, which is safer for the guest and for you.

All data is stored in India (the Mumbai region). Each property's guest data is isolated from every other property at the database level.

Guest register data is a statutory record, so it cannot simply be deleted on request — the law requires you to keep it for a period. Kiauth handles this as scheduled, staged minimisation under India's DPDP rules: personal data that is no longer required is reduced and eventually erased on a schedule, while the legally mandated register is retained for as long as required. You manage this under Your business → Privacy.

The Audit log is an append-only record of sensitive actions in your workspace — who verified whom, who changed settings, who accessed what. It is compliance-grade evidence, not just operational logging, and is available to the Owner and Org admin under Your business → Audit log.

You can sign in with your mobile number and a one-time password (OTP) sent by SMS, or with your email and password once your email is verified. Choose whichever is set up for you on the login screen.

On the login screen choose to reset your password. Kiauth sends a one-time password (OTP) to your registered mobile number; enter it and set a new password. You do not need email access to recover your account.

• Confirm the mobile number on file is correct and can receive SMS.
• Wait a short while and request it again — SMS can be delayed.
• Check that the number is not on DND for transactional messages.

If it still does not arrive, contact your workspace owner or support.

Under Your account → My account. That is your personal profile and is separate from any workspace — changing it does not affect the property's settings.