Digital visitor book for UK hospitality

What is a visitor book for?

Contractors, engineers, and officials: who came in, who let them in, and when they left. It is not a legal form every café must buy. It is how you answer “who was in the building” when an insurer, a fire officer, or an EHO asks. A book that only has the “in” time is half a register.

Friday example. 14:10, fridge engineer, company name, host is the duty manager, purpose “walk-in 2 not holding”. 15:05, time out, same host. Vehicle registration only if you actually use the car park rule. Do not add fields you will leave blank.

The EHO is a visitor. Write them in. Hiding the book is worse than a short list. Photographs of ID are not required for a contractor sign-in. Name, company, purpose, host, in, out.

• Time out, not only time in.
• Host: the staff member, not “front of house”.
• Don’t collect ID scans without a reason. Name and times are the usual record.
• Log Book is £3 a week per location, VAT included, after the trial.

ICO: UK GDPR guidance. Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005.

What if nobody writes the time the visitor left?

What happens if the visitor leaves and nobody writes the time out? You no longer know whether they are still in the building. That is the question in an evacuation, and it is the question an insurer asks after a theft from a contractor’s van that was “only there for an hour”.

Write the out-time when they leave, not the next morning from the CCTV. If the host changes mid-visit, the second host signs the out-time. A book that says “engineer, afternoon” cannot be matched to a date.

The line needs company, purpose, host, in, and out. Skip vehicle registration unless the car park rule is real — an empty column trains people to skip the columns that matter. Do not photocopy a driving licence.

The ICO’s data minimisation guidance is that you collect what you need. A name and two times is the usual need. Keep the register for the period your insurer or fire risk assessment actually asks for, then delete it. An infinite spreadsheet of every courier since 2019 is not a safer record.

Contractors who come every week still get a line each visit. “Regular” is not an exemption. If the EHO or a fire officer arrives, they go in the book like anyone else.

The book is not the fire log and not the SFBB diary. Tests stay on the fire log. Food checks stay on the diary. The visitor line is only who was in the building.

A delivery driver who only reaches the back door still gets a line if they enter the kitchen. The line can be short: company, “delivery”, the host who signed for the goods, in, out. Do not merge that line with the delivery temperature check. The temperature belongs on the SFBB diary. The person belongs here. If the same driver returns at 16:00, that is a second line.