Check In Without the Paperwork: Russia’s ‘Max’ Platform Now Lets You Use a Digital ID at Hotels

Checking into a hotel in Russia just got a lot smoother for users of the national platform “Max.” The country’s Ministry of Digital Development announced that guests can now skip the paper registration form and the physical passport at check-in. Instead, they simply present a digital ID through the Max app.

The system is currently in a pilot phase across 20 hotels in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Sochi, and Tatarstan. It’s open to adult Russian citizens, including those checking in with children. To use it, open the “Digital ID” section in your Max profile, tap the “Passport” tab, and show the barcode to the hotel staff. They scan it, your identity is confirmed, and the registration form fills itself in.

So far, the service is live at six properties: Four Seasons Hotel Moscow, Sochi Park Hotel, City Hotel 1905, Mantera Supreme Seaside, and the Cosmos Sheremetyevo and Cosmos Pribaltiyskaya hotels. The goal is to expand this to several thousand Russian hotels within the next year.

Max is more than just a messenger. It’s a national platform for messaging, voice calls, payments, government services, and digital identity verification. As of early April, it had 110 million registered users and over 80 million daily active users. For travelers, this new feature means one less queue and one less piece of paper to worry about at the front desk.