Lobby Kiosk Peak Hour Sizing Planner

Estimates how busy your sign-in kiosks will be at peak, how many you need to keep queues short, and how long the last visitor in the rush could wait, for facilities teams planning a lobby check-in setup.

Your estimate

Kiosk utilization across the peak hour...

Kiosk utilization in the busiest 15 minutes...

Kiosks needed to hit your target load...

Estimated longest wait in the rush...

Estimates only. Assumptions are listed below, and you can change every input.

One tablet at the front desk works fine until a morning when twenty people show up for a training session at the same time and a line forms out the door. Lobby traffic is not spread evenly; it clusters around meeting start times, shift changes, and event check-ins. Sizing your kiosks for the average hour instead of the rush is how offices end up with a queue in front of a device that was supposed to remove queues.

This planner asks for visitors in your busiest hour, how long a check-in takes at the kiosk, how many kiosks you have, how clustered arrivals are, and how much load you are willing to put on each device. It calculates utilization for the whole hour and for the busiest 15 minutes, then uses a simple backlog model: if more people arrive in that quarter hour than the kiosks can serve, the excess forms a queue and the last person waits for the backlog to clear. It also tells you how many kiosks would keep the rush under your target load. It is a planning estimate, not a queueing simulation, so treat the wait time as a rough upper bound.

How to use this tool

Look at your sign-in log for the busiest hour of a normal week and enter that arrival count.
Time a few real check-ins from first tap to badge in hand, enter your kiosk count, and choose how clustered arrivals tend to be.
Set the load you are comfortable with per kiosk and read the utilization, the number of kiosks recommended, and the estimated longest wait.

What the math assumes

The busiest 15 minutes receives 25%, 40% or 60% of the peak hour's arrivals depending on the arrival pattern you pick; these shares are planning assumptions, not measured statistics.
Every check-in takes exactly the number of seconds you enter, and all kiosks serve visitors at the same speed.
Wait time uses a fluid backlog model: arrivals beyond what the kiosks can serve in the busiest quarter hour form a queue, and the last person waits for that backlog to clear. Random bunching inside the window is not modeled.
When arrivals fit within kiosk capacity, the longest wait is shown as zero, though real visitors may still wait a fraction of one check-in for the device to free up.
Staff-assisted sign-ins at the desk are not counted as kiosk capacity.

Frequently asked questions

Why does the planner focus on 15 minutes instead of the whole hour?

Because queues form in bursts. A kiosk that is 50% busy over an hour can still have a line if 60% of the hour's visitors arrive in the first quarter hour for a 9 a.m. meeting. Sizing to the rush is what keeps the lobby clear.

What target load per kiosk should I use?

Around 70% is a common planning figure that leaves room for a slow user or a photo retake. Use a lower target if the lobby hosts large events or if visitors are unfamiliar with the kiosk, and a higher one if you have staff who can step in and help.

Can I use this for a tablet at the reception desk?

Yes. A single tablet counts as one kiosk. If the receptionist also signs people in manually during the rush, that capacity is not included, so the estimate is conservative.

How do I reduce the seconds per check-in?

Pre-registering expected visitors so they only confirm their name, skipping optional photo steps for low-risk visitor types, and keeping the agreement screen short are the usual levers. Re-run the planner with the new time to see the effect on kiosks needed.

Link to this toolhttps://lobbysignr.com/tools/lobby-kiosk-sizing/

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