Smartphones have replaced a variety of things in our lives – portable music players, cameras, pocket gaming devices, voice recorders – and they are en route to replace some more, with the new mobile payment services or the apps that allow us to open and start our cars using them. Today we found a new use for them – the Starwood hotel chain has just launched a new program, called SPG Keyless, that will allow hotel guests to open their hotel rooms using their smartphones.
Make no mistake, this program does not work – just yet – in all hotels operated by the chain. Right now the program is only available in Starwood’s Element and W branded hotels, and for pre-booked hotel rooms only. But it sounds awesome – it will allow guests with valid bookings to skip the commotion at the reception and gain access to their pre-booked hotel rooms through communicating with the door locks through Bluetooth, with a simple tap on the lock pad of each door.
Guests who book their room through the official Starwood channels over the internet will be able to use the SPG app, available for Android and iOS at the moment, to receive their room number and unlock their rooms as soon as they arrive at the door. The app also offers them access to gyms and elevators as well. Besides being a really cool initiative, it has a series of uses – think of one less key to worry about, and one less line to potentially wait in when arriving to a hotel reception on a crowded day. The program has a few things to improve – currently only one phone per room can be activated, meaning that any other person the guest shares the room with will need a traditional key for access.
Starwood plans to extend the availability of the program to 140 more of its properties until the middle of next year. Other major hotel chains are also expected to introduce something similar, but they will probably keep an eye on Starwood’s program first, closely watching it for issues and setbacks before choosing to implement a similar system for themselves.