Skift Take
Last year marked a pivotal moment in terms of keyless room technology, as Starwood, Hilton, Marriott, and other brands announced investments in the mobile tech. And while there is consumer uptake, this still feels like a transitional technology that has us asking: What's next?
Keyless hotel room entry — basically using your smartphone as your hotel room key — has come a long way.
Since marking its debut in fall 2014 with Starwood's SPG Keyless, the mobile technology has now been adopted by others, including Hilton and Marriott, while also being piloted by Hyatt and InterContinental Hotels Group at the moment.
On June 28, Starwood's Starwood Preferred Guest loyalty program announced the expansion of SPG Keyless beyond the company's Aloft, Element and W Hotels brands to select Le Meridien, Westin, Sheraton, and Four Points by Sheraton properties around the world. SPG is also making it easier for multiple guests sharing the same hotel room to be able to use SPG Keyless and is planning more updates to mobile check-in features via the SPG app in the coming months.
To date, the SPG Keyless technology is available at more than 160 hotels in 30 different countries, with more than 350,000 registered SPG members who have registered for the technology, most of whom are SPG Platinum members. To use SPG Keyless, guests need to have an SPG account and have access to the SPG app on their smartphones. The program began with just 10 hotels in November 2014. Starwood says the most popular cities for the technology are New York, Chicago, Atlanta, Dallas and Miami.
The impetus behind keyless room entry adoption is all about giving guests more control
