Hotel chain Starwood Hotels and Resorts plans to start using tech as an alternative to traditional plastic hotel key cards. The hotel will allow guests to unlock their door to the room they are staying in with a smartphone.
The hotel chain has a location in NYC called Aloft Harlem and one in California called Aloft Cupertino. Both those locations will be using lock tech from Assa Abloy and the program will start in about 60 days. Guests at these hotels will be able to check in using smartphones via the Starwood mobile app. They will then get a text message with the room number and a virtual key allowing them to bypass the front desk.
The technology uses Bluetooth to open the door and works on any iPhone 4S or higher and Android 4.3 or higher devices. It’s unlikely that the program will be rolled out broadly any time soon because of the costs involved in changing lock systems.
[via Greenville Online]