Fancy checking in with your smartphone
and not the traditional room key???
Technology has continued to advance over the years.
These advancements have continued to impact and influence the hotel industry.
In more recent times, one of the trends adopted by the Starwood brand is the
potential of smartphones replacing room keys.
The
brand, which owns more than 1,000 hotels in nearly 100 countries, plans to
offer this new feature in 2015. In an interview the CEO Frits van Paasschen,
told the Wall Street Journal “We believe this will become the new standard for
how people will want to enter a hotel”. This
feature will be debuted in he Aloft Harlem and Aloft Cupertino in California.
The app, which will operate through
Bluetooth, has been described as a check in revolution. It will enable guests
by pass the front desk and go straight to their rooms. Guests will be able to
check in through the Starwood app on their phones. After which they will
receive a text message with their room number and virtual keys.
The Starwood brand is known for making
environmental issues a priority. The development and implementation of this
feature further reinforces the brands commitment to sustainability. With this
feature, the production and use of key card will be reduced.
While this feature has pros, it also has
cons. Thorsten
Kirschke, president of the Americas for Carlson Rezidor, says adopting virtual
keys can be expensive because it can involve changing a hotel's entire lock
system. Security issues have also been raised regarding this feature. With
guests bypassing front office, the security and privacy of the hotel guests and
employees may be put at risk. Other questions regarding this are: What if
guests lose their phone? What happens when guests’ battery runs out and
adaptors are not in reach?
Furthermore, this feature may reduce or
even render the front desk personnel redundant. Reviews online with regard to
this, say the front desk maybe become concierge desk. This is not necessarily appropriated
considering the hotel industry is a service-based industry and involves a lot of
contact with the guests.
References:
http://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/hotels/2014/01/29/starwood-mobile-check-in-virtual-key/5017959/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4d3NmO4-_k
http://edition.cnn.com/2014/01/28/tech/mobile/smartphone-hotel-keys/
http://www.sci-tech-today.com/story.xhtml?story_id=13300G9ADTR1
Writtten by Jin Yue and Rhoda Nuhu.
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