Starwood Hotels introducing keyless entry via smartphone apps

  

        Firts van Paaschen, the president and CEO of Starwood Hotels and Resorts believes that the keyless entry to the hotel rooms is what the guests really want.  The guests will be able to unlock their hotel rooms with the help of an application downloaded to iPhones or smartphones with Android. The system is going to be tested in two properties of the Starwood group, namely in Aloft Harlem in New York & Aloft Cupertino in California.

       The check—in through smartphones will probably be introduced in three brands of the group; Aloft, Element and W Hotels. If the testing goes well, the guests will be able to check-in and unlock the hotel rooms with their smartphone by 2015.

        The new technology is going to be powered by a Swiss lock company, by Assa Abloy. The testing is going to begin within two months.

         The CEO believes that this innovation is necessary in order to satisfy the needs of the customers.  Henry Harteveldt finds this system genuine and believes that the other hotel chains and hotels will have to adapt to this new technology as the customers will get used to quickly and won´t be patient.

        However, the technology is developing and improving very quickly, do we truly need these innovations? With the introduction of this innovation the reception, the front desk is supposed to become a concierge desk. That means the front desk won´t greet the guests coming to the hotel anymore.

Numerous guests prefer to have such kind of innovations such as check-in with application on smartphones in order to avoid waiting or wasting time while in hurry. These systems could be and are very useful for people traveling for business or for other Professional reasons, while people traveling for leisure might have different needs.

        The face to face communication will always last the highest and the most demanded way of communicating and sharing ideas with each other. Even though the y-generation has grown up with smartphones, tablets and iPads the need to see each other and to be greeted stayed. By introducing this system the hospitality might lose its spirit, the spirit of welcoming, greeting, communicating, etc.  And what about the security? Isn´t this system „ heckable“ ? And what if you run out of battery?

 

Laura & Jessica

Web Sources: Article 1; Article 2; Article 3
Video sources:Youtube
 Picture source:Aloft Hotel