Prognosticators have long predicted the end of the hotel room phone. A new app will likely hasten its demise.
Starting March 1 you can use your smartphone to request nearly every hotel service, at over 1,200 big brand name hotels, with a new app called MobileSuites. By big brands, we are talking Marriott, Starwood, Hyatt and Hilton. (See below for examples.)
Yep, you can use it to order a pot of coffee and toast from room service, schedule a taxi pick up, make a dinner reservation, request housekeeping, book a spa appointment or check out. You can even make these requests before you arrive at the hotel. 
So, instead of requesting hotel services the old fashioned way via the clunky, dirty room phone (and likely waiting on hold) you can now get what you need with just a few taps on your smart phone, according to Dennis Meng, MobileSuites CEO, who collaborated with TravelSkills on this sponsored post.
What’s most unique about the MobileSuites app is that it can be used across several brands. Meng said that his company waited to launch the app until they had a critical mass of key hotels in major cities around the country.
How does it work? The app is customized for each hotel. Once you are at the hotel and launch the app, geolocation engages, recognizes the property you are in and launches that hotel’s app, displaying the various functions available. You simply make your requests and the hotel responds in minutes with a confirmation email, so you know that that pot of coffee is on its way!
The MobileSuites team is now working to provide mobile check in across all hotels on the app. The next step in development will be a move toward keyless entry— using your app enabled phone to open your hotel room door.
You may have downloaded the recent batch of new apps offered by various hotel brands, which are great when it comes to making reservations or tracking loyalty points, but few of them do much for guests once they are inside the hotel. And none of them work across multiple brands.
“Travelers are a lot less brand-loyal today than they were just 5-10 years ago. We wanted to provide a solution that delivers a fantastic experience but gives travelers the flexibility to stay wherever they want and find value in having every brand in one app. We didn’t want to create a world where they’d have to use a new app for every different hotel,” says MobileSuites‘ Meng. He added that the company expects to double or even triple its coverage of hotels in the next six months, and could have as many as 5,000 by the end of this year.
To promote the app’s launch, MobileSuites is offering users the chance to win a free three night stay at any hotel on its network. Destinations include Hawaii, Miami, New York, San Diego, and many more. To be entered in the lottery, users just need to sign up and refer a friend at http://mobilesuitesapp.com/refer.
They’ve built a database of over 1200 hotels across North America, including many hotels from the major hotel chains, and they’re adding new hotels every day. Through their app, they help facilitate the interaction between guests and hotels, even though they are not yet partnered with the major hotel chains.
Here’s a short list of some of the biggest or best known hotels on the MobileSuites app:
- W New York – Times Square | New York, NY
- Hyatt Regency Chicago | Chicago, IL
- Hilton San Francisco Union Square | San Francisco, CA
- Sheraton Dallas Hotel | Dallas, TX
- Westin Bonaventure Hotel | Los Angeles, CA
- Philadelphia Marriott Downtown | Philadelphia, PA
- Waldorf Astoria New York | New York, NY
- JW Marriott / Ritz-Carlton Orlando Grande Lakes | Orlando, FL
- Four Seasons Washington D.C. | Washington, DC
- Hyatt at Olive 8 | Seattle, WA
Disclosure: Thank you for reading TravelSkills! We will periodically send out messages like this one from commercial partners about topics relevant to frequent travel. Our sponsors’ support, and yours, help us keep TravelSkills a free publication.
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I seriously doubt that hotel phones will disappear any time soon. There are entirely too many people that neither have nor desire smartphone capability, and many, perhaps most, of them are in the age and income ranges where they desire and can afford to stay in the upper tier of hotels. For example, I’ve had my PC(s) since 1983, purchased my first cell phones in 1992, and I’ve been online since 1995. However, I didn’t switch to a smartphone until late 2013 and my wife didn’t come over until early 2014. Although I’ve installed 20+ apps on my phone I probably don’t average using any of them more than two or three times per week, and I don’t plan to make any online purchases with a phone. PCs are still much more secure.
So I checked with MobileSuites, seems they will ONLY launch with iOS support. To those of us NOT on the Apple bandwagon, this is a non-starter….I am not buying an iPhone just to get a few Hotel shortcuts.
Air Crews contractually have to receive a wake up call one hour before scheduled pick up. Air crew schedulers ( Pilots and Flight Attendants ) have to be able to reach their crews for schedule changes in their rooms, It won’t go away from large hotel chains.
In-room phone will have to stay for fire/safety reasons. It will never go away.
In-room phone as a tool to make phone has been dead for decades, given the hotel’s shortsighted decision to “unbundle” a quasi-free (to them) call into huge fees to customers (kind of like the airlines and baggage).
So will this be for ALL phones (iPhone (of course), Android (no indication), Windows Phone (probably not)?)
zero back up for power outage/ cell phone dead (often happens after a crazy long day of travel, delays, etc….) – what do you have to do, go to the lobby & find a plug to charge your phone to be able to get into your room?
Why hide them? The kid has to develop immunity somehow.
I wish they would DELETE the filthy things from the rooms, along with TV remotes. When I travel with toddler, those are the first 2 things she heads for. So we’ve learned to keep her outside a minute while one parent sweeps the room, grabs them with a towel and move them to a hiding place.
100% guaranteed this won’t be rolled out internationally at thousands of small hotels where the phone will remain king. You might see it at all chain hotels one day but my favorite lodge in the chitwan national park Nepal with no cell service and no wifi will remain app free with a hotel phone.