An upgrade to the HHonors app lets it be used as a room key. (Image: Hilton)
Last summer, Hilton introduced digital check-in and room selection via smartphone app for members of its HHonors program, and now the company is rolling out another upgrade that will let HHonors Silver, Gold and Diamond members use the app as a room key.
“By early 2016, HHonors members will be able to use their smartphones as their room key to enter more than 170,000 rooms at 250 U.S. properties within the Hilton Hotels & Resorts, Waldorf Astoria Hotels & Resorts, Conrad Hotels & Resorts and Canopy by Hilton brands,” the company said. The app will also open other doors at the hotel that might require a guest room key, such as fitness rooms and business centers.
With the new Digital Key upgrade, HHonors members who booked directly with Hilton and who select a room via the HHonors app no sooner than the day before arrival will be asked if they’d like to use the room key app. If they say yes, it will be issued when the room is ready on the day they arrive, so they can go directly to the room and bypass the front desk.
Initially available for iOS devices, Digital Key will be available for Android users later this year, Hilton said. It just started beta testing at the Hilton Alexandria Old Town in Alexandria, Va., and will be added over the course of the year at more properties.
Members who elect to use Digital Key will get 2,500 bonus HHonors points.
Hilton said that since it deployed the digital check-in and room selection features on the HHonors app last year, the app has been downloaded more than 2 million times and used for room check-ins more than 5 million times.
Other chains have rolled out similar electronic room key tests, but none seem to have been widely adopted, or perfected. Have you used something other than a key card to enter your room lately? How’d that work?
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Glad to see technology is moving forward. I’ve never, ever understood keys in some European hotels, where the keys are chained to a large metal ornament or plate. You must surrender the key to the front desk when you leave and pick it up again when you return. I’ve never understood why a thief couldn’t simply enter the hotel, say “Room 442, s’il vous plaît, enter your room, and take whatever wasn’t in your room safe. I’ve talked to hotel concierges about this, and they usually shrug and say it doesn’t happen, and that the hotel staff recognizes its guests. Hmmm.
So three cheers for technology that makes room thefts harder. I’ve never had anything stolen from a hotel room, but I have friends who have lost cash and laptops to thieves.
But the real reason for this technology should be mentioned. Hotels are doing this because they don’t have to pay your smart phone to check you into the hotel.
I wonder what affect this would have on using corporate codes one is not entitled to.