You’ve Been Upgraded: Your Phone is Your Future Hotel Key
Let’s face it. When we’re talking travel, unless it’s a catamaran cruise around the world with our David Beckham clone of a boyfriend, we’re more into the destination than the journey. And as frequent fliers here at Brit + Co., we’re always looking for ways to make the not-so-fun parts about travel at least a little less stressful. Like, what if you didn’t have to stand in line to check in at a hotel and could just go up to your room and raid the mini bar ASAP? Your wish is one hotel’s new plan.
Starwood Hotels announced a serious upgrade to their SPG App. Soon, preferred members will be able to use the app on their smartphone as the key to open their room and skip the whole check-in, check-out process.
We’re all for checking in to our flights online and, not that long ago, said goodbye-for-now-unless-I’m-in-a-really-small-airport to paper boarding passes forever, so does this foreshadow a similar shift for the hotel industry? Maybe! There is something to be said about the old-fashioned check-in process, especially if it includes a warm cookie and the chance to smooth talk your way to a suite upgrade. But when it comes to using your smartphone as a key, we’re big fans of apps like August and Kevo in our overall quest to automate life at-home and think a similar scenario for hotels should follow soon.
Starwood will be the first to try out this technology this year and it’s safe to say others will join if it’s a success with guests. While we all wait for the app to roll out to our smartphones (not to mention, while we count the days until our next getaway) here are a few ways to make travel suck a little less, the Brit + Co. way!
What’s your biggest travel stress? Do you wish you could check in to every hotel from your phone?