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Hilton to Adopt Digital Check-In, Smartphone-Based Room Keys Worldwide

Monday July 28, 2014 12:52 pm PDT by Juli Clover
Hilton Worldwide, a company that operates thousands of hotels around the globe, today announced plans to roll out new mobile-based check-in and room selection tools, as well as digital smartphone-based room keys.

Hilton guests will be able to select their rooms online using their smartphones, which will be able to display floor plans for each available room. Guests will also be able to check-in/check-out using their smartphones, as well as purchase upgrades and make special requests for item deliveries.

hilton
Room selection: At 6 a.m. the day before a booked stay, Hilton HHonors members can sign into their account via their mobile device, tablet or computer to check-in and choose their preferred room through floor plan maps or lists populated from the hotel's available inventory. Photos of rooms are also available to help with their selection. Hilton's digital lobby function is updated in real-time, so guests no longer have to wait until they are physically in the hotel lobby to be assigned a room.
While Hilton's new service is limited to check-ins and room selection at the current time, next year the hotel chain plans to allow guests to unlock their hotel rooms with their smartphones.

Hilton is planning to roll out its digital enhancements to select hotels during the summer and the fall, and by the end of 2014, smartphone-based check-ins and room selection will be available for more than 650,000 rooms across 4,000 hotels. The technology that allows smartphones to be used as room keys will begin rolling out in 2015, with wide availability in 2016.

Hilton is not the first hotel chain to begin allowing guests to enter their hotel rooms with their smartphones, as Starwood Hotels & Resorts implemented a pilot program to test the technology earlier this year. Hilton's eventual rollout will be much larger, however, and it also includes the aforementioned tools for personalized room selections and easy check-ins.

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ashton18
60 months ago
1% battery left *runs to unlock door*
Rating: 23 Votes
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ArtOfWarfare
60 months ago

Is it still possible top open the door with a normal key?


No. They're planning to improve the experience for their valued customers by kicking out everyone with Android, Windows, BlackBerry, and other non-iOS devices (or no devices at all).
Rating: 20 Votes
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taptic
60 months ago
So we get a new iPhone when we tell them our room key isn't working?
Rating: 13 Votes
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Chmeeee
60 months ago

Hilton Worldwide, a company that operates thousands of hotels around the globe


Well thank God they clarified that. I would have been completely confused otherwise!
Rating: 9 Votes
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SilianRail
60 months ago
If you still have to wait in line to check into the hotel nothing really has improved...
Rating: 8 Votes
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erinsarah
60 months ago
Finally

At long last, I can finally reserve that room right above the pool and sandwiched between the elevator motor and the ice machine, so that the chlorine smell and noise pollution can rock me to sleep in those heavenly beds.

But in all seriousness, since there are obviously plans behind the scenes to collect data off this process, it would be nice if the app could somehow warn the cleaning crew that the inhabitants of the room are IN the room before they knock.
Rating: 8 Votes
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Arran
60 months ago

How are you supposed to get the free cookie if you skip past the front desk?


Via your browser! :)
Rating: 6 Votes
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MvdM
60 months ago
Is it still possible top open the door with a normal key?
Rating: 4 Votes
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fluchtpunkt
60 months ago

Don't like the remote locking/unlocking capablity on a server to begin with and is that really a safe practice?


It is the most practical way, and in environments like hotels probably the safest as well.

If you would have a not connected lock you would have to rely on a security feature inside the lock itself. Similar like your regular house key, where you rely on the pattern on the key. Or better you rely that only you are in possession of this pattern.
Without a connected lock, the guest that was in the room yesterday could easily copy the key and gain access tomorrow. Like it is possible with your regular house key.

If you have a lock that is connected to the network you just remove the access keys from yesterdays guest and he won't be able to get access to the room anymore.

Makes it easier and safer when you lost your key card as well. The hotel staff deletes the access code of the key card you have lost and replaces it with the code of the new card they will give you. The lost key card becomes useless immediately.

Sure, connected locks have their problems as well. They can be hacked (and they were hacked in the passed), and they most likely will violate your privacy by logging each access on the server.

But "regular" keys can be hacked as well. It's called lock-picking. For the standard house-key this is most likely easier than hacking a server or the connected lock.
Rating: 4 Votes
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RenoG
60 months ago
That's nice as an option however for security reasons I'm not to keen on this ambitious endeavor for this stuff to controlled remotely by apps. This whole future move to control everything by phone concerns me to honest.
Rating: 4 Votes

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