Holiday Inn to Test Smartphones as Room-Keys
No more visiting the front desk to check-in or ask for new room-keys.
If you're anything like me, the room-key goblins come and steal one or both of those little cards the second you arrive, planting them in weird places for you to find when you get home. Well, it looks like those once-a-day trips to the front desk could soon come to an end. If an experiment by the Holiday Inn spreads to other hotels, we may find ourselves living in a world where all you need to open your door is your mobile phone.
Two Holiday Inn locations will launch a 60-day trial that will see customers ditch the room keys and just use a smartphone application instead. Not only will the application remove the need to always know where that pesky room-key is, but it also enables you to check in without ever going near the front desk.
Holiday Inn Chicago O'Hare Rosemont and the Holiday Inn Express Houston Downtown Convention Center will next month launch the trial that will utilize technology that, according to the Telegraph, is compatible with Android devices, BlackBerrys and iPhones. USA Today says the trial will last between 60 and 90 days but could last longer.
The technology is said to be quite expensive to implement so if it does get rolled out on a more widespread basis, it is said that only 20 percent of hotels will be equipped for smartphone check-ins.
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Great, now if someone takes your phone, they could access your room as well. Though the ease of use might be a big driving factor for people to get it anyway.
Lose your phone, also lose your room.
Great.
I don't know about you guys but it sounds awesome. I frequently lose my card but I always have my phone on me lol.
Rather have a bar code scanner. Front desk sends you the image and you forward it to anyone who needs a key. Probably cheaper to install and maintain. Works with any network. Also, anyone who gets a hold of your phone, probably could get your keycard too. They still have to figure out the room number in any case.
lose your phone, put a password on your room. it's as simple as that. that way you won't lose your phone AND your room. GREAT and CONVENIENT.
it will be pretty easy to pick up the wireless signal your phone is transmitting, and copy it to go into the room.
Lose your phone, also lose your room.Great.
Because if somebody finds a random cell phone they instantly know which room of which hotel you're staying in...?
A
Lose your phone, also lose your room.Great.
How often do you stay at a hotel?
"If an experiment by the Holiday Inn spreads to other hotels, we may find ourselves living in a world where all you need to open your door is your mobile phone."
All I ever needed to open my room door is a little 15 cent plastic card, certainly did not seem like that big of a deal to me.
it will be pretty easy to pick up the wireless signal your phone is transmitting, and copy it to go into the room.
Actually, not so at all. The connection will most likely be encrypted, and "that signal" would only work once, in a handshake context. The idea is not bad at all, probably someday all your keys, money, IDs etc. will pe stored on some electronic device, be it smartphone or something else. The biggest problem wouldn't be security, but simply making all the checkpoints and devices that can read the stuff everywhere. So prolly still 20-30 years away.
Oh, and privacy does becomes a sensitive issue. Everything gets recorded, basically. But that trend is developing already, and there's nothing we can do to stop it...
I've never lost my card, I just put it in my wallet after I open the door. I'd rather the cost of the room not go up for something I won't use. What if my battery on my phone dies, then I'll just have to go and get some one to open the door for me. I have had my phone die on my more than I've lost a key or a key card.
You do know that now your phone is your room card you're going to lose it? It doesn't matter what form the room card takes, you're destined to lose it
I won't buy a new phone to use a hotel, I'll just ask for a card at the desk thanks and get some directions and local info while I am at it.
What it boils down to is everyone who thinks they cannot live without a smartphone will have yet 1 more useless thing they can do with it.
Last thing I want is bloat my computing device with all kinds of apps I never really need
You do know that now your phone is your room card you're going to lose it? It doesn't matter what form the room card takes, you're destined to lose it
Exactly. If they decided to have our room keys take the form of Volkswagen-sized rocks, we would still lose them.
I am so gonna find a way to get into the room next door to leave a friendly note about the lack of security.
Walks out of the room, forgets cellphone "Crap"
seriously, how cheap are swipe cards or even RFID cards these days? Does a hotel really wanna risk the software and management of using a wifi or bluetooth broadcast to unlock a door? And what about "key" replication or people doing a form of brute force hack onto a door lock? Let alone the advent of wireless sniffer technology in common bluetooth and wifi devices.
Smartphones are better suited for making a reservation.