YouTube/Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG)
Unlocking your hotel room will soon be as easy as pulling out your iPhone.
Starwood hotels, which operates W Hotels, Aloft, and Element, unveiled SPG Keyless on Monday, a function of their app that allows guests to skip the front desk entirely and head straight to their room. The SPG app is also available for Android.
Using the iPhone's Bluetooth connection, the app promises a smooth, keyless entry experience.
No more losing your room key.
The keyless entry system will roll out in 10 hotels on Nov. 5, in locations like Beijing, New York, and Doha. Starwood hopes to have keyless entry running with 150 hotels by early 2015.
Starwood Hotels CEO Frits van Paasschen suggested the new technology would reduce friction for consumers:
"Not only does SPG Keyless alleviate a perennial pain point for travelers, but it also transforms the first interaction with our guests from one that is transactional to something more personal. This is just the beginning, because through mobile we have the opportunity to marry high tech and high touch to transform the hotel experience in many exciting ways."
SPG - which stands for Starwood Preferred Guest - is essentially a customer loyalty program. Although it exists as a standalone app now, we wouldn't be surprised to see SPG incorporated into the Apple Pay/Passbook experience in the future.
Apple has been rumored to be working on a loyalty program with its Apple Pay retail partners for some time now. The company has already said that physical wallets are on the way out.
Starwood isn't the only hotelier getting in on the keyless entry action, either.
Hilton Worldwide announced today that they plan to introduce keyless entry into their hotels - which include Hilton Hotels & Resorts, Waldorf Astoria Hotels & Resorts, Conrad Hotels & Resorts and Canopy by Hilton - in "late spring" 2015.