Smartphones now key to your hotel room
By siliconindia   |   Wednesday, 26 May 2010, 22:41 IST   |    1 Comments
Printer Print Email Email
Smartphones now key to your hotel room
Melbourne: There is a good news for those people who travel a lot and are bored of checking into hotel rooms. Now, one can skip the check in desks and unlock their hotel rooms by their mobile phones. While this technology is already functional in Australia, mostly by airlines like Virgin Blue, Jetstar and Qantas, InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) has announced it will begin testing the new technology at two US Holiday Inns next month. The technology works by sending an encrypted, unique audio code to the guest's phone and it will initially work on smartphones. This key to the hotel room was developed by OpenWays which will work on all smartphones, including iPhones, BlackBerries and Androids. It is designed to make the check-in process easier and it would also save the cost incurred by hotels on front desk executives. "The proliferation of smartphones is growing in such a way that we have to look at what people are already bringing with them to make their stay more enjoyable," said Bryson Koehler, an IHG Executive. Holiday Inn Chicago O' Hare Rosemont and the Holiday Inn Express Houston Downtown Convention Centre in U.S. will try this technology for at least 60 to 90 days. To avail the check-in service in hotels, one needs to check the checkbox during registration that would ask whether you want an Open Ways enabled room. After receiving the confirmation mail, hold it up to a sensor on the door to unlock it. This technology came to notice when some men had shared their experience during their stay at the Blow Up Hall in Poznan, Poland, where they were handed over iphones to unlock their respective rooms.

siliconindia