Smaug

I have been to one very new Hampton that had RFID keys (which looked like the usual plastic room keys), and they worked fine.

Just a wild thought, but I wonder if the long-term plan is to give reusable RFID keys to all elite members.

Friendly Traveling Deathmerchant

On one hand, I dig the ability to select my own room. With Google Maps and a layout map of the hotel provided to the property, I can tell if I'm picking a view room (facing the right way), perhaps overlooking the parking lot if I want to keep an eye on my car, those sort of things.

On the other, they didn't do this just to improve my stay experience: someone pitched this to corporate as a way to upsell, like the Nor1 crap. I'd prefer to walk up to the front desk and get a shot at a Diamond upgrade in person than be pitched it as a sure thing if only I... Plug in my Amex number and click "Buy Now". It's a subtle way of getting people to pay a small fee to nail down the benefits of the program they should be getting already.

Paranoid Tinfoil Hat part of me also muses that I'm not using my phone as a room key until I have an idea of what sort of privacy issues I might be giving access to by allowing that. Same with the TV control apps they're pushing. I just don't feel like opening up my phone (even if it's just registering the number) so I can get bombed with HGV telemarketing calls daily.)

underpressure

Just thinking... if this is done with a cell phone, I suppose NSA will know where you are and when you got there. @:-)

writerguyfl

Remember, just because it's offered doesn't mean you're forced to use something. A 2013 Pew poll estimated that 56% of Americans have a smartphone. While an impressive stat, that means that 44% of people don't use them. No hotel is ever going cut their potential client base by instituting a mandatory smartphone-as-room-key program.

As a former hotel person, I'll also point out that generic floorplans don't always reveal the best/worst rooms. For example, in my first hotel, most of the corner rooms had weird structural beams that blocked part of the window. And, our largest "standard" rooms were larger because they were adjacent to the elevator column for the offices that were in the same tower above the hotel. Neither of those quirks would be evident from an online floorplan.

My prediction: Unless you are very familiar with a hotel, this option will have limited utility.

sethb

I want to know which rooms are physically available when I arrive early, not which rooms they expect to probably have cleaned sometime later today after someone else checks out.

pragakhan

The moment I walk in I -

Unplug room phone
Move clock to bathroom
Hang up shirts (I pack them already on hangers)

^

I think this is a GREAT IDEA! If it can be optional. When I travel for business I don't use a pool, I don't have anyone with me. When I travel for fun I use the pool, I have my wife and kids with me whom I would rather give a plastic key card to.

A looonnngg time ago I suggested to HHonors to switch to RFID and they could give members fobs representative of their status. Something I could clip on to my rental keys.... I still think that would be a good idea as well...

controller1

I've been to an independent hotel with RFID keys. Really liked them. It's nice when you approach your room with your hands full that you don't have to try to find the key. Just get within a few inches of the door handle and it unlocks!

UAmainbird

When checking in today for tomorrow night's award stay arrival -- at a pretty new property in the Denver area -- I was given the option to view a map of available rooms. I could not select rooms in a category above or below what I had reserved, but could see available rooms on every floor. (I confirmed that they were still selling rooms in those other categories) It is a smallish property, so fairly quick to view them all. The available rooms *did* include Accessible rooms, but I did not take any of them in case someone needed them, even if they might have been a smidge better.

The map did include a full layout of the entire floor, zoomable, with the location of stairways and elevators clearly noted.
Not sure if this is new functionality, or the previous rendition, but it looked good. I'll find out about checkin procedures in about 24 hours from now.
By the way... The default room that was pre-selected was indeed the one that I wanted, based on my profile specs.

Stripe

I was able to use this feature checking in to the ES at Boston Logan Airport a few days ago. The map is a nice way to confirm your room location relative to the elevator, but it doesn't distinguish room types very well.

The whole smartphone-as-key thing strikes me as stupidly impractical. There are enough situations in which I'd like to leave my room without my phone -- go to the pool/fitness room, get a bucket of ice, phone is charging, etc -- that I'd always opt for a physical key, whether a swipe card or something else with a RFID chip. I see very low rates of adoption, assuming it even works. Which is a big if, given how poorly all previous incarnations of their website and apps have worked.

stanj

No more annoying phone calls--replaced by annoying texts.

Kacee

Will this functionality go down every weekend, like the website does?

Implemented in all W-A and Conrads by end of summer? Umm we've only got about seven weeks of summer left right now . . . .

jayhamburg

I second that. At least on holiday I enjoy leaving my phone in the safe to relax the whole day . So I would have to rely on my wife...

365RoadWarrior

I've been through several points devaluations, and never made any fuss. I've suffered the non-functional website (now better) for years (though the Android app doesn't work). I've supported a poor on-line check-in technology, with the hopes that it would improve.

But now, I've got to move on.

No, Hilton. You're not going to track me through my cell phone as a move through life. It was reatively easy (if disadvantageous) to avoid your Facebook and Twitter B*S*. But I'm drawing the line at selling myself - modern day personal data prostitution - for your marketing benefit.

15 years Diamond and I'm done.

Dubai Stu

It reminds me of the presentation that I attended ten years ago where the salesperson from the microfilm vendor told me that we wanted microfilm rather than PDF archival because who knew if you could read a PDF in twenty or fifty years. Microfilm was always readable by the eye and was therefore the safe bet for long term storage.

When I go to the gym, my iPhone is strapped to my arm. There will have to be some mechanism that the hotel gives people in case they are locked out, have a dumb phone, etc. You can probably go to the desk and get something if you really don't want to carry your smartphone. It doesn't look like this is mandatory.

motytrah

I've been seeing them at the independent chains more and more often in Europe. I'm a bit dubious about them. On the one hand, for the operator the RFID, has a similar cost to magnetic strip cards, but are more durable in terms of having the mag stripe lose it's data.

On the other hand, unless they add additional layers of security (costing significantly more for the cards) the RFID cards are susceptible to a number of security attacks. The phone based key could be more secure because a phone has the power to add layers of security. But I suspect the systems would only support the lowest common denominator.