Starwood Debuts World’s First Mobile, Keyless Entry System

Starwood Hotels & Resorts has officially debuted keyless room entry technology at Aloft, Element and W Hotels around the world.

Starwood Preferred Guest members can now take advantage of yet another perk in the award-winning loyalty program—keyless room entry, which allows them to bypass the front desk altogether at select Starwood properties around the world. The entry system is known as SPG Keyless, and it allows guests who have registered through the SPG mobile app to enter their rooms using their phone’s Bluetooth capabilities.

The system can be up and running on SPG members’ phones in four simple steps:

• The guest downloads the SPG App and approves push notifications.
• The guest books a reservation at one of the keyless hotels through the hotel’s website, SPG.com, the SPG app or the customer contact center.
• Within 24 hours of the reservation, the guest will receive an invitation to use SPG Keyless. Upon accepting the invitation, the app will be updated with the guest’s room number and Bluetooth key.
• When the guest arrives at the hotel, they can go straight to their room, skipping the front desk entirely. At their door, they need only enable their phone’s Bluetooth, open the SPG App and hold the phone up to the door. Once the lock’s light turns green, the room is unlocked.

Starwood hopes that this system will alleviate the hassle of checking in at a desk and transform the initial interaction with hotel staff into something personal, rather than a transaction.

SPG Keyless is currently only available at 10 Starwood properties — Aloft Beijing, Aloft Cancun, Aloft Cupertino, Aloft Harlem, W Doha, W Hollywood, W Hong Kong, W New York-Downtown, W Singapore, and Element Times Square — but it will be installed at 150 hotels by early 2015.

[Photo: Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc.]