Use Your Mobile Phone To Open Your Hotel Room

It’s early days, but Hyatt has been dipping their toe into allowing you to use your mobile phone to access your guest room for a little over 6 months. David H sent me the following note from the Grand Hyatt San Francisco where he has an upcoming stay:

As one of our most valued and loyal guests, we would like to invite you to participate in our new Hyatt Mobile Entry™ Program pilot at Grand Hyatt San Francisco.

Hyatt Mobile Entry™ is intended to enable an arrival experience that meets the needs of today’s busy travelers by going directly to their room using an iPhone as their room key.

In order for you to participate in this program, we will need some additional information to confirm that your mobile phone is compatible.

Please click on the following button to begin the enrollment process.

I checked in with Hyatt to find out what the scope of the program looked like. It turns out there are two properties participating in the beta right now, Grand Hyatt San Francisco and Hyatt Regency Bellevue (my review of HR Bellevue, solid property).

This is part of Hyatt’s larger effort to tailor the guest experience to each person’s specific need. They’ve been testing RFID technology in permanent key cards with some guests and have had kiosks deployed in many properties so guests can check-in/check-out without having to wait for an agent.

For now, the beta is restricted to folks who have an iPhone. Select elite members get an invitation to participate from the property. Here’s the splash page Grand Hyatt SF has for folks who want to participate:

For me, one of the biggest time sinks for me is having to hit the front desk to check-out at the end of my stay. One of the reasons I enjoy Hyatt is the ability to check-out electronically. I usually pull my check-out e-mail up on my phone while I’m heading towards the elevator and by the time I hit the front door of the hotel I have my final bill.

SPG was at the forefront of the “phone as room key” efforts, which isn’t surprising given their desire to be on the cutting edge of technology. When SPG launched mobile entry to guest rooms last year, I wasn’t fazed. I didn’t see a ton of value in being able to bypass the front desk. I usually like to stop there at check-in to make sure I’ve been assigned a good room (and to ask about an upgrade, of course). But, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gone to go work out at the fitness center and forgotten my key in my pants pocket. Mobile entry solves that issue for me.

Technology is a great thing, but sometimes it can get in the way of what we’re actually trying to accomplish. If these features are an effort to tailor the guest experience as opposed to replacing the current options, I’m on board with that.

The post How To Use Your Mobile Phone To Open Your Hyatt Guestroom Door was published first on Pizza In Motion.

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