There are some things that get me unreasonably excited. Anything that takes physical clutter out of my life – and eases time-consuming processes falls into that category.

So, yes, I’m excited about tools like Apple Pay, even if they’re not in Europe now. And the arrival of keyless hotel rooms has got me similarly excited. Starwood has enabled Bluetooth-based, mobile phone keys for its rooms. For business travellers in particular, this is such a lovely idea, because it takes one of the most painful parts of the hotel experience and completely smoothes it out. No more queueing at the reception desk to checkin – you do it all on the phone.

The app handles checkin, pushes your room number to you – and a room key to your phone. Once you have the notification, just head into the hotel, walk to your room, and wave your phone at the door. You’re done.

This is a surprisingly logical extension of what’s already there. Hotel booking is done digitally, and checkin is, too, but by a person in front of a terminal. Room keys have been digital – temporary plastic cards – for a couple of decades. Tie those three systems together with a phone app, and you have a fully digital experience.

A human cost?

 

Hopefully, this won’t come with a staff cost. You won’t need as many people to do checkin at hotels, for sure, but it should free up their time to deal with guest problems and questions, rather than the monotonous routine of checking people in.

Right now, this is only available in select hotels in the US, Mexico, Qatar, Singapore and China – and is exclusive to loyalty scheme members. I’d expect the last restriction to stay in place, as it is app-based. You need the app to get the functionality, and you need to register with the app, so…

But if it works, and if guests like it, I’d be surprised if it didn’t spread fast (and Starwood has already said that three of its brands will roll it out next year) – and if other hotel chains don’t follow suit quickly.

If it works well, then this will quickly become a competitive advantage for hotel chains. I’d certainly choose a Starwood property over roughly-comparably priced chains because of this. Anything that saves me time at checkin – and, especially, at checkout – makes a difference to me. And not having to hunt around all the time for that plastic key is a definite quality of life improvement.

Sure – phone battery life becomes even more important in a situation like this. But it’s another step towards the phone becoming the centre of your digital universe – and I couldn’t be happier with that.