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Holiday Inn hotel will test if smartphones make good hotel room keys

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Keys are notorious for being lost easily, but who needs keys anyway? A couple of Holiday Inn hotels are getting ready to begin a tryout, which will test how good are smartphones at being keys to your hotel room…



This isn’t the first time someone has tested something like this – Blow Up Hall in Poznan, Poland hands over an iPhone to their guests, which serves as key card, offers concierge service and mobile browsing.

Holiday Inn’s plan is slightly different – it should work on all smartphones and more importantly, it will work on your smartphone rather than one given to you by the hotel.

If all goes well, the key door app, developed by Open Ways, will work on all smartphones including iPhones, BlackBerries and Androids, but the hotel staff will keep an eye out for problems.

To opt in for the testing, all you have to do is check the “’Do you want an Open Ways-enabled room?” checkbox during registration. They will receive a confirmation email, which will ultimately serve as the key.

Since this is done beforehand on the Internet, you can skip the reception desk and go straight to your room. The way unlocking works is, the email contains a unique encrypted audio code, which when played back by the app opens the door.

This means it should be possible to use feature phones too, in theory anyway – it depends on whether or not Open Ways will implement it.

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