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One of the smaller bits of information about the Apple Watch that managed to draw “ooooohhhhs” from the crowd at the Flint Center in Cupertino, was the news that Starwood was working on an app that would allow guests at W Hotels to use the watch as a room key. Apart from being told that this would be available across the W chain from spring 2015 we weren’t given any more information, until now.
According to an article in Hotelier Middle East, Senior VP of SPG & Digital Chris Holdren has provided more details of what the SPG app will be able to do:
“We envision endless ways Apple Watch could help us enhance our guests’ experiences at our hotels from instantly recognizing guests with a warm, personal welcome to empowering our SPG members to bypass the front desk”
He went on to explain how this would work:
“When you arrive at a destination airport, a notification will take you to a list of transportation options to your hotel. When you arrive at the hotel, a notification shows you your room number with instructions for using Apple Watch to unlock your room and when you arrive at the bar, you’ll be asked via notification if you’d like your usual drink brought to your table.”
“You can also view your SPG account in Glances. The marriage of high tech and high touch is poised to transform the hotel experience in so many exciting ways and at Starwood we’re committed to being on the cutting edge of what’s next.”
To be honest none of this is really earth shattering. There’s no reason all those things couldn’t be done from the existing iPhone app (in fact Starwood had already announced, earlier in the year, that guests at Aloft locations in Manhattan and Silicon Valley will have some of these features available on the iPhone) but at least Starwood is looking to improve how its software interacts with guests and helps them with their stays.
I like the idea of bypassing lines at check-in when I get to my hotel and, although some hotels already have features that allow you to partly do this, none of them has, up until now, really solved the issue of the guest still having to collect their room key when they arrive. And that’s the key point about the upcoming improvements to the SPG app – check-in really will be line free for those who use this technology and that’s a nice step forward.
[…] of the things that caught our eye during Apple’s September presentation was the SPG App developed for Apple Watch and the iPhone. The app promised users the ability to unlock their room door without the need for a key – […]