Hilton opens door to using mobile phone as hotel key
Where is my phone? Could they be used to open doors if codes are transferable? Robert Pomplun servingalcohol.com
Source: FT
by: Murad Ahmed, Leisure Correspondent
July 6, 2017
Hotel guests in the UK will be able to use their phone as a key to enter their rooms, as part of an international roll out of the technology by Hilton that has raised security concerns from rivals.
Rivals such as Marriott, Hyatt and InterContinental Hotels Group are also experimenting with systems that allow direct entry to rooms using a smartphone app, rather than a physical key.
Hotel groups are competing to offer customers a range of digital tools, such as online check-in and room service requests through mobile phones. But some groups have been wary of adopting digital key technology, fearing that hackers may hijack mobile devices to illicitly gain access to rooms.
Hilton and Marriott are among the companies that say they are confident their technology is secure.
Henry Harteveldt, the president of Atmosphere Research, the travel industry analysts, said security concerns include "the hotel's property management system, which stores room data, being hacked [as well as] power failures and the loss or theft of the guest's phone".
On Thursday, Hilton said it was launching its digital key in 10 UK hotels, with plans to extend that to 100 by the end of the year. The system has been running in about 1,700 hotels, mainly in the US and Canada, with the company aiming for it to be in use at half of its 5,000 hotels globally by 2018.
Geraldine Calpin, Hilton's chief marketing officer, said Hilton had spent more than $100m to develop and install the digital key technology, as well as a further $550m on technology "infrastructure" to run its app and hotel management systems.
"You need the plumbing and the infrastructure," said Ms Calpin.
"That's one of the reasons why . . . our competitors have not done what we have done, or anywhere close to it."
She said that a number of security and hacker firms were used to "make sure it could not be hacked", adding: "We've opened 11m doors since it has been launched. Cyber security is very big issue, but we have not had a breach."
Hilton's system requires customers to download an app and "activate" their digital key a day before arrival. Using the app, they can check-in early and also choose their preferred room. On arrival, customers press a virtual "unlock" button on their phone as they approach the door to their room.
Rivals are adopting similar tools, but at a slower pace. Marriott, which became the world's largest hotels group by number of rooms following its $14.6bn acquisition of Starwood Hotels & Resorts last year, said its digital key is available in 200 hotels, with plans to introduce the system to 500 more by the end of this year.
Hyatt has tested the technology in a number of its properties, but has focused on other areas that speed up the check-in process, such as self-service kiosks that dispense room cards.
IHG has run a pilot of mobile key technology at one hotel, but remains cautious. "Some of our competitors are talking about rolling it out, some actually already have," said Richard Solomons, the outgoing chief executive of IHG, during a recent interview with the Financial Times.
"We have not yet found a way of doing it that has the security levels that we want. We can make a headline [by launching digital keys], but genuinely, we're not going to do that. We don't want somebody else accessing the room."
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