Open SesameOpen your hotel room with your iPhone, Blackberry or Andoid. Like a fairy with a magic wand, French company OpenWays turns your mobile phone into a hotel room key. The French think of everything!
Following in the footsteps of Marriott, who tested smartphone check-ins in the dark ages (ok, it was only 2006), InterContinental has begun trials to enable check-in and hotel room entry at two US properties: the Holiday Inn Chicago O'Hare Rosemont and the Holiday Inn Express Houston Downtown Convention Center.
How it Works
OpenWays App Details
- Free
- Works with iPhone, Blackberry and Android
- Download software to your smartphone from OpenWays
- When you check in online, the OpenWays system sends you an encrypted audio code that unlocks your door, and texts you your room number
- When you arrive at the hotel, bypass the front desk and unlock your door with your phone
- The technology uses "crypto acoustics", which generate a unique sound set to unlock your hotel room door using a system that could work with almost any existing electronic hotel lock
What this Means
- Assuming testing goes well, this could be a huge shift in the way we interact with hotels
- No more checking in at the front desk, and no more worries about losing a key or keycard, just, um, losing your phone
- The hotel can remotely eliminate any code that might be a security risk, and codes expire when you check out
- Hotel room keys or keycards won't make a complete disappearing act for the time being due to situations like travelers arriving at their hotels with a dead phone battery or the like
Other Travel iPhone Apps we’ve Reviewed
- TripIt
- Trip Advisor
- StayHIP
- Trip Journal
- Bug Spray
- CameraBag
- Convert Everything
- GateGuru
- Kindle for iPhone
- Packing Pro
- Skype
- World Fact Book
- AAA/CAA Savings
- Royal Caribbean
- Medical Concierge
- Tourism British Columbia :: Near Me BC
- Postman Postcard
- 2010 Guide
- Nat’l Geo World Atlas
- hostelworld.com
- kayak first class
- flight control (game)
[photo by bwchicago]