Remember last month’s Starwood announcement about going keyless? Well, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak “happened” to be there when Starwood Hotels & Resorts actually launched the keyless entry system at the W Hollywood Hotel (via Re/code).
Woz’s stay at the hotel was used as an opportunity to quickly demo how the keyless system works. The demo was recorded and posted by Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG) on YouTube.
As you can see in the video embedded below, Woz holds his iPhone 6 visible so we can see that he first launches the SPG app, then holds the device close to the door lock and waits several seconds until he sees the green light appear on the lock, and then enters the room.
Starwood’s SPG Keyless is currently available at 10 participating hotels. Members of the SPG loyalty program can download the app, but in order to use the keyless system they need to register their smartphone. As a result, 24 hours before they arrive at the chosen hotel, they will receive a room number and a Bluetooth key.
Watch the Woz demo below:
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It may save the minor trouble of carrying one of those electronic keys with you when you go out but it certainly takes a lot longer than just swiping a card.
I want to stay in the hotels you stayed in. I put the card in the reader and wait and wait and wait. Take it out to make sure I put it in right and I did. Try it again and wait and finally I am let in. I have asked for new cards many times. I suspect that they need to clean the mag stripe reader on the doors once in a while.
The quality of the hotel makes a huge difference. The only problems with room cards I’ve had was with cheap motel 8 type’s. All the 5 star hotels I’ve been at, Sheraton, etc. no problems at all, and I travel 2-3 times a month.
Just make sure your battery isn’t dead late at night or you’re hooped and will have to hit up the front desk.