Phones replacing cards as hotel room keys

Big hotel chains like Marriott or Hilton are increasingly experimenting with the next hotel room key innovation. After plastic key cards replaced actual physical keys, it is now the turn of the digital key in your smartphone to shine.

Andrea Stokes, hospitality practice lead at J.D. Power, August ’24

In addition, people who are given the option to use digital keys instead of a plastic card to access their hotel room feel safer, as it feels more private and updates can be pushed immediately to the respective app.

That feeling is rather subjective, though. According to Lee Clark, a cyber threat intelligence production manager at the Retail and Hospitality Information Sharing and Analysis Center (RH-ISAC), “keyless systems can introduce entirely new threat vectors for hotel security operations to manage.”

If hotel chains start requiring additional security measures from their guests who use their app as a digital key manager, such as multi-factor authentication, this would basically kill the convenience and ease of use that such keys bring.

In addition, “transitioning to digital and keyless lock systems carries a significant cost in equipment, installation, maintenance, and security,” says Clark, while old habits die hard, and only 14% of the people who have the digital key option have used it.

Still, the convenience of using your phone as a key instead of fiddling with a plastic key card can’t be overstates, and offers much superior user experience, so “traditional hotel room keys are staring down the end of their existence,” say hospitality industry analysts.