Travel innovation leader opens even more doors by expanding keyless technology to Le Méridien, Westin, Sheraton, and Four Points properties, unveils multi-key functionality

THE TRAVEL industry witnessed a ground breaking turning
point in the hotel experience with the launch of SPG Keyless in the Fall of
2014, the industry’s first truly mobile and keyless entry system that allows
guests to use their smartphone as a key to their hotel room doors. Today,
Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG), the award-winning loyalty program from Starwood
Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc, announces the next generation of SPG
Keyless with even wider access to this leading-edge technology.

SPG Keyless is now extending this functionality to select Le
Méridien, Westin, Sheraton, and Four Points properties worldwide, including Le
Méridien Parkhotel Frankfurt, Le Méridien Hamburg, Le Méridien Columbus, The
Westin Westminster, Westin Palo Alto, Westin Camino Real Guatemala, Sheraton
Bloomington, Sheraton Mirage Port Douglas, and Four Points Cupertino. Many
additional properties will be going live with SPG Keyless on a rolling basis in
the coming months. These distinct lifestyle brands join Aloft, Element, and W
properties already providing access to SPG Keyless, currently available at more
than 160 properties in over 30 countries. The wider roll-out of SPG Keyless
acknowledges the role mobile is playing as the remote control for travellers’
stays across a broader range of brands. Now even more guests can share in the
SPG Keyless experience by unlocking their doors with their smartphone.

Starwood is also expanding SPG Keyless to enable multiple
guests sharing the same room to take advantage of keyless entry. All they need
is an SPG account and the SPG app. In this upcoming product update, SPG is also
expanding mobile check-in capabilities on the SPG app, rolling out over the
next few months.

“Innovation and personalization are at the centre of
everything we do, and we’re committed to making travel better for every SPG
member by creating solutions for pain points that are custom-made for their
mobile lifestyles,” said Alyssa Waxenberg, Vice President of Mobile at Starwood
Hotels & Resorts. “SPG Keyless is literally opening doors for SPG members.
It is also transformative for Starwood’s hotel associates, allowing them to
better-engage with guests. Rather than the first interaction being the swipe of
a credit card, hotel associates can now focus on ways to better-personalize
guests’ stays.”

Since SPG Keyless first piloted at 10 hotels in November
2014, Starwood has been quick to roll out the new functionality around the
world to 36,000 doors. Already, over 350,000 members have registered for SPG
Keyless, with SPG Platinum members being the most frequent users of the keyless
solution, which provides a streamlined check-in process custom-made for their
on-the-go travel needs. SPG Keyless has proven to be most popular in urban
city-centre hotel locations, especially at mid-size Aloft and W properties. The
top five SPG Keyless cities are New York, Chicago, Atlanta, Dallas and Miami,
while the top five countries based on usage are the United States, China,
Canada, Hong Kong and the United Kingdom.

SPG Keyless is an evolution of Starwood’s Smart Check-In,
another industry-first that debuted at Aloft hotels in 2011. Building upon
those early learnings to develop SPG Keyless, Starwood tapped the world’s
largest provider of security and access solutions for the hospitality industry,
ASSA ABLOY Hospitality, to create an all-new, Bluetooth-enabled lock, as well
as keyless software, which is designed to securely recognize and connect with a
guest’s mobile device. Since the initial launch, the SPG Keyless team has
continued to iterate the product, learning from guest and associates direct
feedback and the analysis of usage data. Leveraging agile development,
improvements include increased stability and speed of the door unlock function
as well as improving offline access.