You Can Now Open Your Hotel Room Door Using Your IPhone, but Should You?
Apple wants your iPhone to open all kinds of doors. Their car keys feature already lets you use your iPhone to unlock some supported vehicles, and if you have a HomeKit door lock, you can also use your iPhone and Apple Watch to unlock your home. And now Apple is starting to roll out support for hotel room keys globally.
It starts with a collaboration with Hyatt at six locations (Andaz Maui at Wailea Resort, Hyatt Centric Key West Resort & Spa, Hyatt House Chicago / West Loop-Fulton Market, Hyatt House Dallas / Richardson, Hyatt Place Fremont / Silicon Valley, and Hyatt Regency Long Beach), but it will soon add more hotels around the world (according to TechCrunch , Apple will not provide any details about the hotels that will appear on board).
The digital key serves several purposes. This is one less thing, and since you are automatically checked in, you don’t have to wait in the lobby to check in at your hotel room.
How to set up hotel keys in the Wallet app on iPhone
This feature is currently available using the World of Hyatt mobile app. After you book your tickets, you can add your booking to the Apple Wallet app, just like you do with movie tickets.
You can add keys to your wallet immediately after booking, but they will not be activated until your arrival. After adding a booking, you will be able to see all the details of the booking in the Wallet app (for example, the name of the property, check-in date, check-out date, etc.). For more information on a booking (such as a booking number), click on the three-dot menu button in the upper right corner.
When it’s time to register and the number is ready, you will receive a notification and you can register right on your iPhone. The room key will then be turned on and you can go directly to your room. All that’s left to do is wave the iPhone near the sensor, as the digital keys feature uses NFC to open the door.
This Hyatt venture isn’t the first time you’ve been able to unlock a hotel room using your iPhone; other hotels allow you to use your app as a digital key, or even add the key to your wallet.
The difference is that this feature uses Express Transit, the same feature that allows you to tap your iPhone to enter public transit. This means you don’t have to use Face ID or Touch ID to authenticate every time you open your hotel room door.
While this is obviously convenient, it raises some security concerns. The biggest question is: what happens if someone steals your iPhone? Since Apple just unveiled this feature, we don’t know enough, but we’ll know more when people start using it. We hope Apple has thought through the privacy aspect here.
One major flaw? It is tied to one iPhone and one Hyatt account holder (the one currently logged in). You cannot share the key with a friend or family member. After placing the order, the key card will be automatically archived from the Wallet app.
The digital keys feature is available on iPhones running iOS 15 and Apple Watch running watchOS 8 and later.
[ TechCrunch ]