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]
Recently I wrote about the art of 
Yay and f-i-n-a-l-l-y! After much anticipation, 
Apps are changing the way we travel one download at a time. I *love* travel guide books, but compared to apps, they are like phone books -- you have to flip through a bunch of pages to find the info you're looking for. In contrast, apps are immediate, not to mention the bonus updates they automatically download so the info remains fresh and you don't need to buy a new edition.
Example
Here's an example of how apps are changing the way we travel. Let's say you're going to Europe for a summer getaway. Here's what you might bring:
10 YEARS AGO
One big guidebook or several country-specific ones, a language-learning tape or CD, walkman or diskman, tapes or CDs, foreign language dictionary/phrase book, airline tix, hotel & rental car confirmations, books, newspaper, maps, itinerary, mobile phone, camera
I know you're hip, you know you're hip and my mom knows you're hip. You're the type who flies Virgin America's first class (or who wants to), tweets while at 35,000 ft and orders a G+T (hold the lime) in-flight. But, could your cool cat-ness be threatened by a chain hotel stay when you're lounging in S. Beach next month? Pas de problème, the StayHIP iPhone App rescues you from the mundane and transports you into boutique hotel bliss for over 40 countries worldwide. Search boutique hotels in your destination by your flavor of the month: beach, industrial, lux, urban, chill, etc... to find the right place, the right crowd and the right vibe.
Using the app, i just found a