Check-in When You Want? Yes, Please

Hotels are quickly catching up with tech to change the way we do some of the simplest — yet time consuming — routines. For instance,  the Starwood hotel chain has expanded the use of technology that lets guests use their smartphones to open their hotel doors, which we’ve tried glitch-free.

The service, called SPG Keyless, is only available to Starwood loyalty customers and rolls out to 130 hotels and resorts in 30 countries  across its Aloft, Element, and W brands. Soon, everyone hotel will adopt this.

Now, Standard International, the boutique chain, is letting guests schedule when they want to initially arrive and depart, a big change from the ‘only an early check-in if your room is ready.’

“Instead of having guests work around the hotel’s schedule we want the hotel to work around the guest’s schedule,” said Amar Lalvani, managing partner of Standard International.

Since the Standard is such a small chain — five small and mid-sized hotels — it’s easier for them to offer this perk; without a uniform check-in and checkout time, housekeepers at bigger properties would have a more difficult time scheduling when to clean and prepare hotel rooms for the next guests.

Don’t expect this to be adopted by anything but boutique hotels. What’s next? Stay tuned….