Hyatt Rolling Out Apple Wallet Room Keys

I am all for more bluetooth use since my airpods magnet tends to mess up my room cards when i put them in the same pocket.

That said i do fear the end of the room key cards is soon. I have been collecting them my whole life as i have done with sports and concert tickets but tickets are 95% digital now so now more collecting. Only a matter of time before hotels are the same.

Hotels don't need to retrofit their locks, I believe. Both the traditional room keys and Apple devices use the same NFC technology.

Quite interesting! @ben I think there’s an error with Hyatt Pace Fremont.

Your silly hobby is wasteful for the environment.

100 plastic cards yup that's terrible for the environment I'm surprised we are not all dead yet because i keep room key cards haha. How mad are you gonna be when i tell you i got a plastic bottled water today at lunch.

@Peanus? Then, why are you reading OMAAT and you know Ben has provided way more than enough useful and helpful information, advice and tips.

I would never put Bluetooth on in public for cyber security reasons . I don’t use wireless headphones. I think with Hilton I turn the Bluetooth on and then immediately turn it off after opening the room.

@Peanus

That +52% co2 emissions for a 2:30 hr flight with a flatbed tho.

it is actually NFC, not Bluetooth (nitpicking)

NFC even better. Means you likely don’t even have to open the Apple Wallet. A boon especially if you want to use your Apple Watch. I think SPG was on its way to having this years ago before Marriot bought them.

What happens if you travel with your spouse/partner/companion and you need two sets of keys?

Credit/debit cards aside, it’s possible to share Apple Wallet items so long as the developers didn’t disable that feature. In the worst case scenario, get a keycard from the front desk.

NFC doesn’t require Bluetooth to be turned on.

In that case, it would be rolled out across the board with a big announcement and not just in a handful of hotels..... there is likely a retrofit that's needed, esp for older locks that were installed in the 90's which few hotel owners have appetite for during Covid unless someone can show an ROI. New ones that have NFC will need to have the lock vendor give their lock algorithm to hyatt, which may or may not happen either. Unfortunately almost anything new requires a retrofit 🙁

At the same time, it is awesome to be able to use the Apple Wallet to open the room door and not to have to fumble with the app.