I finally try a hotel ‘Mobile Key’, and this is what I found

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• John says:

  3 May3 May 07:29

  All the problems seem to be Marriott problems.

  Only had 1 auto upgrade at Hilton so far this year. But at all other stays this year, was manually upgraded a day before arrival. OnQ will allocate a room initially but the hotel or you can change it, so don’t do check in too early in case they upgrade you when the daytime manager gets into work. Auto upgrades can be rescinded manually anyway.

  If you want to beg a minwage employee for a suite then yes you can’t get a digital key (well you can but it will take longer, and may be why sometimes you arrive after check in time and they aren’t ready)

  Hilton lets you change payment card before online check in.

  And of course where Hilton gives you a choice of benefit you just select it in your profile by midnight before check in day and majority of hotels will let you change it by calling reception from the room, or using the app messaging feature where offered. (A minority of hotels are incompetent and won’t/don’t know how to do this.)

  About half the time when I use digital key, Hilton is on the ball and leaves a physical key card in the room as well as a (occasionally personalised) welcome letter / gift, otherwise use any other credit card sized card. Only once did a hotel require their own card to be used, which needed to be active for that room – the front desk apologised and gave me another drink voucher as they said someone should have gone up to put a card into the slot after issuing my digital key.

  Only problem I’ve had is that sometimes the digital key reader in the lift doesn’t work which means you have to find the stairs, or join the queue.

  • Rich says:

    3 May3 May 08:20

    Some of the kindest, least arrogant, most approachable, best performing, highest integrity employees are on minimum wage in my experience.

    • Mike says:

      3 May3 May 13:06

      Agreed – whereas some of the most arrogant, least approachable, worst performing, lowest integrity employees are Middle Managers in my experience

• Kev says:

  3 May3 May 07:35

  Hilton mobile is becoming more reliable and once happy with the upgrade and room choice the room is usually ready well in advance of check-in time. We tried sharing the key last week (you can now share up to 4 copies) but this was less reliable but I’m sure will improve soon.

• Manya says:

  3 May3 May 07:58

  Used mobile key card without issue at Le Merdien Mina Seyahi in Dubai. Was also able to use it alongside the physical key cards which is handy as I tend to always lose the room key cards.

  If offered the opportunity again I’d probably favour the mobile key card over the physical ones.

• lumma says:

  3 May3 May 08:09

  I recently stayed in an independent hotel in Seville which didn’t have physical keys. Checking in at reception still involved downloading an app and using that to open the front door of the hotel after 9pm and the room.

  There was a code to open the front door if you’re out of battery and a universal phone charger in the entrance to get enough of a charge to get in your room, but it all seems like it causes more problems that it solves

  • RussellH says:

    3 May3 May 10:35

    Would they lend me a handset that does ‘apps’ at check in then?

    • Mike says:

      3 May3 May 13:07

      My Nokia certainly doesn’t do Apps !

      • lumma says:

        3 May3 May 15:10

        I did actually wonder about this. To be fair the receptionist was lovely and gave me a full description of what to see in Seville so I didn’t want to be the person who’s deliberately awkward just to see if they can issue an actual key if I claim I don’t have a smartphone…

• Malcolm says:

  3 May3 May 08:11

  I used Mobile Key at the Hilton in Newcastle a few weeks ago. I was able to chose a room before our visit and could see from the choices that we’d already been upgraded thanks to my ‘status’. Thought it was excellent – worked so well. While it’s good to always chat to staff at hotels I always find check in painful so a real plus for me.

• Tim says:

  3 May3 May 08:17

  Does bluetooth really have much impact on battery life? I don’t think so.

  • AJA says:

    3 May3 May 10:10

    I agree actually bluetooth does not drain battery if it is left on in the background. It does of course use the battery if you are actually using it i.e. linking to your car so you can use handsfree or android auto or streaming audio.

    • lumma says:

      3 May3 May 15:11

      Doesn’t Android Auto/Car Play connect via cable anyway?

      • AJA says:

        3 May3 May 16:32

        My Samsung phone connects quite happily to my car without wires and lets me access everything on the phone from the car’s controls so I assume it must be doing it via bluetooth.

      • Tariq says:

        3 May3 May 19:56

        I think wireless CarPlay is via WiFi.

  • Soloflyer1977 says:

    3 May3 May 11:44

    Must be an Apple thing. Maybe Rob needs to move to Android… 🙂

• Richard says:

  3 May3 May 08:49

  I’ve had very good experiences with digital keys generally – mainly used in the US, where I haven’t had any issue with having to present a passport on arrival.
  The digital key often tends to function as the key to enter the ‘parking garage’ at hotels so no messing around with parking tickets/valet either.
  As Rob found however, I always missed the in-room amenity (water), but it doesn’t really bother me. Hilton in the US have also scrapped room cleaning unless specifically requested (and then said request is generally ignored), but that’s just general cost cutting/staff shortages dressed up as Covid nonsense.

  • Save East Coast Rewards says:

    3 May3 May 10:24

    I had normal cleaning in most Hiltons I stayed in recently in the US. Some it needed requesting, but it was arranged at check-in. As the hotels are franchises you will find some that will use covid as an excuse for maximum cost cutiing (to be fair, some may need to in order to survive, others just greedy) but overall the hotels I stayed in were fine.

• AJA says:

  3 May3 May 10:17

  I guess I am a luddite. I prefer just using a physical key card. I rarely stay in hotels alone so we require two cards anyway and I see from other comments that you can’t mix and match. I also have a couple of cards that I “forgot” to hand back which are useful for keeping the aircon on while I am not in the room. I avoid the possibility of it being taken by housekeeping by only leaving it in once they’ve cleaned the room.

  • Save East Coast Rewards says:

    3 May3 May 10:43

    Hilton lets you mix and match (I usually get a key from the front desk even if using digital key). It also lets you share keys with up to 4 people.

    So what’s bad about the Hilton digital key:
    – You have to open the app to use it, the key doesn’t appear in your phone wallet (seems Marriott is the same)
    – It uses Bluetooth, not NFC (mainly because when this was first implemented NFC wasn’t widespread in smartphones, but if it integrated with the wallet app then you’d just need to tap your phone)
    – In hotels where the lift requires a key it can sometimes take a while for it to activate

    What’s good:
    – You can still request a physical key
    – You can share keys – for me it’s useful if we’re not arriving at the same time, or indeed if booking for someone else so they don’t need to visit the desk
    – Unlike Marriott you can change payment details and select a room with OLCI before issuing key

    My tactic is as follows: if I’m happy with my allocated room I will request a digital key before arrival (if you’re arriving early it’s a good way to see if your room is ready as they only issue the key when it’s ready) then if there’s a queue I’ll go to my room. I’ve never had issues with water not being in the room. If the hotel turns out to have a lift which is a pain to use with digital key or I’m staying multiple nights I’ll pick up a key at some point when the desk is quiet. Even if there’s no issues with the lift it’s useful to have a backup should your phone run out of charge.

    If I need to check in at reception I still request a digital key in the app after checking in. Why? Because sometimes the physical keys stop working so this is an extra back up.

    • meta says:

      3 May3 May 10:59

      Yes, I never check in online. You just ask for a digital key in the app after check-in. Never scuppered my chances of an upgrade. When it matters, I always try to negotiate the upgrade before arrival anyway.

    • BlueThroughCrimp says:

      3 May3 May 11:07

      An interesting tactic. I’m just back from a 1 night stay in Hilton Nottingham.

      Received the free upgrade email days before to a Double Deluxe. All good.
      Did Mobile check-in and selected a room, not the default one.
      At the hotel I went to reception to get a key card, in case it had the slot for lights. The room I had selected (at the front of the hotel) wasn’t ready (at half past 3), and was given another – and assured it was the same.
      Hmm. No Robes and slippers, which seemed to be the only difference between a Double and a Deluxe Double, but the two bottles of water were there.
      So I’m wondering while Hilton are upgrading over the hotel’s head, the hotel are over-riding this by moving on the day.

      I didn’t make a fuss, it was only a 1 night stay, and not in the room for long, plus I received 2 drinks on the house

      • meta says:

        3 May3 May 11:50

        I would have made a fuss. The hotel is likely to do it again to someone else or to you. An email to Gold or Diamond desk should sort it out and you’ll get compensation in points which they’ll recharge to the hotel at the full price.

        • BlueThroughCrimp says:

          3 May3 May 19:12

          Problem is, how do you know exactly what class of room is what?
          I’m not going to get upset by missing robes!

      • Lady London says:

        4 May4 May 01:53

        Yeah the hotel sneakily overrode your upgrade from Hlton

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