Destination Guides - Southpoint.com Blog

Hotel Key Cards A Thing of the Past?

A new technology being tested at a Stockholm hotel allow guests to go straight to their rooms without checking in with the hotel front desk.

Developed by Near Field Communication (NFC), a guest's room at the Clarion Hotel Stockholm is unlocked simply by the guest swiping their cell phone in front of their room door. When checking out, the guest swipes their cell phone at a designated point in the lobby before exiting. Don't expect it to become available by next year, as the technology currently requires specialty phones to use. Still, I expect something similar to this to be available in the next few years as hotels experiment with new technologies to further enhance the travel experience.

View a video of the technology in action here -