Thoughts:

1) If I am too drunk/inebriated/nontechie to figure out how to use a door slide card with just 4 possible combinations, how will I remember what keys to press to recall the tones?

2) So, let’s go use the pool. I’ll just slip my phone into my trunks…

Is this a loud, audible tone? If it is then that means I will hear my neighbors opening their doors at all hours of the day of night. Convenient to use but may turn in to an annoyance quickly.

This is the dumbest idea a nerdy dork who never have to travel for work idea I have ever heard of. Like Al says, am I supposed to leave my phone on the chair by the pool so some one can snag it or do it ruin my phone by jumping into the water with it? You do know that phone carries alot more important information than my room lock code. What about family vacations, multiple cell phones open tha same door? What about kids? Don’t get carried away with your dorkiness. I don’t even like the slide cards, because if there is an electrical problem the doors don’t open. Old fashioned keys are still the best, but not as secure as electric cards. But cellphones, not everyone wants an I-Phone or Blackberry. Great now more things to increase my memory use, since I am a road warrior. So is Tiger going to have to carry spare cell phones to slip to the waitresses when he wants to have a secret liason?

Funny. I think that they will end up issuing the plastic AND the phones for a while, so they can immediately offer the “speed check-in” afforded by the phones.

This is clearly a case of iphone insanity. What if you have poor cellular reception? what if the battery dies? Sometimes new is not necessarily better. I also see security holes here.

Ted is spot on. This *IS* a perfect example of dork technology.

Yet another lesson in how to make a simple process cumbersome, error-prone and user-UNfriendly.

Just because something is possible does NOT make it smart.

Besides, many hotel guests won’t HAVE cell phones….I certainly don’t carry one when I’m vacationing with family.

OpenWays uses the the principle of Crypto Acoustic Credential (TM).
Each sound is uniquen encrypted and becomes obsolete as soosn as it is plaid.
This means that even if the a bad guy records the sounds, the replay will not work to open the lock.

Finally it is not loud as it makes no more noise than what you hear when someone talks to you in the phone. The use of the loud speaker is not required.

Finally, the OpenWays 4 founders have all over 15 years of expertise in security.

I think all of the points above are very valid. If what Pascal says is true then I assume the hotel is “constantly” sending new tones to you…at the very least every time you unlock the door you need a new tone.

To Rachel’s point, does this mean we will start to receive marketing calls/texts on our cell phones?

What happens when the phone battery dies and the reason the person was going to their room was to recharge it? I would rather them use voice recognition, retna scans or even thumb printing. Of course there would be personal privacy issues, but guess what, the moment you touch the door knob, they have your prints anyway. Heck, let’s all just spit on a scensor and use DNA to open the door.

Hi Pat,
Your are exactly right the OpenWays solutions delivers a new unique sound everytime.
Sounds can be obtained real time or securely stored in the phone.
They have a time limit for usage and extra security valodation can be required (Ie PIN code or Voice biometric validation by talking to your phone).
In all cases the abolute advantage of the solution is to be compatible with all the cell phone on the planet (Over 4 billion cell phones in service to day). The solution is agnostic to both the carriers and the Operating System of the handset.

BR
Pascal

After seeing yor replies to some of the obvious concerns above, Im no longer laughing, as it sounds like you have a well thought out system. Perhaps it is worth a serious look. We don’t typically play in the hotel market, but rather government and military, so to imagine our customers using this type of system would present an entirely new set of challenges(phones not allowed everywhere on base, ect..). To a swanky high tech hotel or even a college campus, this may be a unique and attractive solution. Even such, I don’t see prox or mag being completely replaced by this technology, but rather your solution offered as a novel second option. I’m interested to see how you market it. Will the lock take other credentials as well as the sound byte?

Dear Kevin

The OpenWays server notifies the PMS as soons as the guest releases the key from its phone.
If multiple guests and multiple phones each phone key release is tracked individually. This information can be sent to the PMS as well.

Interfaces:
The Openways solution is designed to leverage existing interfaces. In particular, it leverages the interfaces initially developped for KIOSK applications.
To futher illustrate, OpenWays formed a strategic alliance with MICROS FIDELIO to futher inhance interfaces for a complete Hospitality mobile strategy offering with a full suite of mobile services.

As for electronic locking systems, OpenWays is compatible with the major e-lock providers.
The OpenWays solution is sold through a network of integarting partners that include the lock providers, the PMS/CRS companies and the KIOSK providers.

Best regards and Happy New Year

Pascal

I look forward to reading your posts. Thanks for all the work!

I think this is an awesome advancement for hotel room access. It will save time for both hotel employees and guests. With so many hotels moving to the self checkin-in kiosks, the phone key will eliminate the potential problem of the kiosk running out of key cards. It is also a great way to reduce costs and thus prices guests pay.

In comparison to traditional key card lock systems will this system be expensive for hotels to implement at first?

well, why don’t we just get rid of front desk staff and add another astronomical number to the unemployment line? yes, there probably are some genuine benefits to this process. however, being that i have been a member of the service industry, in some fashion, my entire working career, i personally view it as another way to eliminate actual SERVICE from the service industry. to not be able to put a name w/the face of a guest checking in? very impersonal. also, maybe it’s because i work the 3rd shift, but what are these check-in hassles that people are speaking of? the hotel that i am currently employed at has a speedy check-in process that is followed, usually, to a tee. it literally takes less than 2 MINUTES to check-in. w/the exception of when you have 30 military men and women come in at once. what happens when you have a group of high schoolers come in w/a block of 45 rooms? what happens when there is an outage or some kind of glitch in the system that shorts the locks out and i have 60 people in the middle of 4th of july weekend that can’t get into their rooms and have to wait for some kind of tech support? do they still issue key cards as a back up? what then? someone earlier in the thread said something along the lines of “just b/c the technology is there and is capable, doesn’t mean it should be done”. i couldn’t agree more. there’s security issues all around, convenient or not.