Hilton Worldwide has announced that its digital check-in and room selection technology is now live across more than 4,300 hotels spanning 12 brands worldwide.
This includes the over 20 hotels it operates in the Australasia region. Yesterday’s official announcement in Sydney is the first launch of this technology by Hilton Worldwide in Asia Pacific, and will be followed by a rapid rollout in the next few months, across hotels in Southeast Asia, India, China, and Japan.
“As a business, we have always prided ourselves on leading the pack – we were the first to put televisions in hotel rooms and now we are the first to let you choose your room – right down to the exact room number,” said Hilton Worldwide’s Vice President for Operations in Australasia, Paul Hutton.
“With a 95-year history of delivering industry-transforming offerings, Hilton Worldwide will continue to enrich the guest experience on a major scale across our brands and regions.
“We look forward to helping our loyal guests across the region benefit from the most personalised digital service yet, all available in the palms of their hands,” he said.
A first for the hospitality industry, the scale of this digital rollout marks the largest of its kind to date across the sector.
Through their Hilton HHonors accounts, guests will be able to check-in and choose their exact room from digital floor plans or lists, on desktop, tablet, and mobile devices.
They will also be able to further customise their stays through these devices by requesting upgrades or making special requests for items to be delivered to their rooms, all through their personal accounts, with the simple click of a button.
“Digital check-in and room selection rewards our HHonors members for their loyalty and puts our guests in the driving seat by giving them unprecedented choice and control across their entire stay,” said Hilton Worldwide Global Head of Digital, Geraldine Calpin.
“Never before have guests been able to check-in, select their rooms from a digital floor plan, and customise their rooms to be ready for arrival. We are truly revolutionising the industry, and this is just the tip of the iceberg for digital at Hilton Worldwide.”
This latest announcement forms part of a wider digital strategy for Hilton Worldwide. With English language interfaces for Mobile Room Selection available in Australasia, Southeast Asia, India, and Japanese and Chinese language versions available later in 2015, Hilton Worldwide aims to enrich the travel experiences for guests of all backgrounds, visiting all corners of the world, with a simple streamlined process:
-Room selection: At 6 a.m. the day before a booked stay, Hilton HHonors members can sign into their accounts via their mobile devices, tablets or computers to check-in and choose their preferred rooms through floor plan maps or lists populated from the hotel’s available inventory. Photos of rooms are also available to help with selection. This function is updated in real-time, so guests no longer have to wait until they are physically in the hotel lobby to be assigned a room.
-Special requests: After choosing a room, guests can further customise their stays at full-service hotels by purchasing upgrades and requesting specific amenities to be delivered to their rooms before arrival.
-Room key: By the end of 2016 the majority of hotel rooms will be equipped with the technology for doors to be unlocked with guests’ smartphones, enabling them to go straight to their rooms upon arrival. For now, once they arrive on property, guests simply pick up their room keys from the front desk – a streamlined process since the guest’s payment information and other details are already verified through their Hilton HHonors account prior to arrival.
-Check-out: Guests can bypass the front desk upon departure as the bill will be automatically sent to their email address.
To experience the new digital check-in and room selection functionality, guests need to simply download the Hilton HHonors app and join the free Hilton HHonors guest-loyalty program.
Hilton HHonors members that qualify for a free upgrade will also be able to request this upgrade via the new Hilton HHonors app in advance of their arrival, subject to availability.