iPhone and Apple Watch reportedly have a new feature that can be used to unlock hotel room doors. This can be done with the approval of the hotel.
This feature is available on iPhones running iOS 15.2 and watchOS 8. Smartphones and smartwatches will later function as hotel keys instead of the cards that every hotel guest does when opening the room door.
Reporting from Tech Radar, this feature is only available in a number of locations, including six hotel chain locations.
The six locations are Andaz Maui at Wailea Resort, Hyatt Centric Key West Resort and Spa, Hyatt House Chicago/West Loop-Fulton Market, Hyatt House Dallas/Richardson, Hyatt Place Fremont/Silicon Valley, and Hyatt Regency Long Beach.
To be able to do that, guests with iPhone iOS 15.2 and Apple Watch users must add a digital card app to their Apple Wallet after making a hotel reservation.
After checking in, users can use their digital card in Express mode in Apple Wallet. Users only need to bring the iPhone to the lock scanner without having to open the device first.
Then if the user changes rooms or extends the stay, the digital card stored on the device will be automatically updated without having to return to the receptionist.
In addition, if the user’s device is in Power Reserve mode due to a low battery, the user can still use the iPhone to unlock for five hours.
This very useful feature is not yet widely spread, but hotel chain Hyatt will reportedly be bringing this feature to all of its facilities worldwide. And it is likely that other hotel chains will follow in his footsteps.
In addition to hotel keys, the iPhone is also reported to be able to unlock a number of keys such as houses and cars through the Apple Wallet application.
According to Apple’s official website, the iPhone XR, iPhone Xs, and all younger generations of iPhones can store digital keys on their devices.
The key stored in the device will unlock the house, car, and hotel keys via the Near Field Communication (NFC) feature on the iPhone. Users only need to bring the iPhone closer to the lock scanner that they want to unlock.
