Members of Starwood Hotels and Resorts’ loyalty programme, Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG), can now check-in via mobile device in more than 300 hotels in Asia-Pacific.
The expansion in the region comes on the heels of the rollout of SPG Mobile Check-in in the US, with a full global rollout expected by the end of the year. Marriott International, which first launched the functionality in 2013 and made it available across all hotels in its portfolio prior to its acquisition of Starwood last year, is looking to expand the feature to properties in the Starwood portfolio.
“Mobile check-in is incredibly popular among our Marriott Rewards members within Asia Pacific and we have seen usage grow almost 170 per cent from 2015 to September 2017, which is why we wanted to extend this convenient app feature to SPG members as well,” said Irene Lin, the group’s vice president, digital, loyalty and portfolio marketing for Asia Pacific. “Mobile check-in is another example of how we are taking the best of our loyalty programmes to make the travel experiences for all of our 100 million members even better, with unmatched benefits and services rolled out at scale.”
But Starwood’s hotels aren’t the only ones adopting features from Marriott. This year, Marriott aims to introduce keyless room entry using mobile devices to 500 of its hotels around the world – a feature first developed in the industry by Starwood as SPG Keyless. Mobile keyless entry is currently available at all Aloft, Element and W Hotels.
In order to use the mobile check-in feature, SPG members will need to use the loyalty programme app, where additional requests such as early check-in can be made. Only bookings made directly with the company via its website or app will be able to check-in via mobile, though.
Meanwhile, SPG is planning to add Mobile Requests to its app functionality next year – another feature being borrowed from Marriott – that allows guests to chat directly with the hotel and make requests throughout their stay.