Hilton Marks an Industry First with Digital Room Selection and Check-Ins for Guests

MCLEAN, VA: Hilton Worldwide recently announced that their guests will soon be able to have unprecedented choice and control over their whole hotel stay with the ability to digitally check-in, choose room from digital floor plans and digitally check-out as well.

Guests can also customize their stay by purchasing upgrades and making special requests for items to be delivered to their room, on their mobile devices, tablets and computers.  Hilton plans to make this facility available in more than 4000 Hilton Worldwide properties across 11 brands in 80-plus countries by the end of 2014.

"Our guests have counted on us to consistently deliver exceptional experiences around the world, and in today's digitally connected culture, that means providing them with more choice and control over their hotel stay through technology," says Christopher J. Nassetta, President and Chief Executive Officer, Hilton Worldwide. "The tremendous scale of our world-class operating platform enables us to quickly and nimbly introduce exciting enhancements for our guests at all of our hotels worldwide."

The company future plans include equipping the hotel rooms with the technology for doors to be unlocked with guests' smartphones, enabling them to go straight to their rooms upon arrival. "Travelers can use their smartphones as boarding passes to get to their seats on an airplane, so it is only natural that they will want to use them as a way to enter their hotel rooms.  We have spent the past few years testing a number of different options to make this vision a reality, and we are developing proprietary technology that is safe and reliable for our guests to use, and cost-effective for our hotels to install," adds Nassetta.

"We analyzed data and feedback from more than 40 million HHonors members, as well as guest surveys, social media posts and review sites, and it's clear that guests want greater choice and control," says Geraldine Calpin, Senior Vice President and Global Head of Digital at Hilton Worldwide. "We are giving our guests the ability to do just that by enabling them to select not just their room type, but the exact location in the hotel, all the way down to their room number."

Over the next few months, Hilton HHonors members can check-in and choose their room from digital floor plan maps online or via the Apple and Android HHonors apps across the following U.S. brands: Waldorf Astoria Hotels & Resorts, Conrad Hotels & Resorts, Hilton Hotels & Resorts, Hilton Garden Inn, Homewood Suites and Home2 Suites. The functionality will also be available at DoubleTree by Hilton and Embassy Suites Hotels properties within the U.S. this fall.