The tech-savvy traveller in India has a reason to cheer. American hospitality chain Starwood Hotels & Resorts will roll out the first keyless check-in hotel here in two months where one can use a smartphone to enter the room.

“Aloft and W are the two brands we will start the keyless check-in with. We will launch it at our property in Bengaluru in the next two months,” Dilip Puri, Managing Director-India and Regional Vice-President, South Asia, Starwood Hotels and Resorts, told BusinessLine on the sidelines of the launch of Le Méridien, Gurgaon.

The group will expand the facility across some of its brands in the next 12-18 months, he added.

Globally, Starwood offers the smartphone key app across 10 hotels in its Aloft, Element and W hotel brands, including five in the US.

App for Apple Watch

Interestingly, the hospitality chain is also developing an app for the recently launched Apple Watch, allowing guests to swipe their wrists against their room door to enter.  In India, Starwood operates six of its nine brands — Luxury Collection, Westin, Sheraton, Le Méridien, Four Points by Sheraton and Aloft.  “As far as the other three brands are concerned, we don’t have any immediate plans to bring Element to India, but we have started some exploratory work on the opportunity the brand presents in India. The other two — St Regis and W — will be in India in the next 12 months. The new W will open in Goa,” Puri said, without disclosing the location for St Regis.

The group is also in the process of converting existing hotels into Starwood brands along with the infrastructure partners. The 285-room Le Méridien in Gurgaon, which was launched on Wednesday, was earlier a Pullman hotel under the French hospitality company Accor.

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