More and more consumers are enjoying the benefit of using their mobile phones to make contactless payments, leaving their wallets and credit cards at home. Paying for goods and services by simply getting the smartphone close to a contactless card reader, became a daily convenient routine all around the globe. Our mobile phones are now a key factor in almost every move we make in our daily routine. Even during the pandemic it was the gate to show authorities we got the necessary vaccines. Nowadays we present our purchased tickets to movies, theater, shows and concerts via our devices. In most airports our flight tickets are presented digitally at the terminal gate with our paper passports. Traveling became convenient and simple.
Hotels are now taking the extra step to join this convenient technology to pass reception and walk straight to the guest room. “Hotels mobile check-in achieves four objectives,” explains Max Starkov, an American Travel & Hospitality Tech consultant and adjunct Prof. of Hospitality Technology at New York University. “It provides contactless experience preferred by the majority of today’s customers. It significantly reduces the number of front desk personnel needed to check-in guests. It optimizes the utilization of housekeeping staff and it allows hotels to generate, in an automated fashion, additional revenues via cross-sells services.”
As part of this technological journey the concept of using a mobile phone to unlock a hotel room door gets positive vibes. Although this option has been in existence for several years, nowadays it has become extremely trendy in the world of hospitality. While it’s easy to misplace a traditional keycard, one rarely loses their mobile phone. Promising more security will always be popular, while non-sustainable plastic key cards are on a path to become obsolete in the modern lodging industry. Offering fewer key cards saves hotels money, cuts down on plastic use and, when used properly, saves travelers time.
While this technology is indeed fascinating, its implementation presents certain challenges. “Mobile key adoption is still relatively low in the hotel industry outside of major brands,” says Jordan Hollander, cofounder of HotelTechReport.com, a hospitality technology leader. “The low adoption rate is a byproduct of two issues: Mobile keys could historically only be deployed via a mobile app and hotels have historically only been able to offer mobile key when upgrading expensive lock hardware.
Both of these barriers have been broken down in the last couple of years which we believe will lead to this technology becoming ubiquitous across most midscale hotels globally in the next five years. Independent hotel app download rates have historically been extremely low, but now solutions like Tel Aviv-based Duve enable hotels to deliver mobile keys within a web app with no download required, which drives adoption rates amongst guests higher,” reveals Hollander.
Duve
DUVE IS apparently a leader in the field and the company developed a system for managing a personalized guest experience for hotels, including opening digitally the guest room door. Childhood friends David Mazuman and Jeremy Atlan led a vacation apartment management company in Tel Aviv in 2016. The two teamed up with technology talent Shai Bar in favor of the development of the unique technology. “Nowadays our comprehensive hospitality technology is implemented in thousands of hotels around the globe and we are a certified supplier of middle east hotels associated with IHG, the Intercontinental group and Accor mega brand. But we are proud to lead a change here in Israel” says Atlan, Duve cofounder.
Global brands like Marriott and Hilton have been offering mobile keys for quite some time, but their guests in Israel face a challenge. The legal procedure in the country is to manually check Passports upon arrival at the hotel in order to monitor who needs to add VAT for the hotel services. Tourists are exempt from this additional charge that locals must pay.
Visitors holding both Israeli and foreign passports must also pay this tax. A stamp for that specific purpose is marked in passports in the border control stations. So far, only humans in most hotels handle this procedure and not technology, which led to a delay in smartphone keys implementation and the resulting skipping reception queues.
The number of tourists visiting Israel since October 7 dropped dramatically and the issue sounds out of context to some. But a change to overcome this obstacle is making its way even nowadays thanks to Duve, justifying Israel’s reputation as a “start-up nation.”
Israeli hotel chains catching on
Surprisingly numerous Israeli brands are the front runners. Fattal hotels, the biggest in Israel with 63 properties – 41 active and 22 in building stages – is a brand set to adopt Duve’s digital key challenge in some of its hotels. “Guests who booked online have an option to pre-check-in through “Fattal welcome” guest app, or check-in when arriving at the hotels through a designated human-less kiosk.
Our customers are requested to scan a QR code and enjoy an option to receive a plastic key or to download a designated app to their smartphone which leads to transforming their phone into a digital key,” says Gil Einy, head of the company’s Information Technology Systems.”The technology allows tourists to scan their passports and enjoy the zero vat benefit without physically meeting a reception employee. The system already functions in 12 of our hotels, but is currently operational in Herod’s Eilat, Hotel Botanica Haifa, Leonardo Plaza Tiberias Hotel. I believe that in
the near future the rest of the hotels will also offer smartphone digital keys,” he says.
AFRICA ISRAEL Hotels that operate four properties under the Vert brand and 2 urban hotels in Tel Aviv under the Poli name are another Israeli group that adopted Duve creativity. “Guests are offered to scan a QR code appearing on a tent card on the reception counter and download the relevant app to their phones in order to complete their human-less check in and open the guest room door with their device,” says Alexandra Eliyahu, the group Digital Marketing Manager.
“Non-Israeli tourists that scanned their passport as part of the process enjoy hassle-free check-in and enjoy a rate without VAT. However, during the war we increased security and tourists do have to show their passport physically to a reception employee. Our statistics indicate that more than half of the guests choose the smartphone key option and this is thanks to an instant marketing campaign aimed directly to customers that booked online. Our Tel Aviv-based global brands hotels, Crowne Plaza and Indigo will join during 2025,” she explains.
“Duve has recently advanced to totally skip passport scanning by creating an interface with Israel’s immigration authority. Duve can identify online if the tourist is exempted from paying the VAT in the hotel after he arrived physically in Israel. Our hotel customers will be offered to upgrade their systems accordingly,” says Atlan. “But the biggest challenge is expected next year when technology will allow hotel guests to order a key card directly with Apple Pay and Google Wallet, just like paying in a local supermarket. This will be the real revolution,” he reveals.
The phrase “open sesame” is derived from the magical words used by Ali Baba in the Arabic folk tales One Thousand and One Nights to open a sealed cave door. Over the years it became synonymous with successfully achieving results and this guest management platform certainly is on the right track. Will Israeli Duve technology market leader succeed in paving the way for all Israel’s hotels with smartphone keys? Time will tell.
The writer is the Travel Flash Tips publisher